Google using Artificial Intelligence – More fact than fiction

The phrase, “Just Google it!” is heard everywhere and you may have said it yourself. We rely on the search engine giant for help with a lot of different search queries, whether we’re looking for a hotel for our upcoming vacation or trying to find the perfect restaurant for a special occasion. But now, it seems the search engine itself is relying on something else: Artificial intelligence (AI).

Our friends at WordStream found that, “Google has deployed an artificial intelligence nicknamed RankBrain to handle approximately 15% of the volume of search queries Google receives every day.”

So, what is RankBrain?

RankBrain is a machine-learning AI system that’s used to sort through search queries and helps rank pages that are served in the search results. It’s been incorporated into Google’s algorithm and is currently the third most important ranking factor on where a page lands in the search results (Google is keeping factors one and two to themselves).

 RankBrain is a system that learns and makes connections versus a regular computer program that works off of code or set rules.  Though, RankBrain does its “learning” offline where it’s pretty much given homework comprised of historical data and searches and told to make predictions on what pages should be served. RankBrain is tested and if the results are good, then that version goes live.

RankBrain is beneficial to searchers, as it was rolled out in early 2015 so you might have used it without knowing it, as it’s proven to be better at serving relevant content than some of the algorithm engineers at Google. RankBrain is smart and is being tasked with helping Google process the more than three billion searches done each day. Of those searches, 15% are queries Google has never seen before – meaning 450 million searches each day that haven’t been asked before.

Essentially, Google is using RankBrain’s AI to tackle unfamiliar search terms or phrases and serve the best results possible through what it has learned and what connections these words may have to others. RankBrain can find commonalities between common queries and more complex ones to help sort out all the information on the web. Technology we haven’t seen is helping sort out search queries that have never been seen.

What do you think of the use of AI to help handle never-before-seen search queries? Tell us in the comments section below!