Google Rules
Google instituted a new means of fact-finding on Thursday: Google Q&A.
The new service lets users ask questions using natural language. Results come from a sort of parallel universe within Google.
"We made a pass over the Web, pulled out a database for facts, and use that to provide a separate set of results," Peter Norvig, Google's director of search, said.
While some early natural language search tools employed human editors to determine possible questions and answers, Google took its standard approach. "It's more automated and algorithmic, rather than human-generated," Norvig said.
Google Q&A has strengths and weaknesses, Norvig admitted. "It works for things where there's some kind of a fact or attribute of an object," he said. "If you're looking for one fact this is place to go for it." Google suggested that celebrities, countries of the world, the planets, the elements, electronics and movies were well-suited for the Q&A feature.
For example, asking, "What is the population of India?" returns rock-solid results in the form of links to Web sites that answer the question.
On the other hand, the top result for the question, "What is the capital of France?" was "Investment Capital and Banking in France."
Norvig said using a simple question format can make it easier for searchers to identify what they're looking for, rather than having to figure out the proper key words. But the queries don't have to be full sentences. The system identifies both query words, such as "who" or "what," and fact-type terms such as capital, director, population. "To find out who directed "Finding Nemo," you don't have to put in the 'who is,'" he explained.
