How Google Search Works
how Google Search itself work,
like how this whole
thing actually works.
And while this is a subject
entire books have been written
about, there is a
good chance you're
in the market for something
a little more concise.
So let's say it's
getting close to dinner
and you want a
recipe for Biryani.
You've probably
seen this before.
But let's go a little deeper.
Since the beginning, back when
the home page looked like this,
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| image source financial express |
Google has been
continuously mapping
the web, hundreds of
billions of pages,
to create something
called an index.
Think of it as the
giant library we
look through whenever you do a
search for Biryani or anything
else.
Now, the word Biryani
shows up a lot on the web--
pages about the
history of Biryani,
articles by scientists
whose last name
happened to be Burhani,
stuff other people
might be looking for.
But if you're hungry, randomly
clicking through millions
of links is no fun.
This is where Google's ranking
algorithms come into play.
First, they try
to understand what
you're looking for so they can
be helpful even if you don't
know exactly the
right words to use
or if your spelling
is a little off.
Then they sift through
millions of possible matches
in the index and
automatically assemble
a page that tries to put the
most relevant information
up top for you to choose from.
OK.
Now we have some results.
But how did the
algorithms actually decide
what made it onto
the first page?
There are hundreds
of factors that
go into ranking search results.
So let's talk about
a few of them.
You may already know
that pages containing
the words you
search for are more
likely to end up at the top.
No surprise there.
But the location of those
words, like in the page's title,
or in an image's caption,
those are factors, too.
There's a lot more to
ranking than just words.
Back when Google got
started, we looked
at how pages linked
to each other
to better understand
what pages were about
and how important and
trustworthy they seemed.
Today, linking is still
an important factor.
Another factor is location,
where a search happens.
When a web page was uploaded
is an important factor, too.
Pages published
more recently often
have more accurate
information, especially
in the case of a rapidly
developing news story.
Of course, not every site on
the web is trying to be helpful.
Just like with robocalls on your
phone or spam in your email,
there are a lot of sites
that only exist to scam.
And every day, scammers
upload millions more of them.
So just because
InstantVirusDownload.net
lists the words "Biryani
recipe" 400 times,
that doesn't mean it's going
to help you make dinner.
We spend a lot of time trying
to stay one step ahead of tricks
like these, making sure our
algorithms can recognize scam
sites and flag them before they
make it to your search results
page.
So let's review.
Billions of times
a day, whenever
someone searches for Biryani,
or resume writing tips,
or how to swaddle a
baby, or anything else,
Google software locates all the
potentially relevant results
on the web, removes
all the spam,
and ranks them based on hundreds
of factors, like keywords,
links, location, and freshness.
OK.
Good time to take a breath.
This last part is about how
we make changes to Search.
And it's important.
Since 1998, when
Google went online,
people seem to have found
our results pretty helpful.
But the web is always
changing and people are always
searching for new things.
In fact, one in
every seven searches
is for something that's never
been typed into the search
box before by anyone ever.
So we're always working
on updates to Search,
thousands every year.
Which brings up a big question.
How do we decide
whether a change
is making Search more helpful?
Well, one of the
ways we evaluate
potential updates to Search
is by asking people like you.
Every day, thousands of
Search quality raters
look at samples of Search
results side by side,
then give feedback about the
relevance and reliability
of the information.
To make sure those
evaluations are consistent,
the raters follow a list
of Search quality evaluator
guidelines.
Think of them as our publicly
available guide to what
makes a good result good.
Oh, and one last
thing to remember.
We use responses from
raters to evaluate changes.
But they don't directly impact
how Search results are ranked.
So there you have it.
Every time you click
Search, our algorithms
are analyzing the meaning
of the words in your search,
matching them to the
content on the web,
understanding what
content is most
likely to be helpful
and reliable,
and then automatically
putting it all together
in a neatly organized page
designed to get you the info
you need.
All in, oh, 0.81 seconds?
Wow.
See you in next blog
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