Google’s investment in artificial intelligence does more than just create better search results; it allows Google’s engineers to make constant algorithm changes right under our noses. Columnist Nate Dame explains.
Has anyone else noticed that we’ve been seeing fewer algorithm update announcements from Google in recent years? That Google’s PR campaigns about changing search results has been quieting down?
If you have, rest assured: you’re not crazy.
I scrolled through Moz’s Google Algorithm Change History recently and graphed the number of changes by year (an imperfect study, probably, but a pretty good general standard)
This begs the question: How many changes do go unnoticed? Are we catching them all? Is Google’s future in AI learning machines that can make quiet, invisible updates day in and day out?
Google Is Investing Heavily in AI
It’s no secret that Google has a lot of skin in the game when it comes to artificial intelligence. Google has been slowly collecting researchers and developers, scattering the purchase of various departments over continents and years… probably in hopes that no one would notice. Oh, we noticed.
- March 2013: Google acquires DNNresearch, a neural network startup out of the University of Toronto, and gets the team refocused on expanding traditional search algorithms.
- January 2014: Google acquires DeepMind and sets up the artificial intelligence team to work directly with the Knowledge team on Google’s search algorithms. (They also, almost immediately, set up an AI ethics board – presumably, to save the human race from AI-wrought extinction.)
- September 2014: Google expanded research surrounding quantum computing byhiring John Martinis and his research team out of UCSB.
- October 2014: Google acqui-hires two teams of AI researchers from Oxford (and announces a partnership with the University) to “enable machines to better understand what users are saying to them.”
Google has put up a pretty penny to build a team of researchers that can push machines to the very edge of artificial intelligence.
Google Is Already Smarter Than We Realize
The new development may not impose dramatic changes on Google search right away, but not because it’s not applicable.
The truth is, soft AI is pretty much everywhere these days, and Google has been employing machine learning techniques since the Panda update (and probably further back still). Google’s own super-smart Knowledge Graph is friendly enough to inform us that machine learning is, in fact, a type of artificial intelligence.
Is it possible that the reason we have only seen one major update so far in 2015 (and an unnamed update at that) is that Google no longer needs to launch major algorithm changes? If its AI bots are busily making small, under-the-radar updates every minute of the day, Google might never have to launch (and therefore announce) another update ever again.
The Future Could Get Even Weirder
That the future of algorithm updates is up in the air is somewhat unsettling, but it may only be the beginning.
Google already curates its own medical information, in part to protect us from misinformation I’m sure. (Has anyone else noticed that medical keywords are some of the most expensive keywords AdWords has to offer?)
Next, it might be checking facts for us to determine rankings. No matter where you land on the political spectrum, there is a valid concern that this type of algo could stifle bold new voices in the scientific community.
It could make it more difficult for bright young people to bring about the next revolution in science. After all, most of today’s established science came about because someone challenged the herd mentality of yesterday.
What’s A Marketer to Do?
Will Google’s search algorithms soon be driven primarily, or completely, by artificially intelligent machines?
Even though Google’s tactics are changing, their endgame is not. That means the intersection of SEO and content marketing is still the sweet spot for marketers to focus on:
- Identify specific, measurable attributes of high-quality content, and put them into practice. Google’s algorithm updates may be more like ninjas than Goliaths from here on out, but the goal is the same. Keep your eye (and your SEO) on the prize.
- Think user intent, not just keywords. The later are still valuable, but only in the context of the former. Keep improving how you talk to your audience, not how you talk to search engines.
- Kill the silos and blend SEO into your broader marketing efforts. SEO is marketing, and marketing needs SEO. Welcome to the future.
It also may be a good idea to understand Google’s Knowledge Graph, as it is probably the harbinger of what is coming.
Source - searchengineland
No comments:
Post a Comment