Google Squared, part 4: Summary

Having had my fun, what are my thoughts?

I understand that what people want is to get from their question to the answer with the fewest possible steps - and preferably without having to formulate and implement a search strategy. (That is, they want the computer to understand what they want and provide the answer rather than the source of the answer.) This incarnation of Google Squared does not do that. (Neither does any other computer that I'm aware of. Maybe in science fiction somewhere, though.)

The user still has to know (1) to use Google Squared instead of the ubiquitous Google search box (moving away from the "one simple little search box that does just about everything" is not to be undertaken lightly - for many reasons that's the golden standard everyone else tries to emulate) and (2) which types of searches will and will not work well in a Google Square. Those are basic elements of search strategy.

What it does do is provide a different search starting point that works well for particular kinds of searches. If you want to compare particular items within a category, Google Squared returns results in a format that facilitates that activity. (But it still doesn't tell you which flat screen TV to buy, given your budget and viewing habits.)

And, depending on the purpose of the search, one still has to link through to the website to get the desired information and evaluate the quality of the website from which the information actually comes.

And a lot of the description information Google Squared retrieves seems to come from Wikipedia. Are we more willing to trust the veracity of Wikipedia because it turns up as a response in a Google Square as opposed to a regular Google search? (The use and reliability of Wikipedia deserves an entirely separate blog entry....)

What I come away with is the sense that artificial intelligence (for all the advances in the field) still has a long way to go. Computers generally understand search terms, but they don't understand question context. The lack of coherence across rows demonstrated that in several searches.

Google Squared may be an early step on the long, long, long journey towards computers even more intelligent than the ones in Star Trek. I won't be holding my breath, but I'll probably continue to try it out now and again. Mostly for fun.