Thursday, 21, Apr 2011 02:02
Google's autocomplete function has become more focused, allowing it to predict individual words in search queries.
In a post on the Official Google Blog, software engineer Bartlomiej Niechwiej explains that full-phrase prediction can prove difficult when many queries have never previously been typed.
By looking at individual words, however, the search portal is now better able to guess what a person wants to type - and can give them a dropdown shortcut to complete the word.
The example given is the phrase "Florida state senate building", a rarely queried search string.
Looking solely at the more frequently typed "state senate building", Google is able to suggest an autocomplete option despite not having seen the full term before.
Mr Niechwiej adds that combining the function with Google Instant - which updates the results page as each character is typed, based on what it expects the completed query to be - means long phrases can now be searched faster than before.