Image ads in Google image search results.
Google announced image ads in image search results may be coming. Google in an email tells me, “This is an experiment that’s currently being run, so only a fraction of users may see this.” In December 2005, Marissa Mayer told John Battelle that “with banner ads we are comfortable saying that they will not appear on the home page and that they will not appear on the result pages” but she specifically named Google image and video search results as a possible exception at the time.
The speakers also talk about image comparison algorithms Google is experimenting with, and how they’re trying to better understand actual image content – like with their existing face recognition technology available via the advanced image search options. Google also says that while Google Labs was pretty quiet recently, it will see new stuff added to it this year.
Search quality is a lot about understanding user intent
Google gives impressions from the search quality team in another talk. Even when they sometimes may disagree, they all serve one master, Google says; the millions of users. Diversity is important here, and Google offers special oneboxes as part of their “universal search” approach, integrating results from different search services.
Google’s Pandu Nayak gives examples of how it’s easy for humans but tough for computers to understand human intent behind search queries due to ambiguities. What does the “dr” in “dr zhivago” mean, for instance? Easy – it means “Doctor.” But in another search query, it could very well mean “drive” ... or “Dominican Republic.” To be useful, I take it, search results should resolve these ambuigities smartly.
Marissa Mayer later suggests that, if I understand her right, knowing more about the user offers more possibilities for Google to improve search in the future, as it becomes more personalized. “We’re just getting started.” Marissa introduces Google Health with the words, “It is open to the public.”
Google also announced “Go for Good,” a Google-partnered campaign to improve health by walking exercises, accompanied by an iGoogle gadget to set walking targets.
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