Technology giant names three major changes in research

SAN FRANCISCO – Google, which is turning 20 this week, is looking to the future with three major research changes that seem to be targeting some of its biggest competitors.

With Journeys, search users will have the opportunity to collect their research and results over time. The company is also looking for no-query research, with Vice President of Research Ben Gomes, who said, "We want to resolve issues that we have not even seen."

Gomes, one of Google's first engineers and now its chief research officer, launched Monday's press event in San Francisco, putting Google and the Web's progress in perspective.

"When Google was founded, the Web had 25 million pages," said Gomes, who has been with the company for 19 years. "Now, there are hundreds of billions of pages."

The wellness event came as the company faced many challenges, ranging from the issue of resuming research in China to the controversy over emails revealing that Google employees were discussing changes to bring in the travel ban of President Donald Trump. . While the company says there have been no changes after the talks, the news has fueled even more conservative claims that Google, like other technology giants, is too politically liberal.

"The kind of work we do, there is a lot of scrutiny," Gomes said in an interview after the opening speech. "We welcome it". He said Google has an open culture and follows processes and a system of testing its products and algorithms.

In terms of whether the company is looking to relaunch research in China after leaving the market years ago due to concerns over censorship and cybersecurity, Gomes has described it as "the only way to do it." ;"exploratory".

The first big change in research that the company announced Monday is about the organization. Google has found that online researchers "keep coming back to the same topics," said Nick Fox, vice president of Search and Assistant products. The company's new Journeys feature is designed to allow researchers to organize what they have searched for and found. It's like Pinterest for search, but with an activity map that helps people pick up where they left off. Other ways to organize and track content related to different topics of research are forthcoming.

Secondly, technology companies want to anticipate our needs – and our research. The search giant is intensifying its efforts on search without query, including developing the Google feed. The feed, launched last year and now has 800 million active users per month, is renamed Discover. It broadcasts articles, videos and other content tailored to the interests of users, on the Facebook page. Discover's reach also extends: it arrives on Google's mobile homepage.

And third, Google Images is one of the most popular features of search, according to Cathy Edwards, vice president of Google Images. The company adds more related content to image searches, including video. It also doubles visual stories on mobile. Think of the stories of Snapchat or Instagram. And the company integrates Google Lens into Google Images. If you click on the lens icon in Google Images, you get a multitude of images and content.

Google has also focused on initiatives that go beyond helping to find information to find out. She also wants to help them in their well-being, such as security in times of crisis. For example, the company uses artificial intelligence – which is the key to much of its research efforts – and collaborates with Indian government agencies to send flood alerts including crucial information such as when, where and the severity of the floods.

Finally, Google, like LinkedIn, does not just provide job offers and connections. The company works with the state of Virginia and its community colleges to find not only jobs, but training for jobs. Last month, Google rolled out job search tools for veterans of the military.

Also during the interview, Gomes spoke about what keeps him alive after nearly two decades to the tech giant, who is celebrating his 20th birthday on Thursday.

It's personal for him. In his speech, Gomes mentioned that he grew up in India and had access to only one library. "What I could study or learn was limited to the books that were in this library," he said.