Google Say… Use Voice Search

Why Google wants you to use voice search instead of your fingers for their search app

Who remembers Trigger Happy TV on Channel Four? A long running joke of Dom Joly’s television comedy series features a giant mobile phone. Shaped like a 1980s cellular phone, we saw the comedian shouting into his handset. He would spout out random bits of nonsense or state the obvious from the top of his voice. If Channel Four were to commission a new series, he could be doing the same with Google’s Voice Search facility. Continue reading “Google Say… Use Voice Search”

Hello Allo, Google’s Instant Messaging App

Allo set to wrestle market share from WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger

Hello Allo smartphone image by Macrovector
Image by Macrovector (via Shutterstock).

Allo, Google’s answer to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger could be the search engine’s elusive instant messaging app. It aims to steal a march on the existing market leaders with more intelligent functions. As a fully-fledged member of the Google family, brand recognition and association would be a selling point. Continue reading “Hello Allo, Google’s Instant Messaging App”

Lee Sedol versus Google: An ‘Aye’ for AI?

AlphaGo’s emphatic victory over human opponent

A completed Go board, though not a game between Lee Sedol.
Popular: Go, mastered by Lee Sedol and – as we have found this week – Google’s ActiveGo AI engine. 60 million people saw the clash in South Korea on Chinese and Korean televisions. Image by Saran Poroong/Shutterstock.

The battle between man and machine has been contested since the Industrial Revolution. In recent times, this has seen Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov at Chess in 1997. Over the last week, a similar contest has taken place between Lee Sedol and a Google AI robot at the Four Seasons hotel in Seoul, South Korea. This time with the Chinese board game of Go. Continue reading “Lee Sedol versus Google: An ‘Aye’ for AI?”

RankBrain Explained: Google’s AI Based Algorithm

Could RankBrain be Google’s Ask Jeeves killer?

RankBrain Algorithm = Death of Ask Jeeves?
Could RankBrain be the algorithm that ruins Ask Jeeves? This enigmatic billboard photographed in San Francisco by John Trainor in 2007 could be poignant today. (Creative Commons License – Some Rights Reserved).

Over the last four months, Google have been quietly working on a new artificial intelligence based algorithm. Known as RankBrain, it aims to settle pub arguments and revolutionise semantic search. As well as being able to search for ‘Dorking’, you can also ask Google, ‘How far from Dorking to London’. Continue reading “RankBrain Explained: Google’s AI Based Algorithm”