ITC 298: How Google Instant Autocomplete Suggestions Work

Assignment 1: How Google Instant’s Autocomplete Suggestions Work

http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592

It’s a well known feature of Google. Start typing in a search, and Google offers suggestions before you’ve even finished typing. But how does Google come up with those suggestions? When does Google remove some suggestions? When does Google decide not to interfere? Come along for some answers.

HOW THE SEARCH TERM SUGGESTIONS ARE SELECTED

The appearance of these search suggestions is based on how often a phrase is used in a search.

These search terms are geographically targeted.

Terms weigh in your web history more heavily. (There's a little "remove" next to the suggestion, which I've never noticed before, to help you tailor your search results. They don't show up in Safari sometimes.)

Order isn't influenced by popularity, but google-defined relevance. Spelling corrections often show up with what was keyed in.

"Freshness" of another related search term might make it show up. This allows fast-breaking trends to appear without specifically searching for them.

HOW THE SEARCH TERM SUGGESTIONS ARE DE-SELECTED

Google will avoid showing search suggestions for pages that have what appears to be phone numbers, social security numbers, and other personal information.

Hate searches will avoid showing protected groups in their suggestions.

Nationalities are protected, religion is not.

Searches for short-lived trendy phrases may disappear from the search suggestions due to a slightly different "freshness" standard.

Google doesn't generally entertain requests to block certain search suggestions, figuring if the search is popular enough, it should show up.

Google began blocking search suggestions for sites that promote information about piracy. You can key in the search in Google as usual, but suggestions will not show up.

TRICKS TO MAKE A SEARCH TERM APPEAR IN SUGGESTIONS

Doctoring a search term to appear, by doing the search over and over, is beginning to appear on Google's radar.

AUTHOR'S THOUGHTS

The author of the article suggests that Google simply remove negative search term suggestions entirely, believing that sometimes even if a term is searched over and over, that having it appear in suggestions can make a situation worse.

MY OWN THOUGHTS

I use the suggestions about half the time, when I'm not sure of a spelling or an entire phrase. Mostly these refer to popular culture or tech topics where I lack the vocabulary. I will often finish typing my search in spite of the suggestion, feeling that the suggestions are not helpful but commercially leading, something I don't like.