Google will begin indexing based on the passage for English languages later this year. It’s a change of ranking, not an indexing change.
Among the many changes to Google’s search announced on Thursday, we wanted to delve deeper into the passage-based indexing announcement.
Updates to Passage-based indexing. “Very specific searches can be the hardest to get right,” Google said, “because sometimes the single sentence that answers your question may be buried deep in the web page.
What it looks like when you search. Google has provided these visuals to show the change:
With the new ability to understand the passage, Google can understand that the specific passage (R) is much more relevant to a specific query than a larger page on the subject (L).
Google said this to the 18:05 mark in the video. “We have recently made another breakthrough and are now in a position not only to index web pages, but individual pages of those pages. This helps us to find that needle in a haystack, because the whole of that one passage is now relevant.
So, for instance, let’s say you’re looking for a pretty niche like, ‘How can I tell if my house windows are UV glass.’ This is a pretty tricky query, and we get a lot of webpages that talk about UV glass and how you need a special film, but none of this really helps the layman to take action. Our new algorithm can zoom right into this one section of the DIY forum that answers the question. Apparently, you can use the flame perspective to tell and ignore the rest of the posts on the page that aren’t as helpful. Now, you don’t necessarily have to do this, but sometimes we all look for very specific things. And starting next month, this technology will improve 7% of search queries across all languages, and that’s just the beginning.”
Is Google indexing pages or parts of pages?
Google has been asked if Google is now indexing pages or sections of the page. It’s not Google. Google is still indexing full pages, but Google’s systems will consider the content and meaning of the passages when it comes to determining what is most relevant compared to what we’ve been looking at on the whole page before, Google spokesperson told us.
Where’s the most effective algorithm for such a passage?
Google said, “This is helpful for queries where the specific bit of information the person is looking for is hidden in a single passage on a page that is not necessarily the main subject of that page.”
Let’s say someone searches [How does BERT work on google search], before that, Google might have returned a bunch of results that seem to be relevant overall. Perhaps Google might have given a news storey about BERT back to Google Search. In fact, this news storey might not answer the question directly.
Presently, if you’ve got a really wide page that’s about, let’s say how Google Search works, and there’s a BERT passage on that wide page that actually explains how BERT works. Although the rest of the page isn’t particularly relevant, and all those other BERT and Google Search pages might seem more relevant, Google’s new systems can zoom in to that one bit and rank that page higher.
Goes will live later this year
Google said this will start rolling out later this year and will start working in English in the U.S. with more languages/locations to follow. Once this is rolled out globally, about 7 percent of the queries would have an impact on Google Search.
