Google Squared: a concept still gridlocked
By John Lister
Google has unveiled a technology designed to make it easier to organize and compare information on particular subjects. But at this stage the tool simply demonstrates the concept, with the results mediocre at best.
The basic principle of Google Squared is to deal with situations where users require information which they can only get from visiting multiple sites, usually in the form of comparisons. The firm gives the example of somebody who wants to compare rollercoasters on multiple criteria, such as speed and height. (Presumably the tool is aimed at compilers of Top Trumps games.)
The theory is that searching for “roller coaster” will give you a grid of results with one row for each roller coaster, split into columns for various categories such as an image, height, location and opening date.
What you actually get – and bear in mind this Google’s chosen example – is a list which has this data for five roller coasters, two computer games and a bizarre entry that appears to suggest actress Raven-Symone is a type of 14-year-old bird found in British Columbia.
One of the main problems with the concept, which Google itself admits, is the difference between intelligence and speed. While computers can process information thousands if not million times quicker than a human, they are nowhere near as smart as us. For this task, which effectively tries to turn collections of diverse Web pages into a database, a computer’s lack of judgment is still a bigger disadvantage than a human’s slower speed and risk of boredom.
For this reason, Google labels the technology as ‘conversational’, which is certainly a fresh way of saying ‘beta’. (And that’s probably a term to avoid if there’s any prospect of people comparing the tool to Wolfram Alpha.)
The idea is sensible enough, and it’s good to see Google continuing to experiment. But at the moment it’s a case of trying to fit Google Squared into a round hole: it’s a mix of Wolfram Alpha without the scientific reliability, Bing without the speed and Wikipedia without the ease of use.
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