Google has recently gone live with their latest update that involves the use of BERT technology in search engine results. According to HubSpot, Google processes over 70 000 search inquiries per second. If you do the math, this number leads to 5.8 billion searches per day.
Besides making such large amount of searches per second possible, Google is also working on improving search results to provide specific and targeted content. The use of BERT and the new neural networking techniques will lead to significant changes in the search algorithm.
A cursor moves over Google’s search engine page on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, in Portland, Ore. … [+]
What Is BERT?
BERT, which is short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, represents one of the most recent developments in the field of machine learning. The BERT research paper published by experts at Google AI Language describes BERT as a method of pre-training language representations.
This technical innovation includes bidirectional training of language models, which results in a deeper sense of language context and flow. In other words, the implementation of BERT will change and improve the way Google results search inquiries in order to provide more correct results in less time.
The Consequences of the Update
Google first started talking about BERT back in 2018 when they hinted on the future updates in the search algorithm. Today, the new update is live globally and it affects the way people use this search engine.
The new algorithm will work best for searches that consist of full sentences. Google is trying to get its users to use full and grammatical sentences when making a search, rather than an illogical sequence of keywords.
With full sentences becoming more important than a sequence of keywords, this new update could lead to changes in the SEO field. The main goal behind this update, besides improving search engine results, is to encourage more conversational queries on Google.
Moreover, this recent update will mark the first time Google is going to use their latest TPU or Tensor Processing Unit chips designed for search results. All of this effort is going to result in better user experience for internet users across the world.
The common changes in algorithm will likely affect certain search engine optimization components, giving headaches to the SEO experts and marketers out there. The shift from keyword searching to conversational queries might take a while for users to get used to but it’s worth the effort considering the significant improvements in search results.