Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller explains how search engines use synonyms and whether it has an artificial component.
Mueller discussed the topic while addressing questions submitted to a Google Search Center SEO office hour hangout that was recorded on Jan. 14.
The questions asked how automated the process of understanding synonyms was, and whether humans were involved in helping Google understand which words were relevant.
Additionally, the person who submitted the question pointed out that generic keywords sometimes show up on major brands’ knowledge panels.
They used “mobile trucks” as an example to provide search results for Budget truck rentals.
Mueller addressed these issues in his response, which you can read below.
Google’s understanding of synonyms is fully automatic
Mueller confirmed that Google’s synonym understanding system is fully automated.
No one has manually written code to teach Google’s algorithm which words have the same meaning as other words.
“As far as I know, the whole synonym system is fully automated. It’s not someone manually processing a synonym spreadsheet and saying ‘this is the same as this’ because that’s never going to actually work.
Every day we see about 10-15% of our queries being brand new. So it’s impossible for someone to keep up with it all. “
Mueller cites a video from the 2019 conference in which Google engineer Paul Haahr explained in more detail how the synonym system works.
this video Contains practical examples Google has encountered, its synonym mistakes and how its engineers learned from those mistakes.
“There’s a video from an event we did, I think about two or three years ago, where Paul Haahr, one of the engineers working on the system, described some of the situations we had with synonyms, we Trying to figure out what the synonyms are here, and some cases where we’re completely wrong.
I thought it was really fun to watch there. If you’re interested in synonyms, and how Google figures it out, I’d definitely check it out. “
This led Mueller to address the situation where generic keywords brought brand name search results. He said it was likely something that Google’s algorithm learned automatically.
Mueller reiterated that automated systems don’t get it all right, but feedback from searchers is always welcome.
“With regards to the generic switch between ‘moving trucks’ and cheap truck rentals, we’re likely to learn that automatically as well. In some of those cases, we’ve got a pretty good deal, things sort of worked out, or basically Makes sense. Some of them we got wrong.
If you find our synonyms are wrong, be sure to send us feedback in the search results so we can try to figure out what can be done to improve it. “
Hear Mueller’s full response in the video below:
Featured Image: Brazil Creativo/Shutterstock
