Google now uses RankBrain for every search

Putting its growing expertise in machine learning to use, Google is now using the RankBrain AI to process every search query. This as you would expect, changes the results of a lot of those queries.

Google has taken a clear lead in the race to use Artificial Intelligence/Machine learning to use in every facet of their operations. This includes their photos service, which uses machine learning to identify images or the items within them. You can even search photos for hugs, and it finds because it can identify the person and that he/she is holding another.

This change was not generally announced, but instead came out as part of Steven Levy’s article on Google’s machine learning program.

From the article:

“What’s more, it’s hugely effective. Of the hundreds of “signals” Google search uses when it calculates its rankings (a signal might be the user’s geographical location, or whether the headline on a page matches the text in the query), RankBrain is now rated as the third most useful.”

This also confirms rumors that RankBrain is now the third most imporant ranking signal behind links and content. From what we know, it is more a search term refinement tool. Which takes different queries and understands that it means the same thing as another, albeit more popular query. The best explanation is from searchengineland:

“Imagine that RankBrain sees a search for “best flower shop in Los Angeles.” It might understand that this is similar to another search that’s perhaps more popular, such as “best LA flower shops.” If so, it might then simply translate the first search behind the scenes into the second one. It would do that because for a more popular search, Google has much more user data that helps it feel more confident about the quality of the results.”

This is just one of the many ways Google is putting its machine learning expertise to use in improving search in general.