Google came out with a new search tool called Google Squared. It
“helps you quickly build a collection of facts from the Web for any topic you specify”, says the website.
This app is really cool and is innovative. From the website:
“For example, say you’re curious about which roller coasters are thefastest, tallest, and longest in the world. Until now, you would havehad to comb through dozens of webpages to compile the informationyou’re looking for. With Google Squared, all you have to do is type [
roller coasters ] into the search box to see an automatically generated table of roller coasters and their attributes.”
The home page is of Google brand (White background, No heavy graphics) very similar to the Google Search homepage, except for the suggestions of the latest/popular searches performed.
Here’s how the search results come up:
But there is more to the search results than what meets the eye. We have options to add more columns to the search results:
As you can see the ‘x’ marks on the columns already being displayed, clicking on them removes unwanted columns from your search results, giving you screen space to add more relevant columns. And more over, it improvises..
“Google Squared can learn from edits and corrections you make to your Square to gradually improve its quality for all users”.
And that’s just not the end of it.. You can save your sqaures, as well as you can share them with your friends… That’s really a nice feature! For example, Let’s say someone asks you suggestion for a Digital Camera, you sqaure the results, edit them according to your view points and send them the square for their pick. Nice!
And it crowdsources! You can participate in building it. If the app isn’t able to sqare about something, It will ask your help to build a square about the thing so that it can be of help to others. See the screenshot below:
The app is pretty basic and is in it’s infancy, making mistakes…
But hey, it’s capable of learning… 
So, how’s google doing this? From TechCrunch,
“Google is looking for data structures on the web that imply facts, and then grabbing it for Squared results. It takes an incredible amount of compute power to create one of those squares”
More about this way of presenting date, From TechCrunch:
“One of the next frontiers of search is taking all of the unstructured data spread helter-skelter across the Web and treat it like it is sitting in a nice, structured database. It is easier to get answers out of a database where everything is neatly labeled, stamped, and categorized.”
This is a new way of organizing information, and Google is open for thoughts and suggestions from public. Send them to labs+squared@google.com.
Ashok TechTalk Crowdsourcing, Google, Search, Squared, TT - Reviews, WebApps
