Google’s RankBrains algorithm
Google recently disclosed their “3rd most important signal” for creating good search results. This signal is colloquially called the RankBrain algorithm. This algorithm uses artificial intelligence to interpret more abstract searches; for example those that use common human phrasing such as “How much time will it take me to get to the nearest store”. Given the standard search algorithm, very few results would pop up which satisfy each individual word. However, if interpreted by an intelligence, this becomes a simple, concrete search of “stores at (my location)”.
Indeed, this does not directly relate to what we work on in class. RankBrain helps with the search algorithm, and is fairly independent from PageRank. However, given this information, advertisers have additional information to streamline their website, and end up higher in PageRank for given queries. Let’s take a simple example of matching ad slots to advertisers on a google search. Let’s say there are three stores near my house: Walmart, Target, and Kiki’s Crafts. Each of them run ads on google searches in my local area. Kiki’s crafts has a pretty high value per click for her slot, since the store is very specialized and any specific search will have a high chance becoming customers. The model of Kiki’s advertising is high price, but higher payoff.
But now consider this RankBrain algorithm in play (I’m actually pretty sure Google has some measures to avoid this, but it could be the case). It reroutes queries such as “What is the store nearest to me” to Kiki’s store and in turn, Kiki’s ad. Now Kiki is getting many more clicks on the ad, but now the people clicking are not great potential customers (they are most likely just looking for a comprehensive store like Walmart). So the Kiki’s value for the ad goes down. Again, this is just one sort of possible side effect of the RankBrain algorithm. But if it encourages colloquial searching, it will skew the ad market in favor of more generalized ads on searches.
http://movietvtechgeeks.com/better-search-googles-been-ranking-its-brains/
http://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-the-new-google-rankbrain-algorithm-234440