Google Springboard: The Shadow of Verity and Yahoo

June 17, 2016

I read “Google Launches Springboard Enterprise Search Tool, Revamps Sites.” Ah, thoughts flowed when I learned that a Google customer can search Google Docs and Google Drive soon.

Anyone remember Verity? What about Yahoo semantic search? No. The wizard influencing both of these outstanding services (well, outstanding might be too strong a word) is a person who has cast a shadow over information access for many years. I recall one great idea floated about 25 years ago. Users of the Verity system would pay for each cell of structured data a query “touched.” Yep, taxi meter pricing. Another great thought was offered when the individual told a BearStearns’ professional and me in no uncertain terms that Yahoo’s semantic search methods were better than Ramanathan Guha’s. Okay. Good assertion. Where are those thoughts now? Yes, searching Google services for one’s own content. Einstein, you have been aced.

The answer is Google Springboard. Yep, a service from the Alphabet Google thing which allows a Google services user to — hand on to your information access hat, gentle reader — to “will help them search more easily through and find information from Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Drive, Groups and other applications.”

I know that Alphabet Google is doing a bang up job in many technical disciplines. There is the “solving death” thing. There are the Loon balloons. There are self driving cars with sticky hoods. Oh, so much innovation.

The notion that the search function in Gmail will be extended to the goodies tucked into other Google cloud services is a bold move. For an advertising company, the shadow of Verity and Yahoo falls over precision and recall at Google.

Oh, wait. Google has not yet solved death. When the new service becomes available, perhaps finding an item in calendar or in a Google Doc will become a reality. Innovation never rests at the Alphabet Google thing.

Stephen E Arnold, June 18, 2016

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Google, News, Search

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.