How Google Tries To Figure Out What People Really Want To Know, But Don’t Search For
Google wants its search engine to provide the best answer for every query you make, but it also wants to know which kinds of questions you aren’t asking. To figure it out, the company conducts an annual “Daily Information Needs” study. Since 2011, the company has selected a group of volunteers to spend three days filling Google in on what they want to know. Eight times a day, at completely random times, Google pings them with the question, “What did you want to know recently?” Subjects answer instantly, and then at the end of the day they summarize their needs, reporting whether they did anything to get their questions answered and if they were successful, according to Steven Levy, who wrote about the study on Backchannel.