It's been 10 years since Google went public. Amit Singhal, head of Search, looks back at the decade to come up with 10 of the biggest milestones that Google Search has achieved in that time.
In a Google+ post, Amit Singhal takes the time to reminisce about the day he packed up everything he had and left New Jersey with his family to become a part of Google's search team. That long trip to California was 14 years ago and being a part of the team since the very beginning has given Singhal the opportunity to see Search grow immensely.
Who better than to give a breakdown of the biggest moments in Google Search, right?
Singhal starts of the list with Autocomplete. Google Search was designed to be able to predict the likeliest words and phrases that correspond to what a user is typing in, instantly loading search results to make it easier and faster to find what one is looking for.
Translations also make the list. Ten years ago, Google Translate was next to nothing. It wasn't even really a beta product back then. But today? It is available in 80 languages and does more than a billion translations in a day.
Singhal was also very proud of how far the Maps team has come. It's Search in a different way, but Search nonetheless, going beyond websites to provide paths in the real world. Aside from directions for walking, driving and public transit, Google Maps also intuitively suggests routes that let users avoid as much traffic as possible.
What about universal search? Singhal points out that the best answers sometimes go beyond text. If a user looks for a certain speech, maybe they'd also like to see the speech being delivered. By blending different kinds of results, Google Search is able to provide the most relevant information being searched for, regardless of format.
Fifth on Singhal's list is mobile and new screens. Information and answers are needed no matter the platform or device being used. Search was developed to adapt to any kind of platform or device, ensuring that it is able to deliver results without being affected by where a search originated from.
Voice search, actions that let users do more after a search, the Knowledge Graph, personalized information and intuitive searches that provide answers before questions are asked round up Singhal's top 10 biggest Google search milestones.
