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Google Delivering Factual Answers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the delphi's-oracle-jealous dept.

nam37 wrote in about a Macworld article which reads: "Google Inc. on Thursday began delivering factual answers for some queries at the top of its results page, to save users from having to navigate over to other sites and look for the information. For example, if a user enters the query 'Portugal population,' Google returns the answer -- 10.5 million -- along with a link to the Web page where the information came from, which in this case is the population page of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Factbook. The query 'who is Jane Fonda?' triggers the answer '... is an Academy Award winning American actress, model, writer, producer, activist and philanthropist' and provides the link to the Wikipedia online encyclopedia's entry for the actress. A small percentage of queries currently trigger these factual answers, but the service, called Google Q&A, is in its early stages, said Peter Norvig, Google's director of search quality."

5 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. Jane Fonda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Q: Who Hanoi Jane?
    A: Traitor to America

  2. Have to add this correction, flame away by Quila · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    The query 'who is Jane Fonda?' triggers the answer '... is an Academy Award winning American actress, model, writer, producer, activist and philanthropist'

    ... and traitor to her country.

    There, that's better.

  3. EXAMPLE: What is timothy? by cliveholloway · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I thought the answer was a shit editor, but google throws up:

    grass with long cylindrical spikes frown in northern United States and Europe for hay

    Somehow appears ... appropriate.

    cLive ;-)

    --
    -- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
  4. Re:Bush by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    try: is George Bush a Complete Moron?

    If it doesnt answer YES, it is broken!

  5. Re:AFP vs Google News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    "but it's purely subjective that he's a moron."

    No, that's a fact as well. In fact, it is more of a fact than the fact that he is the current President of the USA. The proof is simple and elegant, but too large to fit in the margin of this post.