Google Eyes User Browsing Data Search In New Patent Filing

TL;DR – Google has revenge a patent for a strategy that lets users hunt their individual integer history, including web activity and emails, utilizing earthy language. While it promises convenience, it besides raises concerns astir information privateness and personification control.

Google has revenge a patent for a strategy titled “Generating query answers from a user’s history” that would let users to retrieve antecedently viewed contented utilizing natural, conversational questions. The purpose is to simplify really group find things they’ve seen earlier without needing to retrieve nonstop keywords aliases scroll done browser logs.

Currently, if you want to revisit a webpage aliases archive from past week, you’re near relying connected your representation aliases hunt history. This strategy would alteration that by identifying erstwhile a user’s mobility refers to past activity, for example, questions for illustration “I retrieve reference about…” aliases “What was that article on…”

How It Would Work

The strategy analyzes nan phrasing of spoken aliases typed queries to determine whether a personification is asking astir thing they’ve seen before. If so, it shifts from searching nan full web to searching nan user’s activity specified arsenic browser history aliases moreover email accounts.

“One aliases much servers categorize nan earthy connection query arsenic a query that seeks accusation antecedently accessed by nan user,” nan patent states.

Sources for this hunt could see web browsing, emails, aliases different individual information stored connected aliases accessible done nan user’s device. However, it goes further than keyword matching. For example, if a personification says, “Find that farming article I publication connected my tablet past month,” nan strategy would break down “gardening” arsenic nan topic, “tablet” arsenic nan device, and “last month” arsenic nan timeframe, each utilized arsenic filters to constrictive nan result.

The patent besides describes showing cached versions of past webpages. If a tract has changed since nan past visit, users mightiness still beryllium capable to position nan type they saw originally.

“For example, nan hunt consequence ‘World Chess Championship’ includes a ‘View Cached Result’ link,” nan patent reads. “This nexus whitethorn nonstop nan customer instrumentality to a type of nan webpage that was cached connected aliases astir 10 days ago.”

Voice Assistants, Emails, and Everyday Search

Source: Google

This characteristic could beryllium integrated into sound assistants, allowing users to opportunity things like, “What was that turkey look I publication connected my phone?” It could besides activity wrong Gmail aliases hunt engines, pulling up aged emails aliases documents based connected vague aliases earthy prompts for illustration “Grandma’s meatball recipe.”

Privacy Questions

The patent mentions that users whitethorn beryllium capable to power whether their individual information is utilized and that anonymization could beryllium applied “in 1 aliases much ways earlier it is stored aliases used.”

But arsenic pinch immoderate strategy that relies connected indexing backstage activity, location are clear concerns. If implemented, this would require a precocious level of entree to individual information browsing history, emails, and instrumentality usage, each linked together and searchable from a azygous query.

The mobility is whether users will spot a instrumentality powerful capable to retrieve what they’ve forgotten.

It’s important to statement that patents don’t ever lead to existent products. For example, Google revenge a patent successful 2015 for a strategy that would shop personification memories successful a searchable database, and successful July 2021, a Microsoft patent described a chatbot that could simulate conversations pinch deceased individuals.

Although these ideas ne'er became user features, they item nan kinds of directions tech companies are exploring. In this case, Google appears to beryllium pushing toward making individual representation itself searchable.