Google Juices Search Results with Caffeine

By Geoff Duncan June 9, 2010

It’s an old adage that it doesn’t matter what you put on the Internet if nobody can find it, and to that end Internet search giant Google has rolled out its new Caffeine indexing system. Google claims Caffeine offers up to 50 percent “fresher” results than its previous indexing system, meaning that in the fast-paced world of social media, blogs, and fast messages, Google’s indexing will be able to pick up on current information faster than its previous technology. The result, Google hopes, is a search engine that’s more up-to-date and more quickly offers the latest information to users.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

“Content on the web is blossoming. It’s growing not just in size and numbers but with the advent of video, images, news, and real-time updates, the average Web page is richer and more complex,” wrote Google engineer Carrie Grimes. “In addition, people’s expectations for search are higher than they used to be. Searchers want to find the latest relevant content and publishers expect to be found the instant they publish.”

Recommended Videos

Google’s old indexing system—which has been in place for a few years—consisted of several layers: a few of those layers were updated on a continuous basis, but the core underlying layers only got re-indexed every couple weeks. As a result, something might get quickly found by Google and made searchable, then kind of drop off Google’s radar for a while until the core index layers got updated. Under the new Caffeine indexing system, Google continuously analyzes small portions of the data it collects and updates its entire search index continuous, meaning new pages and updated content can be added to the primary index much more quickly. Google says Caffeine takes up about 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database, and adds hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day.

Google also says Caffeine was developed with the future in mind, so Google can scale the system to adapt to new kinda of media and data sources…and, of course, keep up with the increasing deluge of digital information being added to the Internet every minute.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

This new Google Docs feature is exactly what I’ve always wanted

Text box in Google Docs on a laptop.

As a writer of a certain age, I've lived a lot of life in Google Docs. It's where my first drafts go, but it's also where my crazy ideas, unhinged brainstorming, and research dumps go.
There’s so many conveniences about Google Docs that make it my go-to for word processing, but let’s be honest: It’s still fairly barebones, especially when it comes to organizing and managing different files within Google Drive. But this new feature makes all of that much easier, keeping it all contained all within Docs itself.
It’s called Document Tabs, which you may have already noticed floating just to the left of your document.

The idea is simple: It lets you create multiple documents within a single Docs file. Create as many “tabs” or separate documents as a single project might need, and switch between them extremely fast. That accessibility to them is really where the gold is. No more switching between different browser tabs.
It’s even more handy on mobile, of course, where switching applications or tabs is even more cumbersome. Here, you’ll find Document Tabs hovering just at the bottom of the screen with some simple arrows to flip between your different tabs. All we need now is a simple gesture to be added to flip between them even more seamlessly.
Document Tabs takes the place of the old outlining system, which would grab headers and automatically create a table of contents around them. I used this frequently, but it was pretty finicky. More than that, it resulted in overly long documents that I still found myself scrolling through.
Document Tabs is a really elegant solution to that problem. Whether it’s segmenting chapters in a book, multiple aspects of a project, or even just different parts of an article, it’s already become an extremely useful outlining and productivity tool for me.
It even had a pretty clean way of converting the tabs when you need to export. All the tabs do is combine down into one document, but they’re sectioned off with titles and some basic formatting. That’s not going to be ideal in every situation, of course, so it’s something to keep in mind if you need to export and share it with someone outside of Docs.
At the very least, though, it’s worth trying out. And if you’re a Google Docs fiend like I am, I have a feeling you’ll get quite a lot out of it.

Mobile

Google Flights is making it easier to find the best-priced airfare

Plane landing.

Up till now, airfare search results on Google Flights have prioritized a combination of price and convenience over cost alone. This means you might be missing the cheapest options and spending more than you need to.

Via an update to its online tool that's rolling out gradually over the next couple of weeks, Google is finally making it easier to surface the best-priced airfares for your journey, though you may be sacrificing a bit of convenience if you opt for one of them.

Computing

What is Gemini Advanced? Here’s how to use Google’s premium AI

Google Gemini on smartphone.

Google's Gemini is already revolutionizing the way we interact with AI, but there is so much more it can do with a $20/month subscription. In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about Gemini Advanced, from what sets it apart from other AI subscriptions to the simple steps for signing up and getting started.

You'll learn how to craft effective prompts that yield impressive results and stunning images with Gemini's built-in generative capabilities. Whether you're a seasoned AI enthusiast or a curious beginner, this post will equip you with the knowledge and techniques to harness the power of Gemini Advanced and take your AI-generated content to the next level.
What is Google Gemini Advanced?