Google search will provide even more information than it already does: in Big G's headquarters they're working on Big Moments
Google seems closer to launching itself in the field of publishing, even if Mountain View escapes this definition, professing to be a platform that aggregates search results and sometimes also provides news, numbers and updates with data from external sources deemed reliable.
Already now Google Search becomes for example a source of information on the occasion of major sporting events. Think for example to the matches of Serie A or Champions League that, searched on Google, give information about formations, rankings or scores in real time. And over the past year, interactive maps on the progress of the Covid-19 pandemic have appeared and continue to be shown through Google Search, thanks to data from Wikipedia, the Ministries of Health of various countries, the New York Times and other authoritative sources, depending on attribution. On hot topics, then, there is an entire section of the search results page dedicated to news from Google News. Soon all this experience gained on hot topics and "breaking news" will be put to use by Google with a new service: Big Moments.
Google working on Big Moments
In short, in recent times what was a simple search engine has "learned" to spread information. Now, according to a report by The Information, Google would be ready to take the next step with Big Moments, that is, to expand the fields on which Google Search is able to provide information to users looking for a certain sporting event, an award ceremony and even natural disasters.
Google Search would do what Twitter has already been doing for some time, offering users real-time coverage of the latest news. According to Bloomberg, the 2015 agreement whereby the two giants, Google and Twitter, placed tweets at the top of search results on "breaking news"-related keywords would now be followed by a transformation of the search engine that would make it more like Twitter.
This new section of Google search would be called Big Moments. A team is allegedly working on it, and the confirmation came from the internet giant itself through a spokesperson who said:
"We're constantly experimenting with new solutions that ensure people turn to Google to find the most authoritative and up-to-date information when they need it. Any feature or novelty in our tools has to go through a rigorous testing process and evaluations to make sure it's adding value for people."
"Editorial line" by algorithms
Despite the evolution of information displayed by Google since the pandemic outbreak and the path they are trying to continue on through Big Moments, Mountain View considers itself a platform rather than a publisher.
So there won't be a team of people to draw the editorial lines but everything will be entrusted to algorithms, with the additional difficulty, however, of scanning web pages - of institutions or sources deemed reliable - even more quickly than usual by continuously updating the data shown to users.
All this, however, is likely to arouse endless controversy in case a political party is not sufficiently represented in the selection of Google Big Moments. The Information, not surprisingly, headlined, "Risks being a minefield."