Free from the watchful eye of the government, Google is planning the next step for its extremely popular search engine.
In fact, the next step is to get rid of the "search" part entirely. Google is hoping to improve the engine to the point that it can directly answer the questions you ask, eliminating the need to sift through links. The company is even planning to make typing unnecessary, saying you'll be able to ask the engine questions like you can with Apple's Siri while the search engine relays answers back to you.
"I would be so bold to predict that in the next two years, you'll have a conversational search engine that you can talk to like you're talking to me," said Amit Singhal, head of Google's search business, in a CNN Money report.
The search giant already does a small-scale version of this for many queries. When you type "weather" or "temperature" on the website, Google simply tells you what the weather is before listing links to other sites. Asking for measurement conversions produces similar results, while searching for locations or addresses simply brings up Google Maps.
Whenever this evolution happens, though, Google is sure to face harsh criticism from various groups claiming that the company is stifling competition. The company successfully fended off those attacks during a Federal Trade Commission probe that ended on Jan. 3. Google often says that changes to its search offerings are primarily made with the user in mind, and the FTC generally agreed.
"Although some evidence suggested that Google was trying to eliminate competition, Google's primary reason for changing the look and feel of its search results to highlight its own products was to improve the user experience," said FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz.
With a favorable FTC settlement in the bag, many industry analysts think the path is clear for Google to change its services however it wants to.
"In the U.S., it [FTC ruling] means Google can now choose to be more aggressive when it comes to promoting its offerings -- especially online travel, shopping search, and content-based search," said Sandeep Aggarwal, an independent search analyst.
Many Web sites allow Google to copy information from them because they rely on traffic generated by the search results to keep themselves in business. If the company begins offering direct answers or relays more users to its own services, the relationship between those sites and Google will likely become contentious. How that skirmish plays out, is anyone's guess.
