Google released an experimental new search product on Wednesday called
"Google Squared." The search tool collects facts from the web and presents them in an organized collection, similar to a spreadsheet.
For example, if you search for [roller coasters], Google Squared builds a square with rows for each of several specific roller coasters and columns for corresponding facts, such as image, height and maximum speed.
Users of google.com/squared can then build, modify and refine their "square" through further Web searches. "If there's another row or column you'd like to see, you can add it and Google Squared will automatically attempt to fetch and fill in the relevant facts for you. As you remove rows and columns you don't like, Google Squared will get a fresh idea of what you're interested in and suggest new rows and columns to add," Google wrote at the company's blog.
While gathering facts from across the Internet is relatively easy (albeit tedious) for humans to do, it's far more difficult for computers to do automatically. "Google Squared is a first step towards solving that challenge. It essentially searches the web to find the types of facts you might be interested in, extracts them and presents them in a meaningful way," Google said.