Is Google’s Best Guess good enough?

Something you may have started to notice recently when Googling for facts and figures, is that for certain specific queries, the top search result will be Google’s “best guess” at the correct answer.

If the information in question appears the same on a variety of different websites, then Google takes that as a pretty good sign that the info is factually correct and offers it as their best guess.

See the following screengrab for example, when searching for “Avatar 2 release date” (Click to enlarge):

Best guess results for "Avatar 2 release date"

The release date of December 2014 (really? That long?!) is mentioned on independent.co.uk, wikia.com and filmonic.com, so Google reckons that date must have some degree of accuracy and serves it up in your search results.

Blind leading the blind?

Perhaps the idea behind this is based on the ‘wisdom of crowds’ theory, that many heads are better than one.

Surely the obvious flaw in this logic is that information on the web can be published by anyone, and as we know, it is often factually incorrect. If one website publishes an erroneous fact, and several other websites follow suit and copy that error, then Google’s best guess is going to be way off the mark.

It looks like there have already been some problems with Google keeping up with its own company hierarchy!

However, if the search in question is a well-known fact, rather than a future prediction, I think Best Guess could be a pretty handy addition to the SERPs.

Try it out, search for things like company founded dates (e.g. “Facebook founded”), unknown composers (e.g. “Swan Lake composer”) and world leaders (e.g. “japan prime minister”).

Let us know if you get any unlikely results.