Cool Tech: Predictive Search will Tell You All You Need to Know

Someday, typing keywords into a search engine may be a thing of the past. Instead, your very behavior will act as a query and you’ll receive search results you never even asked for.

Say hello to predictive search. The technology already is out there in the form of Google Now – a predictive search app available on Android phones and on iPhone – as well as services developed by other companies.

A recent New York Times blog post provides an example of how Google Now works:

A couple days before you travel, it will show you weather in your destination, and when you arrive, currency exchange information and the time back home. Ask aloud that Google Now remind you to pick up milk next time you step in a grocery store, and an alert will appear when you are at Safeway.

But how does Google Now and other predictive services (such as Cue, reQall, Donna, Tempo AI, MindMeld and Evernote) figure out what you need to know? Well, the app takes a look at your email, calendar and other activity.

“You can just imagine several years down the road, if that personal assistant was an expert in every field known to humankind,” said Amit Singhal, Google’s senior vice president for search told the Times.

Maybe not so far down the road are ads.

“The better we can provide information, even without you asking for it, the better we can provide commercial information people are excited to be promoting to you,” Google CEO Larry Page has said.