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Google’s search czar, Udi Manber, gave a short pre-lunch presentation on what he has to deal with at the company:

“Search is hard, very hard, because of scale of what we have to deal with. The scale we operate at is almost beyond comprehension. The main thing is the diversity. The log boggles the mind. Also the expectations. If there’s one piece of information I can give you: 20-25 percent of the queries we will see today, we’ve never seen before.” Manber quoted Oliver Wendell Homes: “The law embodies the story of a nation’s development through many centuries,” but it cannot be dealt with like mathematics. Udi: We can say the same thing about search.

“My group understands it’s not just about the math, it’s about how to connect people, and that connections is hard. Take a search for GM Cars on Google. We know this is General Motors. If you search for GM Food at the same time, it stands for Genetically Modified, and we’ll highlight that. If you search for B&B AB, we understand that to mean Bed & Breakfast in Alberta. Ramstein AB is Ramstein Air Base. If you search for types of dogs we’ll give you good results, but we’ll also insert a suggestion, that if you search for breeds of dogs you’ll probably get better results. If you search for Why search is hard, you’re not going to get good results. Mostly because I don’t think there are very good documents on the Web.”

Google is working on an algorithm to translate queries into more effective queries. A couple of simple examples:
Type “unchanged lyrics van halen” and they will suggest “lyrics to unchained by van halen.”
Type “how much does it cost for an exhaust system” and they will suggest “cost of exhaust system.”
They get more complex from here, including geographically contextualized queries. The new system will be release soon, Manber said.