Change to Google Search will provide more useful answers
“No matter what you’re looking for, or what language you speak, we hope you’re able to let go of some of your keyword-ese and search in a way that feels natural for you. But you’ll still stump Google from time to time. Even with BERT, we don’t always get it right. If you search for “what state is south of Nebraska,” BERT’s best guess is a community called “South Nebraska.” (If you’ve got a feeling it’s not in Kansas, you’re right.) Language understanding remains an ongoing challenge, and it keeps us motivated to continue to improve Search. We’re always getting better and working to find the meaning in– and most helpful information for– every query you send our way.”-Google
Here’s an example. Someone wrote on Google Search “2019 brazil traveler to usa need a visa.” Google admits that previously the algorithms it used would have returned results about U.S. citizens traveling to Brazil. But with BERT, Search looked at the use of the word “to” to help it understand that this was a query about Brazilians traveling to the U.S.
In another example given by Google, the question “do estheticians stand a lot at work.” would have first been analyzed based on matching the keyword “stand” with the term “stand-alone.” This produced results that were not useful to the individual’s query. But with BERT, Search can figure out the context of the word “stand” and realize that it has to do with the physical demands of the job.
Understanding the context of one word can make a difference in the results served up by Search
The last example is the question “Can you get medicine for someone pharmacy.” Google again admits that in the past, it completely missed the real meaning of this question and would serve up a general response about filling prescriptions. Thanks to BERT, Google Search understands that the “for someone” part of the question means that the person asking the query wants to know how to pick up someone else’s prescription for them.
Another example of a Search query that Google admits it would have missed in the past
Most Google Search users won’t even know or be able to tell that the app is using a new method to answer questions. Google is always working to improve Search and consider that of the billions of searches it performs each and every day, 15% are ones that Google has never seen before. This makes it even harder to implement improvements that need to be able to work on the fly.