[thomasd]

Google probably review their top searches periodically to determine utility related keywords and custom fit solutions to them.

It seems that if they continue to do things this way, sooner or later, Google is likely to replace thousands of utility websites.

This seems like a change in their philosophy from sending users to other websites in as little time as possible, to using Google as a portal.

Interestingly, this change in philosophy by Yahoo from a search engine to a portal was what made Yahoo lose out to Google.

[jfoster]

Except that this is a very different approach to being a portal.

Yahoo filled their front-page with items that wouldn't be relevant except for some tiny percentage of the time, such that even if the front page had what you were looking for, it was like a needle in a haystack. Google's approach here is only revealing the portal functionality in response to a specific request for it. It won't kill them, and may even be a competitive advantage for them over any competitor search engine that has superior ranking algorithms.

[patrickaljord]

The philosophy of Google was not to send users to other websites in as little time as possible. It was to give users the correct answer in as little time as possible. If the answer can fit in a tiny utility tool on google.com itself, than that's faster for the user and it's actually a better experience.

[chrisfarms]

I think all these kind of searches fall under the "conversational search" goals that they are now aiming for.

Conversion: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=150+GBP+in+USD Weather: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=temp+in+london

[shubhamjain]

Should'nt they try doing some kind of partnership with WolframAlpha which is way ahead in NLP and producing useful results. I would love to see WolframAlpha results integrated within Google when they can be interpreted by the software.