Amit Singhal, one of Google's veteran search algorithm engineers, wants to develop a search engine that second-guesses users' needs well ahead of time.
In future, your Google account may be allowed, under some as-yet-unidentified privacy policy, to know a whole lot about your life and the lives of those close to you. It will know birthdays and anniversaries, consumer gadget preferences, preferred hobbies and pastimes, even favourite foods. It will also know where you are, and be able to get in touch with your local stores via their websites.
At other times, SWS could give its users a personalised and frequently updated news service by gathering information from social media sites. Singhal points out that Twitter can beat newscasters to warn you of events that might affect you: an earthquake that hit San Francisco in January sent ripples through Twitter 10 minutes before a news alert from the US Geological Survey alerted the professional news media.
