Google Puts New Focus on Outside Research

It is recently reported that Google is stepping up its funding to support the research following four areas:

• machine learning
• the use of cellphones as data collection devices in science
• energy efficiency
• privacy

Among these four areas, machine learning is on the top. "Three years ago, three of the four research areas would not have been on the company’s priority list", Mr. Spector said. "The only one that was a priority then and now is machine learning, a vital ingredient in search technology."