By THOMAS HARTWELL
Amit Singhal, the mind behind Google's search algorithm, is set to retire at the end of February. Singhal says that he wants to spend more time with his family and, as any good "rich guy" should, pursue philanthropic endeavors (article here). He will be replaced by the creator of Google's RankBrain, John Giannandrea.
The news of Singhal's retirement has sparked discussion, and in some cases sheer terror, on where Google might be headed without him. Many took to Twitter to express their melancholy and wish Singhal well, but others condemned Google to failure without him. While simply the statement "Google is doomed to fail" is ridiculous to me, I do realize that fear, in the face of change in a company as large and influential as Google, is normal. Let me tell you why Google is going to be fine, though.
RankBrain, another kind of SEO and almost "jumbled search decryption" engine developed by Google is going to thrive. The technology, run by Giannandrea, will transition to 100 percent artificial intelligence in "guessing" what search words are searching for. Amazingly, the RankBrain technology will be able to appropriately replace the loss of a Google pioneer like Singhal (or the 1 percent that was still not AI) with what is being called a "gut feeling" like a human's in guessing what a person might be searching for on Google, according to Greg Corrado, a senior research assistant at Google.
Now, yes, Google's stock did fall after the SEO mastermind's announcement, but no one expert has cited his retirement as the sole reason for the 4.03 percent drop in February 2016. As things at Google stabilize and consumers and stock holders realize that the end isn't in fact nigh, those numbers will climb again. Think about it, what competition does Google have? Bing? Yahoo? Nope. I'm sure Singhal will be sorely missed, but Google will be just fine.
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