Google has even bigger plans for mobile searching

The search giant is examining ways to extend its reach by delivering information to people that do not use search engines. Google is also looking at ways to deliver information to your mobile device about things you would not search for otherwise, but would be of interest to you.

This goes beyond Google Now or the billions of searches on Google every day. This is part of Google’s master plan to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.” In order to do this, Google needs to find out our “hidden needs” and then use creative sampling methods to serve them.

Google has been working with about 150 people on an experiment where users are notified on their phone from Google, “What did you want to know recently?” several times each day. The answers provided helps the company determine how it might deliver information that you would never think of searching for. This is known as the Daily Information Needs Study.

The research is not complete, but coupling this research with other contextual data, such as GPS and other phone information is expected to enable Google to provide a new class of service, beyond Google Now, or Siri Thinks Ahead. It would be able to preemptively answer questions. The research will attempt to find all that is “unGoogled” (if that is possible). Time and analysis of the patterns of information may provide a paradigm for Google to adopt a whole new way to handle search.

source: MIT Technology Review