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The Evolution of Google BERT
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In the fast-paced world of Search Engine Optimization, few developments have been as impactful as Google’s introduction of Google BERT in 2019. BERT, which stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, represents a revolutionary advancement in natural language processing (NLP) that has transformed how search engines comprehend language and extract meaning from search queries. What Exactly is Google BERT? At its core, BERT is a complex neural network model designed to more profoundly analyze language based on contextual learning. It utilizes a technique called bidirectional training, allowing the model to learn representations of words based on undirected context from both the left and right sides of a sentence. This differs from previous NLP models, which only looked at words sequentially in one direction. BERT leverages a multi-layer bidirectional transformer encoder architecture for its neural networks. Transformers were first introduced in 2017 and represented a major evolution beyond recurrent neural network (RNN) architectures like long short-term memory (LSTM) units and gated recurrent units (GRU). The transformer architecture relies entirely on a self-attention mechanism rather than RNNs or convolutions. Self-attention relates different input representations to one another to derive contextual meaning. It allows modeling both long-range and local dependencies in language modeling. Transformers proved tremendously effective for NLP tasks while also being more parallelizable and requiring less computational resources than RNNs. Google researchers realized that combining the transformer architecture with bidirectional pretraining could yield a significant breakthrough in NLP. Thus, BERT was born in 2018 and released in pre-trained form in November 2019 after training on massive corpora of text data. Key Technical Innovations Behind BERT There are two vital components that enabled BERT to become such a powerful NLP model: Bidirectional Training Previous deep learning NLP models such as ELMo and ULMFit used unidirectional training, where words are processed sequentially in left-to-right or right-to-left order. However, this fails to incorporate a full contextual understanding of language the way humans do. BERT broke new ground by leveraging bidirectional training during the pretraining phase. This allowed the model to learn representations of words based on undirected context from both the left and right of a sentence simultaneously. The only constraint is that no information from the future (right context) is allowed to influence predictions at the current time step. This bidirectional pretraining uniquely equips BERT with a complete contextual understanding of language. Masked Language Modeling Because bidirectional training precludes looking at the future context, BERT employs an innovative technique called masked language modeling during pretraining. Random words in each sequence are masked, and the model must predict them based solely on context from the non-masked words on both sides. This both allows bidirectional training and teaches the model to grasp language through context. The final representations learned by BERT incorporate contextual meaning in both directions. BERT Architecture In-Depth Now that we’ve covered the core conceptual innovations behind BERT let’s delve into the technical architecture and underlying neural networks. At a high level, BERT consists of the following components: Input Embeddings Multi-Layer Bidirectional Encoder (based on Transformers) Masked LM and Sentence Prediction tasks The input embeddings layer converts input token IDs into continuous vector representations. This allows the model to handle words or subwords. The core of BERT is its multi-layer bidirectional encoder based on the transformer architecture. The encoder contains a stack of identical encoder blocks. Each encoder block has the following components: Multi-head self-attention layer Position wise feedforward network Residual connections around both layers Layer normalization The multi-head self-attention layer is where the contextual relations between all words are derived. Self-attention relates different input representations to one another to compute weighted averages as output. The “multi-head” aspect allows attention to be performed in parallel from different representation spaces. The positionwise feedforward network consists of two linear transformations with a ReLU activation in between. This enables the modeling of non-linear relationships in the data. Residual connections sum the original input to the output of each sub-layer before layer normalization. This facilitates better gradient flow during training. During pretraining, masked LM and next-sentence prediction tasks are used to learn bidirectional representations. Masking trains the model to rely on context to predict tokens. Next, sentence prediction learns relationships between sentences. How BERT Interprets Language Now that we’ve dissected BERT’s technical underpinnings let’s explore how it actually interprets natural language compared to previous NLP techniques. Prior to BERT, most NLP models relied on word embeddings learned through unsupervised learning on large corpora. This provided static vector representations for individual words. However, these embedding models had no concept of contextual meaning – the vectors for a given word were identical regardless of the context it was used in. BERT represented a paradigm shift by incorporating contextual learning into its pre-trained representations. This allows it to interpret words differently based on context. The same word will have different vector representations depending on the surrounding words in a sentence. For example, consider the word “bank,” which can mean a financial institution or the land alongside a river. Based on a few sample sentences, here is how traditional word embeddings vs. BERT would represent “bank”: Sentence 1: “After work, I need to stop by the bank to deposit my check.” Word Embedding: [0.561, 0.234, 0.43, …] BERT: [0.123, 0.456, 0.792, …] Sentence 2: “The erosion caused the river bank to collapse last night.” Word Embedding: [0.561, 0.234, 0.43, …] BERT: [0.982, 0.231, 0.077, …] As you can see, the word embedding vector stays exactly the same regardless of context. BERT adjusts the representation based on the surrounding context to incorporate relevant meaning. BERT does this by encoding sentences holistically rather than just learning patterns of individual words. The bidirectional training, transformer encoder, and masked LM task allow it to interpret words based on other words in the sentence. This mimics how humans intuitively understand language by relating words and their meanings. BERT represents words in fuller context, a key breakthrough in NLP. BERT vs. Previous NLP Models To fully appreciate BERT’s capabilities, it’s instructive to compare it against previous
For years, visual aesthetics reigned supreme in web design. Striking graphics, flashy animations, and complex layouts were the hallmarks of a “good” website. Companies vied to create the most eye-catching designs, often at the expense of underlying code quality. But in recent times, the tide has turned. Google and other search engines now prioritize the quality of a website’s underlying code over visual presentation. This shift toward valuing substance over style aims to provide the best possible user experience. The Rising Need for Quality Code In the early 2000s, many web designers focused solely on visual appeal. Intricate style sheets dictated page layouts, colors, fonts, and other graphical elements. Yet the underlying HTML was often sloppy and filled with presentational code that “painted” the desired look. This approach caused issues: Bloated codebases: CSS files swelled to thousands of lines, and HTML became deeply nested as divs were layered to control visuals. This added bloat slowed page loading. Fragility: Tight coupling of structure and presentation meant even small changes broke layouts. Since the code was opaque, fixes involved guesswork. Inaccessibility: Relying on CSS for layout made keyboard/screen reader navigation difficult. Non-semantic markup also hindered understanding. Poor performance: Browser quirks required hacky CSS and HTML to achieve effects. The code wasn’t optimized for real-world use. As web use skyrocketed in the late 2000s on slower connections and mobile devices, these problems became unacceptable. Users demanded sites that loaded instantly and worked flawlessly across platforms. For this, tightly coupled, visually-driven web design was insufficient. Developers realized code quality, web standards, accessibility, and performance mattered more than merely looking pretty. How Google Rewards High-Quality Code In response to the need for better experiences, Google began using code quality as a top-ranking signal. As Google Fellow Maile Ohye noted in 2017: “Page experience is the thing that matters…The focus on page experience and the ability of pages to deliver that experience quickly is super important.” Specifically, Google assesses core web vitals and baseline technical SEO requirements via multiple metrics: Page speed: Measured via Lighthouse performance audits. Faster sites rank better. Responsiveness: Pages must adapt to any screen size. Detected via mobile-friendliness testing. Safe browsing: Sites flagged as unsafe won’t rank highly. Assessed by Chrome user experience reports. Accessibility: Screen reader and keyboard navigation must work properly. Evaluated through automated checking. Mobile-friendliness: Pages need legible text and tap targets for touch. This is confirmed by mobile-friendliness testing. Security: HTTPS encryption is required for ranking. HTTP sites are penalized. Intrusive interstitials: Pop-ups and overlays that block content are banned. Monitored through webmaster reports. Optimizing these facets requires clean, expressive code focused on user needs over style choices. The visuals may be plain, but the inner engineering is stellar. Technical SEO Benefits of Quality Code Beyond core vitals, optimizing code quality also boosts technical SEO. Search engines can better parse and index a site with: Logical Information Architecture: semantic HTML like <header>, <nav>, and <article> tags (instead of <div> IDs) clearly convey page structures. Descriptive Metadata: Page titles, meta descriptions, and alt text provide relevant details to search bots. Text-based Content: minimal reliance on images or video for text. Crawlers can’t “see” media nearly as well. Effective Link Structures: internal links use descriptive anchor text pointing to relevant targets. This helps search bots navigate. Clean URL Slugs: readable URLs like example.com/product-name (not ?id=8273) tell search engines what pages are about. Fast Performance: minimal page bloat, efficient caching, and optimized assets improve crawling. Slow sites hamper indexing. Good Code Practices: following web standards, using proper HTML elements for their intended purpose, separating concerns, and minimizing hacks/workarounds. This creates transparent and robust code. Essentially, prioritizing code quality reduces friction and helps search engines make sense of a site. Even with a bland look, the inner expressiveness and efficiency enable ranking potential. Characteristics of High-Quality Web Code What exactly constitutes “good code,” though? Here are key characteristics: Cleanly Structured Logical hierarchy: related code is grouped meaningfully. Unrelated code is decoupled. Consistent conventions: naming, syntax, and formatting follow set patterns. Appropriate abstraction: generic reusable logic abstracted into functions/modules. Duplication avoided. Straightforward flow: easy-to-follow sequential steps. No convoluted spaghetti logic. Immutability: data not modified in place. New copies were created to manage the state. Efficient Lightweight: unused code eliminated. Assets like images/fonts optimized. Performant: algorithms have optimal time/space complexity. Indexes used over searches. Caching: dynamic data cached to avoid re-fetching. Server responses are cached. Lazy loading: below-the-fold or non-critical assets loaded on-demand. Asynchronous: blocking operations like network calls made asynchronous. Robust Fault-tolerant: fails gracefully with informative messaging under any circumstance. Validated: user input is sanitized and validated before usage. Secure: practices like HTTPS are adopted to prevent vulnerabilities. Stability tested: rigorously tested across browsers, devices, and connections. Monitoring: analytics and error monitoring installed. Issues were quickly corrected. Readable Comments: non-obvious sections explained. Business logic documented. Consistency: established conventions like DRY (don’t repeat yourself) followed. Clarity: descriptive naming without abbreviations or numeric suffixes. Whitespace: new lines, spacing, and indentation used for visual flow. Self-documenting: code structured so logic is self-evident. Meaningful: variables functions named by purpose rather than type. By focusing on these qualities during development, websites achieve polished inner workings to match their sleek user interface. This propels rankings and satisfies visitors. Implementing Code Quality Best Practices For developers looking to optimize their code’s quality, where should they start? Here are impactful best practices: Linting Linters like ESLint (JavaScript) and stylelint (CSS) enforce code style rules, find bugs, and eliminate inconsistencies. Adding them to a build process catches issues before the code goes live. Configuring linters with standard rulesets like Airbnb helps bake in discipline. Testing Unit, integration, and end-to-end testing prevent regressions while refactoring to improve code. Test-driven development (TDD) takes this further by first writing tests, then the minimum viable code to pass them. This “red-green-refactor” cycle incrementally grows robust systems. Peer Reviews Regular peer reviews provide additional insight into improving code quality. Fresh perspectives identify overlooked issues and better solutions. Code reviews also spread knowledge and force clarification of