A patent that Google filed in December 2024 presents a close match to the Query Fan-Out technique that Google’s AI Mode uses. The patent, called Thematic Search, offers an idea of how AI Mode answers are generated and suggests new ways to think about content strategy.
Disclaimer: Virtually all of the patents that Google files list multiple ways to implement them as part of an algorithm, which is also the case with this patent. Google generally does not confirm that the inventions in a patent or research paper are in use, which is the case with this patent.
What The Patent Describes
The patent describes a thematic search system that organizes related search results to a search query into categories, what it calls themes, and provides a short summary for each theme so that users can understand the answers to their questions without having to click a link to all of the different sites.
The patent describes a system for deep research, for questions that are broad or complex. What’s new about the invention is how it automatically identifies themes from the traditional search results and uses an AI to generate an informative summary for each one using both the content and context from within those results.
Thematic Search Engine
Themes is a concept that goes back to the early days of search engines, which is why this patent caught my eye a few months ago and caused me to bookmark it.
