Google patent inventor
Steven Baker is a software engineer who worked on Google's web search ranking team. In 2010 he explained on the Official Google Blog how Google Search uses its synonyms system to better understand the language of queries. He is a named inventor on Google search patents, including US 7,636,714, "Determining query term synonyms within query context", with John Lamping.
All their Google patents on Google PatentsPatent US 9,959,315 adjusts the score of candidate answer passages with the path of headings above them, the match between headings and the question, the coverage of the passage, a preceding question and lists. The full mechanism and how to structure pages for featured answers.
Patent US 9,940,367 describes how Google builds candidate answer passages from the top results and scores them with query terms, expected answer terms and 6 query-independent signals. The full mechanism and how to write passages that get picked.
Patent US 7,636,714 learns synonyms from how users rewrite their own queries within a session, and validates each synonym in the context of the surrounding words. How pseudo-queries, shared results and context tests work, and what they mean for keyword targeting.