Google's Intent Brain uses 20 broad intents and Orbit 86 page categories to pick answer formats
gaganghotra_ · x · 2026-10-29
RESONEO's third "Understanding Google" piece explains how Google decides the format and source of answers after settling a query's meaning.
- Intent Brain: from click data, it computes per-query, per-language, per-country probabilities over 20 "broad intents" (images, video, place, forum, official site…) to choose the answer format.
- Orbit: classifies every indexed page into 86 categories (tutorial, forum, product page, comparison…). Eight broad intents share names with Orbit categories, so query and page are described in the same vocabulary.
- Full pipeline: KScorer picks meaning → Intent Brain picks format → Orbit picks page category → Superroot assembles the results page.
For SEO/AEO practitioners, it's a systems-level explanation of which content format gets selected, with diagrams showing how Glue/NavBoost click signals feed each module.
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