Last week was Google’s highly anticipated Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco. It’s one of the highlights of the Google calendar, used to showcase all the exciting new services and hardware that we can look forward to (or bemoan) in the near future.
This year, the focus was almost entirely on software rather than new handsets, wearables or gadgets. And it won’t come as any great surprise that AI took centre stage. In fact, there wasn’t much room on the stage for anything else!
So what exactly was unveiled on the search front?
Search Generative Experience
The Search Generative Experience (SGE) was previously only available to those who were logged in via Search Labs but from now, it will no longer be restricted to Search Labs and is being rolled out to everyone in the US. This tech comes courtesy of Google’s powerful Gemini AI model that can understand text, images, videos, and audio.
In short, SGE uses generative AI to give users quick and clear overviews of their search queries, without having to click on individual websites. So it’s good for Google, not so good for individual website owners who have worked hard on content. However, Google is quick to say that the links included in AI Overviews get more clicks than if the page had appeared as a traditional web listing for that query and that web publishers with thoughtful, accurate, and helpful information will receive more organic traffic to their website. Only time will tell…
Another improvement in this model is Google’s ability to handle more complex queries all in one search, rather than having to do research in multiple steps. So for example, if you’re trying to find the best dog grooming parlour in a particular location that is open late and specialises in nervous pets, it should be able to find the answer for you.
AI Overview
Another major change on the search front is AI-organised results pages. According to Google, when you’re looking for fresh ideas, it can take a lot of work to find inspiration and consider all your options. Soon, when you’re looking for ideas, search will use generative AI to brainstorm with you and create an AI-organised results page that makes it easy to explore.
Results will be categorised under unique, AI-generated headlines, featuring a wide range of perspectives and content types.
AI Overview will also have options to simplify the language or break it down in more detail. This can be particularly useful if you’re researching a new topic or something particularly complex or simply want to hand your child’s seemingly endless ‘why’ questions over to an algorithm!
This is again rolling out for all English-speaking search in the US first, with a focus on experiences such as dining, recipes, travel and shopping.
Plan Ahead
As well as finding the right answer or information for a complex question, a new feature of Search will also be its ability to help you plan ahead. This could be for something as relatively mundane as weekly meal planning or something more exciting such as a travel itinerary. You’ll be able to tweak the plans based on your preferences such as ‘make Tuesday night a vegan recipe,’ or ‘avoid a certain location on a certain day’. In order for the information to be helpful, it’s of course important to be able to export it for future reference so handily, Google has built in a feature that allows you to export your meal plan to Docs of Gmail.
Update to Google Lens
Continuing the search theme, Google Lens allows the user to search for something based on images but via Google’s Project Astra, the next iteration is to search with video. This means you can take a video of something and ask a question during the video and Google AI will try to find the best answer for you.
Circle to Search
More AI features for Android were shown off including Circle to Search. It is pretty much a Ronseal product name where users don’t need to type to search for something but can simply circle an object to activate a search query. It’s currently only available on specific phones but is being rolled out via updates so more users will be able to benefit shortly.
Ask photos
Ask Photos will be a great tool that will drastically speed up searching through your photos. You can ask it very specific questions and it will find very the answer within your photo library. If like me you take heaps of photos to remember things by, not simply holiday snaps, it might prove very useful. ‘What is the name of the bottle of wine I drank on holiday last year?”
Talkback
Similarly, Talkback is service aimed at the visually impaired. AI allows search within photographs and users hear descriptors back.
Never a dull day in this industry!
