Google Introduces New AI Features for Search

Google’s search experience is getting an AI revamp, the tech giant revealed at its annual I/O conference. The new search experience will feature AI snapshots and “Perspectives.”

The new search experience has a more conversational nature, but the traditional blue links will remain part of the search results. The experience is different on mobile, where the AI summary can often take the entire first page of the results.

The AI snapshot, as Google calls it, is generated by its most advanced large language models to date, using the open web as a source. When a user enters a query in AI-powered Google, they will see a warning pop up: “Generative AI is experimental.” In a matter of seconds, this is replaced by an AI summary consisting of a few paragraphs of information and three links to the sites from which information was pulled to generate the answer.

While there are currently no ads in the AI-generated results, Google plans to add shopping links to its search results. Google’s new shopping experience will rely on Google’s Shopping Graph, which boasts 35+ billion product listings. Its Search Generative Experience (SGE) also features up-to-date product images, information, reviews, ratings, and prices, which further enhance the shopping experience.

It’s currently available through the Google Labs waitlist on desktop and Google App for Android and iOS on mobile across the US. Google promised wider availability in the coming months.

Questions related to shopping advice will yield more concise results than questions that require creativity and have no right or wrong answers, like “Best vacation in Rome for a family.” In such cases, multiple factors play a role, like the family’s budget, children’s ages, and personal preferences. To get the most out of Google’s AI answers, the user might need to break one query into multiple ones.

Google won’t provide AI-generated results for all searches. The tech giant explained AI is used only when its algorithms decide it provides more value over its traditional results. SGE will likely exclude sensitive topics like health and finances.

To further enhance the search experience, Google is rolling out Perspectives. While the AI snapshots are better for questions with concise answers, Perspectives will help users with experience-related questions like “How to behave on your first day of work at a new job.” Answers can include “long- and short-form videos, images and written posts that people have shared on discussion boards, Q&A sites and social media platforms.”