Google is slowly reimagining search in the generative AI era

Google's deep understanding of information, combined with the capabilities of generative AI, can transform search, and all of its products, said Sundar Pichai.

Google faces a tough task ahead as its core search business encounters the biggest challenge in over a decade amid renewed competition and an ongoing shift in consumer behaviour.

The way people engage with information is changing and becoming more conversational, thanks to recent advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI). This phenomenon is being driven by Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT. Its soaring popularity has raised alarm bells inside the search giant, prompting them to rush products integrated with generative AI capabilities.

At the same time, younger audiences are increasingly turning to platforms like Reddit, TikTok, and Instagram to fulfill their information needs.

These platforms offer a human perspective on specific topics such as product reviews, travel suggestions, or recipes, which is in contrast to the frustrating experience of sifting through SEO-optimized websites on Google's search results to find authentic answers. This issue is likely to further intensify with the increasing ease of producing AI-generated content.

‘AI at an inflection point’

On May 10, at its annual developer conference Google I/O, the tech giant unveiled an AI-infused version of its search engine with several new features aimed at tackling both of these issues.

"The shift with AI is as big as they come. We are approaching it boldly with a sense of excitement. Because as we look ahead, Google's deep understanding of information, combined with the capabilities of generative AI, can transform search, and all of our products yet again," said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google's parent firm Alphabet.

Read: Google opens up its ChatGPT rival Bard to users in over 180 countries

Pichai mentioned that they are at an "exciting inflection point" seven years into the company's journey as an AI-first firm, using these capabilities to make their products more helpful for consumers. "With generative AI, we're taking the next step," he said.

With these capabilities, the company aims to enable users to understand a topic faster, discover new viewpoints and insights for entirely new types of questions that search engines couldn't answer before, said Liz Reid, vice president of Search at Google in a blog post.

During the conference, Google provided a sneak peek at what a generative AI-powered search experience would look like.

Google provided a sneak peek at what a generative AI-powered search experience would look like.

It previewed a new integrated search results page that will start appearing with an AI-powered snapshot on top of search results. This snapshot will display a quick topic summary and links to go deeper into the topic.

Users can also ask a follow-up question or choose one of the suggested questions to enter a new conversational mode. The context will be carried over for each question to help users continue exploring their preferred topic, Reid said in a blog post.

One can expand this view to see how the information provided is corroborated with source links for each sentence, which users can check out for more details.

Users can ask a follow-up question or choose one of the suggested questions to enter a conversational mode in Google Search

Google has also built a similar generative AI shopping experience on top of its shopping graph that has more than 35 billion product listings, with more than 1.8 billion listings refreshed every hour. This will allow users to get a snapshot of relevant products and noteworthy aspects one should consider while buying them. It will also offer product descriptions that include relevant, up-to-date reviews, ratings, prices and product images, Reid said.

One can also scroll below to see the traditional search results. Meanwhile, search ads will continue to appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page, the company said.

To be sure, Google notes that this generative AI experience is still an experiment and will take a deliberate approach in rolling it out to consumers. People will be able to access this feature, dubbed as ‘Search generative experience,’ through the company's new Search Labs initiative that was also unveiled at the event.

The experience will only be available to users in the United States at the moment. They can sign up for the waitlist by tapping the labs icon in the latest versions of the Google mobile app or Chrome desktop.

Identifying AI-generated images

In the coming months, Google will be launching a new tool called ‘About this image’ that will allow users to find out when a particular image or a similar one was first indexed by its search engine, where it may have initially appeared, and on which sites it has appeared since then.

Every AI-generated image created through Google's tools will have metadata to indicate that it is an AI-generated photo

Google also announced that all images generated through its AI tools will include metadata indicating that they are AI-generated photos. Creators and publishers will also have the option to add similar metadata to label their images as AI-generated in Google Search. The company has stated that services like Midjourney and Shutterstock, among others, will add this metadata to their images in the coming months.

New perspectives section

In the coming weeks, Google will also add a new Perspectives filter at the top of search results, making it easier for people to find personal advice, stories and experiences from individuals on the topic.

One can tap the filter to view long-form and short-form videos, images, and written posts that people have shared on discussion boards, question-and-answer sites, and social media platforms. Google said it will also show more details about the creator of the content, such as their name, profile photo or information about the popularity of their content.

One can tap the perspective filter to see long-form and short-form videos, images and written posts that people have shared on discussion boards, question-and-answer sites and social media platforms

This builds on Google's earlier efforts to bring in more viewpoints on a particular topic through a feature called 'Discussions and forums,' which was introduced in September of last year. It showcases content from a variety of popular forums and online discussions across the web.

In March, the company also introduced a news-related carousel feature called 'Perspectives' that appeared below the Top Stories section on the search results page, showing insights from a range of journalists, experts, and other relevant voices on the topic.

To make it easier to find authentic perspectives, Google stated that the firm is improving how it ranks results in the overall search, placing a greater focus on content with unique expertise and experience. Last year, it introduced the 'helpful content update' with an aim to show more authentic content made for people, and less content that has been generated to attract clicks.

"In the coming months, we’ll roll out an update to this system that more deeply understands content created from a personal or expert point of view, allowing us to rank more of this useful information on Search," the company said.