Some people are surprised that Google is actually just 20 years old because a lot of us, especially those who are younger than 20, can’t imagine a world where you can’t just Google something. But yes, the search giant is celebrating its 20th year of existence by bringing us new features that should help us find answers, even ones that we didn’t think we needed. They shared three fundamental shifts that they’re going through and how this will affect our Search experience.
The changes they are introducing are not really that, well, life-changing, but they are hoping that it will enhance how we use Google Search. The Google Feed will look a bit different when the changes finally roll out to your device or account instead of just the usual white spaces that we’re used to. A new feature called “Discover” will bring you content even before you search for anything. The things that they will show on the page depends on what information they have through your account across other Google products.
In keeping with the trend towards more visual features, you’ll also see more activity cards in your search results, whether it’s images or even videos. There is even an option to auto-play important parts of these videos if Google determines it’s important enough for you to see. Of course you can always turn off that option if you don’t want videos suddenly playing in your search results.
Another activity card that will show in your results is “enhanced topics” which will show you additional tabs of information on the topic that you searched for. Image search will also be enhanced by adding more text content to the results and also integration with Lens, which lets you identify photos you take in the real world and give you more information about it.
Google is also going into the “Stories” mode of content by showing AMP Stories with curated text information, videos, and images, although it’s still in early stages. You will also be able to save your searches into “Collections” so you will be able to use it for future reference. All of these new things that Google will bring to you will be heavily reliant on AI, which is also the direction that the entire company is taking.
SOURCE: Google
VIA: Gizmodo
