Google has taken advantage of I/O 2023 to make several announcements of its news. As expected, AI has been tectonic for this event and has marked many of the presentations and updates, but one of the things that will change our routines the most is the news that comes to the Google search engine, which will stop being a list of links in blue with some snippets when appropriate.
Instead, the search results are going to be much more modular and dynamic, showing different panels of information depending on what we are looking for. And including a chatbot that will give elaborate answers to what we require.
Adaptive modules, not ten blue links
Google has used as an example during the demo a new way of searching (and responding). Instead of searching for “bikes” and sifting through the information, the demo directly wrote “good bike for five-mile uphill rides.” The results included a text created on purpose for that query, with the three keys that the buyer should take into account.
Next, a Google Shopping module with several bike models, the price, the average rating, an image and a description. And on one side, in small, three (only three) articles from websites where they recommend some bikes or give guidelines for choosing one. Below, the traditional results, but of course this module occupies enough space and is complete enough so that it is not necessary to resort to it very often.
In the background, what seems like a discreet invitation from Google to make our searches more questions and fewer keywords. The operation of Google during this time has led us to do those searches by combining words, but with this novelty, as it happened to us with ChatGPT, it makes more sense to ask complete questions in natural language.
Although Google Shopping is the main protagonist of this example, Google has made it clear that it is only one example of the number of uses that may benefit from this launch. Of course, they have also made it clear that it is something experimental and could undergo changes before it reaches the end user.
Testing begins with Chrome for desktop and the Google app on Android and iOS, only in English and in the United States during the initial phase. Registration, as explained by Google, will be open from May 10, and the first accesses will arrive in the coming weeks. They can be requested from the Labs icon in the Google app or in Chrome. The name of the project is Search Generative Experience.
This will surely have consequences for users in the form of information to consume more comfortably, but also for the owners of online websites traditionally oriented to appear on Google and hunt traffic. Google has gone out of its way to stress that it is taking a “responsible approach” and that it will continue to drive traffic to web pages, as well as to clarify that there will also be ads in this new view.
He has also stressed that the results will include more results from social networks and forums, in an attempt to incorporate more results from real people and testimonials, and less SEO-oriented websites. It is what he calls “Perspectives filter”.
The example Google has given of this usage is one where someone is moving to a city where they don’t know anyone. With this tool you will be able to access photos, videos, messages and forum threads in which residents of that city offer advice or personal stories about life in it.
