For over two decades, we've been redefining the possibilities of a search engine, always guided by our mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. This journey has been accompanied by continuous advancements in AI, helping us better understand information in various forms – from text and audio to images and videos.
In the course of this evolution, we've made it easier to search in a more natural and intuitive way. You can now search using your voice or employ Lens to use your smartphone camera for searching. Recently, we've been testing how the capabilities of generative AI in understanding natural language enable asking questions in Google Search more seamlessly.
Ultimately, we envision a future where you can search in any way and at any place. As we kick off 2024, we are introducing two major updates to bring this vision closer to reality: Circle to Search and a new AI-based Combo Search experience. Let's take a closer look at what's coming:
Circle to Search: Search by Circling, Highlighting, or Drawing
Today, we introduced Circle to Search, a new way to explore content on your Android smartphone screen without switching apps. With a simple gesture, you can select images, text, or videos in a natural way – by circling, highlighting, scribbling, or tapping – and find the information you need right where you are.
Imagine seeing a video of Dachshunds jumping into a pool wearing dog goggles. Someone circles around the goggles to search and quickly finds more information without leaving the video.
If something piques your interest (like those cool dog goggles), you might not want to switch apps or websites just to search for it. Now you can search right when you see something intriguing on your screen, whether you're chatting with friends, scrolling through a social media platform, or watching a video.
Circle to Search will be globally available on selected premium Android smartphones starting January 31, beginning with Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and the new Galaxy S24 series. As previously mentioned, search and shopping ads will continue to appear in designated ad spaces on the results page.
Point Your Camera, Ask a Question, and Get AI Assistance
In 2022, we introduced Combo Search in Lens as a new way of multimodal search with images and text. Originally designed for refining visual search queries, such as finding a photo of red sneakers with Lens and adding the word "blue" to find them in your preferred color, Combo Search now makes exploring the world easier than ever.
Now, when you point your camera at something (or upload a photo or screenshot) and ask a question with the Google app, the new Combo Search experience displays results with AI-based insights beyond simple visual matches. This allows you to ask more complex or nuanced questions about what you see and quickly find and understand crucial information.
For instance, imagine you're at a flea market and come across a peculiar-looking board game with no packaging or instructions. Immediate questions arise: What is this game, and how is it played? Here's where the new Combo Search experience can help.
Simply take a photo of the game, add your question (like "How do you play this?"), and you'll receive an AI-based overview that consolidates the most relevant information from the web. This way, you can quickly identify the game and learn how to win. And with the AI-based overview, delving deeper with supporting links becomes easy.
AI-based overviews for Combo Search results will be introduced this week in the USA in English – no sign-up for Search Labs required – and outside the USA, they will be available as a preview only in countries where Search Generative Experience (SGE) within Search Labs has already been rolled out (Germany is not included at the moment).
Continuing Ambitious Experiments with Generative AI in Search
The introduction of AI-based results for Combo Search this week is the outcome of a series of tests initiated last year to explore how generative AI can significantly enhance the search experience through our Search Generative Experience (SGE) in Search Labs. We've received valuable feedback from participants in this experiment, and we will continue to offer SGE in Labs as a testing ground for ambitious new ideas.
However, our goal is to make AI helpful for everyone, not just early adopters. While we continue to experiment and discover the most useful applications of generative AI, we will gradually introduce them into search on a broader scale, as we're doing now with Combo Search results.
Today's updates will make search even more natural and intuitive, but we've only just scratched the surface of what's possible.
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