Google just dropped Search Generative Experience (SGE), its generative AI in search, to more than 120 countries and territories after it initially debuted at the Google I/O 2023. Google’s generative AI for search is tasked with summarising top results for selected users and providing conversational traits to select users. Over a few weeks to months, Google will roll out the various features it announced at I/O 2023 including more languages, generative AI for health-related queries, etc.
Google went for a metered approach rolling out SGE to the public. It started with English language searches in the US in May followed by English-language users in Japan and India in August followed by teen users in September. Both Bhutan and Brazil have got their hands on the update as well.
Google is adding four new languages apart from English, Hindi, and Japanese i.e. Korean, Indonesian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Users should be able to talk to assistants in these languages using a natural tone. The update has started rolling out across Chrome desktop users followed by Android app users in the coming weeks.
The search engine giant has added new features to SGE such as the improved follow-up function that lets users ask follow-up questions regarding their queries. A Bard-like window will appear above the search results enabling users to drill down on the subject in a conversational tone with the AI assistant without leaving the search results page for a second.
Apart from that, you will get to see some search ads based on your activities on SGE, however, Google has selected certain areas of the page where these ads will be available to avoid mixing them with the usual search ads. The follow-up feature is available for English-language users in the US at the moment, however, Google will expand it to other languages as the technology progresses.
It’s not a secret that Google lets you translate phrases from one language to another. With the new features on SGE in place, the AI assistant will give you context on words that may have different meanings such as a ‘tie’ can be a ‘draw’ or ‘a piece of cloth’. Google will be adding masculine and feminine tones to such terms automatically such as bicycles can be girls and cars can be boys
Finally, the search engine giant is expanding features on SGE with interactive definitions for topics such as science, health, coding, economics, etc. The feature is expected to roll out next month starting with English in the US before progressing to other languages in the coming months.
