Google is bringing its AI-powered search experience to the first countries outside the U.S., the company announced today, starting with expansions to India and Japan. The new AI-powered search feature, also known as SGE (Search Generative Experience), will be available through Google Search Labs in those markets and will introduce a new feature aimed at making it easier to find information in its AI-powered insights.
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First announced at this year’s Google I/O developer conference in May, SGE introduces a conversational feature to Google Search, where you can ask Google questions about a topic and it then returns answers, similar to an AI chatbot. The company has in recent months updated the experience with support for video and images, local information and travel recommendations, as well as new tools to provide summaries, definitions and more help with programming-related queries.
It also began experimenting with ads that would be integrated alongside the responses generated by AI, seeking to capitalize on the new real estate devoted to the AI conversational experience.
With global expansion, SGE is adapting for the new supported regions.
In Japan, users will be able to use the generative AI in their local language, while in India it will support both English and Hindi with language switching so users can move between the two languages. It also adds voice input – something popular in India – so users can speak questions instead of typing them and then hear the answers.
In both countries, search ads will continue to appear in special ad slots throughout the page.
Alongside these launches, SGE is introducing a new feature designed to make it easier for users to discover and visit the websites that support the information offered in the AI answers.
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Starting today, users will see a new arrow icon next to information in an AI-powered overview, which they can tap to see related web pages. This allows them to go directly to the source of the AI information, where they can learn more about the answer to their questions. This will roll out first in the US and will arrive in India and Japan in the coming weeks.
The company noted that since launching SGE, it has found the feature to be most popular among younger users. Google said the highest satisfaction scores are among 18-24 year olds, who like to ask their questions in a more interactive way.
Google also said that people liked being able to ask follow-up questions, and they say they are now asking longer, more interactive questions with full sentences. This is a different experience than traditional Google searches, where users simply type in a few keywords to start a query.
Additionally, it claimed that users find embedded ads useful, but did not provide data on clickthrough rates.
To access SGE, you can find it in the Search Labs of the Google app on Android and iOS and in Chrome on desktop.
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source of information:techcrunch.com
