Google brings AI-powered search to India: What it changes and not – Times of India

Google is expanding its generative AI search experience outside US. The search giant is bringing it to India and Japan. The two countries are the first outside the US to get the ‘new’ search experience. The all-new AI-powered search feature, also known as SGE (Search Generative Experience), will be available through Google’s Search Labs and will introduce a new feature aimed at making it easier to find information in its AI-powered overviews. Starting today (August 31), Google is rolling out the Search Generative Experience (SGE) in India as an opt-in experiment in Search Labs. This AI-powered experience is available in English and Hindi.
In December last year, Google demonstrated AI being used to make the Search experience more natural and intuitive with “India-first and India-focused innovations” that focus on bilingual users’ needs, new ways to search using a phone camera, and a new speech recognition model for Hinglish users. The ‘new’ search experience is said to be built further on these “innovations”.
Puneesh Kumar, General Manager, Google Search, India, said, “With new generative AI capabilities in Search, we’re now taking more of the work out of searching. We’re envisioning a supercharged Search that does the heavy lifting for you so you’ll be able to understand a topic faster, uncover new viewpoints and insights, and get things done more easily. The Search Generative Experience is the first step we’re taking in this journey, and part of our vision to make Search radically more helpful. We’re excited to bring this to India and look forward to receiving feedback and iterating on the experience alongside our users over the next few months.”
How generative AI will “improve” your search
“With new generative AI capabilities in Search, people will see an AI-powered overview of key information to consider, with links to dig deeper. Especially for new internet users, who may often get overwhelmed with the amount of information online, finding an answer more quickly can help ease their journey of discovery,” said Google.
For instance, a question like “Which is a good beginner trek in Himachal and how to prepare for it?” Normally, one might break this one question down into smaller ones, sort through the vast information available, and start to piece things together themself. With generative AI, Search can do some of that heavy lifting.
Below this overview, they’ll see suggested next steps where they can simply tap a query like “How to take great photos on a trek?”, or type in a specific follow-up question. This conversational mode enables people to intuitively learn more about the topic they’re exploring. Context will be carried over from question to question, to help people more naturally continue their exploration.
India-focused features in the Search Generative Experience (SGE)
Google has also introduced features that the company claims are unique to SGE in India. A person can switch from an English result to Hindi by tapping the language toggle button, and listen to the response with Text-To-Speech by tapping the ‘Listen’ button. In the coming days, users will also be able to tap the microphone icon in conversational mode to ask follow-up questions instead of typing them.
Content on the Web to remain ‘key’
According to Google, it has designed these new experiences to highlight and drive attention to content on the web, making it easy for people to dive deeper on the topic they’re learning about. As generative AI makes its way into Search, Google reiterated that it is committed to continue sending valuable traffic to sites across the web.
Ads are important, and not going away
“Ads are a vital piece of how the web works, and help people find relevant products and services. In this new generative experience, Search ads will continue to appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page. Google will continue to uphold its commitment to ads transparency and making sure ads are distinguishable from organic search results,” said the company.
Taking the “responsible approach”
Google claims that it has taken a “responsible and deliberate approach to bringing new generative AI capabilities to Search.” The company said that it has trained these models to uphold Search’s high bar for quality, which will continue to improve over time. Their hallmark systems have been fine-tuned for decades, and have additional guardrails, like limiting the types of queries where these capabilities will appear.