How to experiment with the new Google search engine with artificial intelligence
How to experiment with the new Google search engine with artificial intelligence
The American technology giant, Google, revealed at its annual developer conference, Google I / O 2023, a lot of interesting things that focus mainly on artificial intelligence, along with a few updates to the Android system and its electronic devices. After a presentation that lasted for two hours and about half of this time was only devoted to revealing the integration of AI technologies into all the company's basic services, it seemed to everyone that Google takes competition with Microsoft - with the help of OpenAI—seriously, without pity or mercy!
Certainly, the Google search engine had a share of these new updates, as the company announced the integration of generative artificial intelligence into its search engine to provide a completely new experience of searching on the Internet, Although it appears to be just a response to what Microsoft did last February with the Bing search engine, Google confirmed that the new update reimagines what the search engine can do and does not just add a chat bot with results. In any case, this is the biggest change that the Google search engine has witnessed since its launch, and it is important given the share it commands compared to Bing in the search engine market, If you are excited, you can register on the waiting list to ensure that you try the new version of the Google search engine as soon as possible. maybe.
What's new in the Google search engine?
Initially, let me tell you that the main Google search engine page has not had any noticeable changes. Rather, the difference that Google announced appears only on the results page. Simply put, what's new is that the traditional search bar has become similar to the function of the prompt bar in chat bots such as ChatGPT or Bing Chat, so that the search word or phrase you type no longer passes only on the index of web pages to display traditional search results with blue links, but also passes on an artificial intelligence model that can generate an immediate answer for the user to the query he is looking for.
We've already gotten early experience of the benefits of generative intelligence in Google's search engine, or as the company calls it, "Search Generative Experience," or SGE, although so far these features only work when searching in English. In fact, the experience was not different from what we saw in the company's presentation during the developer conference. After conducting a search on "Windows 11 Update", we noticed that a new section appeared before the traditional results, displaying a comprehensive summary of the topic we were looking for, based on the generative artificial intelligence model, which accurately aggregates information from several sources and suggests links to delve deeper into the topic.
This summary appears moments after conducting the search and is displayed within a special template characterized by a color theme that differs according to the research topic. It is also possible to evaluate the answer or summary and move to the next suggested searches based on the details of the topic, In addition to the presence of the "Ask a follow up" button, after pressing it, the search engine takes you to a simulated experience of chatting with artificial intelligence, where you can ask follow-up questions based on your first question to go deeper For example, you can ask Google to delve deeper into the topic you are searching for or request a simplification of the summary so that it is easier to understand, and so on, without leaving the search results page.
The online shopping process is one of the examples presented by Google to show the importance of generative artificial intelligence within the search engine, as the new experience will make the most complex purchase decisions faster and easier. When searching for a product, the AI displays at a glance factors of note and products that match the exact amount to buy, along with product descriptions that include relevant and recent reviews, ratings, prices, and product images. The bot derives this information from another AI model the company has developed called the Shopping Graph which contains more than 35 billion product listings, making it the world's most comprehensive data set of products, sellers, brands and reviews.
It is worth noting, and as we have noticed, not all searches lead to displaying a quick summary of artificial intelligence. There are operations that display the summary automatically after pressing the Google Search or Enter button, and there are other operations that require your intervention by pressing the "Generate" button to generate a summary about the topic you are looking for. Clearly, the quick summary only appears when Google's algorithms think it will be more useful than traditional results.
So far, the new search experience in Google appears similar to the search experience in the Bing engine, which is also supported by generative artificial intelligence, and displays a conversation window within the search results to ask for more information about the topic that the user is searching for. But as Google points out in a blog post, this is just the first step in reshaping how billions of people find information online using its search engine. It's also testing other changes to improve the way search results are organized in order to drive more views to creators.
Among the other advantages of artificial intelligence in the Google search engine is the "Code Tips" feature, which gives the user or developers specifically, direct answers to questions related to programming, taking advantage of the PaLM 2 model, which has special capabilities aimed at helping programmers detect errors. Programming, troubleshooting, and cause explanations in over 20 programming languages, including Javascript, Python, and more. So it can be considered an alternative to programmers' beloved Stack Overflow! All you have to do now is type the programming question into the Google search engine, and if an answer is available from artificial intelligence, it will appear within a distinct template with a brief and simplified explanation of the query.
Finally, one of the differences we also noticed is that the new Add to Sheets button appears when you hover your mouse pointer over any search result, along with the Share and Save as Bookmark button, by pressing which you can embed that search result into a spreadsheet already in your Google Sheets library or create a new spreadsheet and save it. Google is testing this feature to make it easier for users to plan when implementing a project or planning their next trip. Search results can be added directly to Google Sheets, without the need for copying and pasting.
In general, the new search experience includes significant changes in the way we use the Google search engine, and many improvements will occur over time, but so far it is still under testing. But recently, Google officially announced the launch of an initial beta version for the public, where those interested in experiencing the benefits of generative intelligence in the Google search engine can register on the waiting list and reserve their place for early access to the new search experience.
How to try the new version of the Google search engine
Search Labs is a place that collects early experiences in the Google search engine, where users can register in order to test the latest features that the company is working on to develop the search experience. However, registration currently requires some conditions, such as the need to use the Google Chrome browser on the computer or the Google application on the phone, bearing in mind that the registration door is only available to users in the United States and in the English language, and therefore you may need to use a VPN application such as ExpressVPN to connect to the Internet through existing servers in the United States to overcome geographic domain restrictions.
To start registration from the computer, go to the Search Labs website via the g.co/labs link through the Google Chrome browser, and at the bottom of the Google Search section, press the "Join waitlist" button to go to another page where you log in with a Google account. Then you will be taken to a page where you can actually join the waitlist simply by pressing again on "Join waitlist".
Once you've completed the steps, all you have to do is wait until you receive an "It's your turn to try Search Labs" email on the Gmail email address associated with the account confirming your invitation to try out Google's AI beta. In our experience, it took about a day after logging in to the waiting list until I got this message, which by the way includes a brief explanation of how to access and use these new features now, You just have to press the "Go to Labs" button to return to the labs page again.
On the Search Labs page, click on the Get Started button, and then you will be able to select the new features that you want to test while searching on Google. You can activate the SGE feature to generate a quick summary of the topics and questions you are looking for, with the help of artificial intelligence, or activate the Code Tips feature that we talked about, which is very important for programmers or developers, and the Add to Sheets feature to save search results in a spreadsheet. Only these features are currently available, but Google is expected to add other features and will be among the first to experiment with them as well.
If you're using the Google search app on your iPhone or Android phone, you can sign up for the new search experience by tapping the Labs icon in the upper-left corner of the screen, then confirming your joining by clicking on "Join waitlist" at the bottom. Later, when you get the confirmation message to join, you can try the new Google search engine, which will not differ much from its experience in the Google Chrome browser on the computer, As shown in the image below, a quick summary is displayed before the traditional search results after activating the SGE feature.
This is all there is to trying the advantages of generative intelligence in the Google search engine now, You can also review our previous topic to learn how to try artificial intelligence tools in Gmail and Docs that will enable you to get your work or routine tasks done faster and save time and effort.
