AI chatbots allow users to quickly and easily access the information they need, so search engines including Google have integrated this technology into their platforms. Google's attempt - AI Overviews - initially faced some challenges. But now it has gained some useful new features that may turn the tide.
On Thursday, Google announced several updates aimed at improving the practicality of AI Overviews in the search experience. The best part is - users can now start experiencing these new features in the search lab.
The first update is a new "Save" feature that allows users to revisit specific AI Overviews in the future. Users simply need to click the save button below the AI Overview, and the same AI Overview will reappear the next time they enter the same search query.
Users can also access saved AI Overviews by clicking on the profile icon in the search and going to the "Interests" page. Google says this feature can be useful for search queries like "What interesting science projects can I do with my 12-year-old son?"
The second feature, which was previewed earlier this year, allows users to simplify the language of AI Overviews by clicking the "Simplify" button at the top of the AI Overview. This is useful when you want a more concise, colloquial answer explained in simple terms.
US users can access these two features by signing up for "AI Overviews and More" in the search lab, and these features are available for English queries. In addition to the search lab, Google Lab currently offers other useful experiments, including Imagen 3, NotebookLM, and Illuminate.
To help users find the content they are looking for more conveniently, Google is also testing a new right-side link display feature for AI Overviews on the desktop version, which connects users to websites more relevant to their search queries, as shown below.
Mobile users can also access this experience by clicking on the website icon in the top right corner of the screen. These updates for AI Overviews are rolling out globally starting today and are open to search lab users.
Finally, Google is expanding AI Overviews and country-specific language support to six new countries: the UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil.
Google first launched AI Overviews in May 2023 as a beta test, then known as Search Generation Experience. Since then, the company has iterated on the feature multiple times due to negative public feedback and product issues.
In May 2024, Google rolled out AI Overviews to all users. However, after users found the generated results to be inaccurate, the company retracted the feature, making it only appear in about 15% of Google queries or approximately 70% of search results pages.
These updates help bring more value to users; the only way to find out is to give them a try. However, if you prefer to try other AI search engines, you have plenty of choices.
