Google rolled out its search generative experience (SGE) in India in August, offering AI-generated answers and summaries to queries on its popular search engine. Generative AI searches promised to deliver more effective and engaging results and deeper overviews. Now, the tech giant is rolling out improvements to its AI search tool in India. Google is making the generative search experience in India more visual and localized for better results. The company announced the updates to its AI search in the country at its Google for India 2023 event held on Thursday.
In its blog about new product experiences announced at the event, Google said it is adding new capabilities to SGE in India that make the AI-generated information samples more useful and easier to understand. SGE, Google said, will now be richer and more visual, adding more images and videos to some of its overviews.
For example, if you search for something like, ‘what are the different ways to drape a sari?’ you can refer to a more visual and easy-to-follow AI-powered overview with images and videos of multiple types of curtains,” Google explains in the blog.
Generative AI searches are also becoming increasingly localized, providing users with location-specific answers. Users can explore what a city has to offer and discover what there is to do in the area through SGE, which will now include user reviews of places to provide better information.
In addition, Google also simplifies access to information about government regulations. In the coming weeks, SGE will help Indian users easily navigate and find important information on more than 100 government programs in healthcare, housing, employment, women’s welfare, agriculture and more. All this and everything else on SGE will be available in both Hindi and English.
Google is also expanding the capabilities of Google Lens, now allowing people to search for skin conditions that are visually similar to what they see on their skin. Users can take a photo of their skin condition through Google Lens and get visual correspondences for information about it.
The company also announced new Google Pay services for both merchants and consumers. Google’s popular digital payments app has partnered with ePayLater to enable a line of credit for merchants. It also brings sachet loans from as low as start as low as Rs. 15,000 in collaboration with DMI Finance. On the consumer side, Axis Bank is making its personal loans available on Google Pay, and more banks will follow suit. Users can now also avail bank credit lines on UPI for payments through Google Pay, similar to a UPI payment.
Google is also making improvements to the shopping experience on its site, making it easier to find products and expanding discovery for small businesses. “As of today, if you search for something like ‘Best phone under Rs. 15,000” on Google Search, you’ll now see a more visual feed of products to explore, with filters that help shoppers quickly and easily find the products they’re looking for,” Google said on its blog.
YouTube is also getting new updates. The site will roll out an immersive news watch page, which pulls content from credible sources. This feature will be available in 11 Indian languages from Q4 2023.
