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Don’t be surprised if your Google search experience looks different sometime soon. Internal documents say the company plans to make its search engine more « visual, snackable, personal, and human, » with an eye on young people worldwide, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
The makeover will involve adding AI features like chat, along with more social-media posts and short video, said the Journal, which also cited people familiar with the matter. In response to search queries, users may be urged more often to ask follow-up questions or to swipe through visuals like TikTok videos, the Journal said.
Google’s search page is one of the world’s most widely used web pages, fielding billions of queries every day. A change in design would send significant ripples through the tech industry and our larger culture and would bring AI to the masses in a way we’ve not yet seen.
News of the makeover comes as Google faces new competition from TikTok. More and more young people are using the popular short-video app to search for information on restaurants and other topics. Last September, Google started spotlighting short-form video in search. The Journal now says such content will get bigger play.
It also says that though Google has already moved to feature some online forum posts in search results, similar content will be featured more prominently. Google « plans to incorporate more human voices as part of the shift, supporting content creators in the same way it has historically done with websites, » the Journal reported.
