In addition to working to integrate more AI features into Google Search, Google also announced today that it will introduce a new “Perspectives” filter that will appear at the top of some of its search results when the results “would benefit from the experiences of others”, says Google — such as posts on discussion forums, Q&A sites, and social media platforms, including those with video.
That means, among other things, it’s easier to access things like Reddit links and YouTube or TikTok videos in search results, without having to add the name of the platform to your search.
The company had previously announced that a Perspectives feature would launch under Top Stories in the US in English on desktop and mobile. Now it is available for use in general search results where relevant.
Additionally, Google says that when people use the Perspectives filter, they’ll see more details about the content creators, including their name, profile picture, and information about the popularity of their content.
These personal stories, discussions, and creator content will also be available through a special “Perspectives” section that will appear on some search results pages. A “see more” link will be available here, which will take users to a full page of content that matches their results from these user-generated sources.
Related to this, Google says it’s developing an improved system for understanding and ranking personal content that’s written from an expert’s point of view — a sort of admission that Google’s original system for ranking web pages is becoming less and less relevant. in an era where so much information is being published by individuals on social platforms and other places beyond the traditional website.
Google even alluded to this last year, when an executive speaking at the conference noted that Instagram and TikTok were eating into Gogole’s market share, as younger people now often start some of their searches directly on those platforms, not Google Search . In other words, Google had little choice but to adapt to this new paradigm of how people want to find information if it wants to maintain its relevance in years to come.
The company also says it’s making improvements to how it ranks “review content” on Search by giving more weight to higher-quality sites that contain original information. That could also become increasingly necessary in the age of AI, where perhaps too much content is not original, but AI-created – and a search engine that knows the difference can be very helpful.
