Is This What Google Search May Be Launching At I/O?

For the past couple of weeks now, we’ve been hearing reports of how Google will change Google Search in the wake of AI and changes in searcher behavior. As many of you know, I cover a ton of Google Search user interface changes and I put together a collection of some of those changes we found that I think Google might announce at I/O as the future of Google Search.

A couple of weeks ago we covered the NY Times piece of Project Magi, an “all-new search engine” that Google is working on to bring in a personalized search engine with a lot of AI-power. Then over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal wrote about the new search engine coming from Google that is more “visual, snackable, personal, and human, with a focus on serving young people globally.” The article talks about short videos, which Google has had since 2020 but now Google might show a lot more of them. It also talks about adding Bard-like features directly to search and more.

So here are some new features that I think Google may be announcing at I/O related to this new search engine.

As I was writing this up on Sunday, Glenn Gabe posted and summed up some of those featured nicely in this tweet, but let me dig into them more:

Remember, Google has been testing, or has released, features & functionality that could be leveraged with this new move. E.g. Google Explore, Short Videos, Q&A, Perspectives, Featured Snippets from multiple sources, various types of carousels, & more. Eager for Wednesday. 🙂 https://t.co/SDovnAntmD

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 7, 2023

Bard (of sorts) Integrated Into Google Search

This is the only screenshot I mocked up myself to demonstrate how Google Bard, or something similar, can be integrated in place of featured snippets in the Google Search results. The rest of the images below are all tests we have seen from Google in the wild:

Visual Grid Formats

A couple of weeks ago, we spotted a more visual grid format for the search results. Here are some screenshots:

This was spotted by Brandon on Twitter who posted a video cast of this in action, here is a still screenshot from that video that you can click on to enlarge:

Here is another one from Valentin Pletzer on Twitter:

And one from Jen Cornwell on Twitter:

Google Explore

Google Explore has been in testing since June 2022 and since then, it has lost its title and has made its way into more areas like local explore areas. Google also did announce this feature later, but Google has been known to re-announce features at events.

Holy cannoli!

Have y’all ever seen this “Explore” section of the SERP?

After scrolling down far enough seeing a whole subtopical parsing under a new section of the SERP entitled “Explore” – wild!

What is this sorcery?!

cc: @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/CY0yr2rL8F

— Mordy Oberstein *winner of laser tag* (@MordyOberstein) June 13, 2022

Explore Within Snippets

Google just started testing explore within search snippets.

Perspectives

Since August 2022, Google has been testing perspectives, which it actually took live in March 2023. We also recently saw Google testing perspectives in the search menu.

Here is what that looks like: