Announced last May 10, 2023, people now get a better glimpse of Google’s Perspectives filter, a feature that, according to Google, helps you “find helpful information from people on forums and social media sites.”
However, this feature only went live for Google’s mobile search results. So, desktop users, unfortunately, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer for the Perspectives filter.
Here’s how you can toggle and try Perspectives on your mobile:
- Open your Google app and search for something.
- Slide your search bar filters until you see Perspectives.
- Click that option.
- Scroll through perspectives-filtered Search results.
Perspectives build on Google’s current efforts to “add more voices to the Search” and enhance their recently launched Helpful Content Ranking System. Just like how Helpful Content finds “hidden gems” for you, Perspectives sifts through the web for relevant opinions and helpful conversations from real people, including:
- Personal stories told through videos.
- Tips and insights from a community and forum thread.
- Displaying relevant images based on your query.
Perspectives also help users get more information and context from a news story by “surfacing a variety of noteworthy voices and sources” in Search’s Top Stories section.
Google’s Perspectives filter allows you to find better content on “unique expertise and experience.”
“A big part of what makes Search so helpful is its ability to connect you to the wisdom and experience of people all around the world,” said Google in its The Keyword article.
For example, you search for “how to make sure your house plants stay healthy.” The Perspectives filter can then show you an array of tips from people who have been gardening for years, as well as photos and videos to better understand your query.
Your results page becomes more dynamic with content that reflects “lived experiences,” said Liz Reid, Google’s VP of Search, when interviewed by Search Engine Land at Google I/O 2023. This means you won’t have to deal with generic, lifeless and robotic content anymore.
With Search Generative Experience, the Perspectives filter is poised to add value by delivering more relevant, tailored and helpful content to users. By creating a seamless results page where you can see videos, threads and blogs, Google wants you to find the information you need without jumping platforms and tabs.
For search engine optimization (SEO) pros, this is an opportunity and a challenge: there is more content to optimize and more competition to deal with. However, if you’re already producing helpful content on multiple platforms, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Are you ready to get up to speed with Perspectives?
Here’s the full read to Google’s preview of the Perspectives filter.
More SEO News You Can Use
Google Wants More Users To Try SGE After Quality Updates: In a recently released YouTube Shorts video, Google encourages users to sign up for their Search Labs program. For those not in the know, Search Labs houses many experimental features for Google Search. The most notable of them is, of course, the Search Generative Experience(SGE). In its Shorts video, Google demonstrates how its generative AI-powered Search works, such as its ability to answer follow-up questions and generate relevant content based on your query. With this, after rolling out quality updates on speed and more, Google hopes that more users will try out their version of New Bing. However, many SEO enthusiasts are still skeptical. In last week’s news, we covered a dismal opinion on Google Search. In Google’s tweet this time, some users air their skepticism and frustrations on SGE. One user said, “Can’t wait until SGE is in the Google Graveyard.” Another user claims that SGE “doesn’t belong in Search” because it “can bring back pure fiction.” Most people are still apprehensive about web traffic being harmed because of this new feature. Read more of this story in this post by Search Engine Journal.
Index Bloat Is a Myth – Google Search Expert: In the June 7 episode of Search Off The Record podcast, Google Search Advocate John Mueller fact-checked the “Index Bloat” theory, which claims that excessive indexing of pages negatively impacts your search rankings. The discussion revolved around webpage indexing and the challenges of index bloat theory, which happens when search crawlers index pages not suitable for search results, such as printer-friendly versions of pages and internal search results. However, Mueller said this is not true as far as Google is concerned. “I’m not aware of any concept of index bloat at Google. Our systems don’t artificially limit the number of pages indexed per site,” said Mueller. So, instead of worrying about the number of times your page is indexed, Mueller recommends you spend your time ensuring your pages are actually useful and helpful. Many SEO professionals still believe index bloat is true, though, which is why they implement general SEO practices like canonicalization and noindex tags. Learn more about index bloat and Google’s stance in this Search Engine Journal article.
Bug Update: Desktop Reporting Issue “Not a Priority”: We previously reported a bug in Search Console where mobile-friendly web pages are wrongly indexed by Google’s web crawler. Many users have pointed this out in a Twitter thread, to which John Mueller said they’d look into it. Turns out Google doesn’t see this bug as a priority at the moment. In another Twitter exchange, Mueller said, “It’s not like this is information that’s actionable now.” While many celebrated the culmination of the switchover from desktop-first indexing to mobile-first indexing, users were concerned that this bug would harm their mobile search ranking. After all, we all know how crucial mobile ranking is. Google has not released any updates or statements about this bug, but Mueller’s statement can be either comforting or worrying, depending on how you look at it. Read this Search Engine Roundtable article for more information.
Big Updates: Google Ads API v. 14 Is Here: Google’s Ads API has just released version 14, enhancing campaign management and performance with focused updates. In Google’s release video, Mattia Tommasone listed the biggest features advertisers should look out for. Among these, users will find improvements to facilitate the transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. Account-level negative keywords are now available, allowing the removal of specific keywords from an entire account. There are also new recommendation types, such as DynamicImageExtensionOptInRecommendation, LowerTargetRoasRecommendation and RaiseTargetCpaRecommendation, which means more ways to optimize campaigns. Finally, offline conversion client summaries are now included, providing crucial offline conversion process insights, while the GenerateForecastKeywordMetrics supports keyword forecast metrics without requiring a keyword plan. If you’re a developer, you can view the full release notes here. You can also check out this Search Engine Land post to learn more about the update.
Amazon Tests Generative AI for Product Review Summaries: Amazon is rolling out a new feature in its Shopping app that could be a game-changer for consumers and sellers everywhere. The feature, which generates product review summaries using artificial intelligence, could help shoppers make informed decisions by condensing hundreds or thousands of reviews into a concise, easily accessible format. This isn’t the only area where Amazon is exploring the potential of AI. We’ve previously reported that the eCommerce giant is also working on building cutting-edge tools to help advertisers generate videos and images while integrating generative AI into its search experience. Going back, in this AI-generated summary, both positive and negative customer feedback is listed, providing a well-rounded perspective. While Amazon has not revealed any details on how these summaries are generated, it’s clear that Amazon sees generative AI as part of its future, significantly investing in its integration into its several business aspects. Here’s a Search Engine Land post for more of this story.
Editor’s Note: “SEO News You Can Use” is a weekly blog post posted every Monday morning only on SEOblog.com, rounding up all the top SEO news from around the world. Our goal is to make SEOblog.com a one-stop-shop for everyone looking for SEO news, education and for hiring an SEO expert with our comprehensive SEO agency directory.
