Articles about Google search

With interests in both web searching and AI, that Google has blended the two should surprise no one. With the launch of Web Guide, the company is taking things a step further.

At the moment, the new Web Guide is both optional and experimental. This is not necessarily a vision of what Google has in store for its search engine, but it very likely is. This time around, Google is turning to artificial intelligence to change the way in which search results are displayed.

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Google is making a huge change to the most famous and widely used search engine in the world. And it is the global nature of Google search, and the internet in general, which is at the heart of the change.

For a very long time, Google has used different URLs for its search engine in different countries -- google.co.uk in the UK, google.es in Spain, for instance. But no more. The company has announced that different country code top-level domain names (ccTLD) are no longer needed and will not be used.

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OpenAI has unleashed Deep Research in ChatGPT, a new AI-powered tool that can handle complex online research tasks faster than a human ever could. Available today for Pro users, with Plus and Team access coming soon, this feature is designed to synthesize information from hundreds of online sources, analyze data, and generate detailed reports. OpenAI says it can complete hours of research in just minutes -- but should we really be celebrating this?

This latest AI capability is powered by an optimized version of OpenAI’s upcoming o3 model, fine-tuned for web browsing and deep data analysis. Unlike a simple search engine, it doesn’t just find information -- it thinks about it, pivots when necessary, and compiles its findings into structured reports. That means it isn’t just doing research -- it’s acting like a research analyst. And if AI can do that, what happens to the actual researchers?

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Google has announced that AVIF, a rapidly growing image format, is now officially supported in Google Search, including Google Images and other areas where images are utilized. This means that AVIF files can now be indexed by Google without requiring any special configuration from webmasters.

AVIF, an open image file format derived from the AV1 video compression standard, has gained traction due to its efficient compression and high-quality output. Its compatibility spans across all major web browsers and is supported by various platforms, including WordPress, Joomla, and CloudFlare.

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It's not often that Google makes a change to its search engine that proves almost universally popular, but with the introduction of a new Web filter, the company seems to have achieved just that.

Eliciting reactions such as "Holy shit are they making the search engine useful again", the Web filter joins existing filters such as Videos, Images and Shopping that are already found at the top of search results. Rolling out right now, the only complaint so far appears to be that there is (currently) no way to set this as the default view.

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I enjoyed playing both of The Last of Us games on PlayStation over lockdown, and I’m really enjoying the HBO Max series, the second episode of which aired on Sunday night and did something amazing -- improved on the stunning pilot episode.

Even if you haven’t played the game or watched the show, you’ll probably be aware of it, thanks to the advertising blitz that’s going on at the moment. The HBO series is everywhere, and now it’s infecting Google Search too.

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Google's search engine may be the go-to tool for millions of daily users looking to track down information online, but there has long been room for improvement. As anyone who has conducted a search that returned a huge number of results will know, clicking through page after page of suggestions can be time consuming.

Now Google has come up with a solution. Having delivered continuous scrolling to mobile users last year, the company has now brought the time-saving feature to the desktop. While not quite endless / infinite scrolling, you can now whizz through more results without the need to manually move to the next page.

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In the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade earlier in the year which made it much more difficult for many people to access abortions in the US, numerous tech company leapt to offer help and support to their customers and employees. Having already introduced a feature that automatically deletes abortion clinic visits from location history, Google is now taking things a step further.

In both Google Search and Google Maps in the US, the company is adding labels that make it clear that particular medical facilities provide abortion services.

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Google and privacy are not really happy bedfellows, but from time to time the company does make a nod in that direction. One example of this is the option to delete the last 15 minutes of your search history which iOS users have enjoyed access to since the middle of last year.

The feature is a handy way to cover your tracks should you forget to enable incognito mode and don't fancy the idea of trawling through your search history to manually remove anything you'd rather keep private. Now, some nine months after treating iOS users to this, Google has finally brought it to users of its own mobile operating system.

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Google has announced a significant upgrade to it search engine that means you will now be better informed about the reasons particular results are displayed to you.

Much of the time it is apparent why a certain page has been included in results, but this is not always the case. It is with this in mind that Google is updating the About This Result panel in search results to be more informative.

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