There’s no denying the profound presence Google holds in our lives, especially when it comes to sourcing information. The simple act of ‘Googling’ has not only become a common part of our vocabulary, but a habitual part of our day-to-day routine. That being said, it seems that Google isn’t just content with being your personal search engine anymore – it has far grander plans in mind.
Following the recent Google’s I/O keynote, it’s clear that Google’s aspirations have evolved. Last year, we speculated that Google’s future was shaping up to be Google googling for you – essentially taking the initiative to search on your behalf using its advanced algorithms. However, this year’s keynote took that idea a step further, suggesting that Google wants to do everything for you, right from your trusty search box itself.
Indeed, up until now, Google has generally been reluctant to tinker with its iconic search bar, most likely due to its familiarity and widespread use. While the Google search bar’s primary function was to input and search data, the recent update seems to want to expand on its capabilities. The bar will now “dynamically” expand as you type longer queries. This means that as you feed in more words into the search, it will expand to accommodate longer strings of text, making your search process sleeker and more intuitive than before.
That’s not all, though. Another notable addition to the search bar’s new features includes “AI-powered suggestions,” that promises to extend beyond the regular autocomplete feature. Using artificial intelligence, these suggestions could guide you to fill in the search blanks in a way you didn’t initially intend – throwing open a world of new possibilities and information that you may not have discovered otherwise.
So what does this mean for us, the users? Well, Google’s new approach aims to take the search process several notches higher by making Google Search a proactive assistant rather than a mere search engine. If Google’s plans reach fruition, it could vastly reshape our online experience by offering us a more integrated, more engaging, and certainly more robust way to use the web.
Indeed, the humble Google search box we’re used to may be on its way to becoming a metaphorical Swiss army knife of web use, capable of a myriad of tasks beyond its conventional baliwick of searches. While the promises are exciting, we will have to wait and see how these updates pan out in practice, adjusting ourselves to a Google that doesn’t just search for us, but also thinks for us.
For more on this topic, you can read the full story at The Verge.
