Google I/O 2024: AI Overviews in Search are rolling out to users this week

It's been teased and tested for over a year, but it's finally here: AI Overviews in Search.

SEE ALSO: Google I/O 2024: What to expect after OpenAI's GPT-4o reveal

The first major announcement of Google's I/O 2024 event, the tech giant started off with the reveal that its Search Generative Experience (SGE) labs feature will be rolling out to US users within the week. This new feature allows Google to provide AI-generated overviews or summaries directly in the search results, potentially offering more comprehensive answers to complex queries.

The aim is to improve the user's experience by leveraging AI to aggregate and synthesize information from various web sources, delivering it in an easily digestible format. In May 2023, Google introduced its AI-enhanced search feature, which it characterized as an "AI-powered snapshot of key information to consider, with links to dig deeper."

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However, the results were inconsistent when Mashable conducted tests on this feature on Google Labs. Reporter Cecily Mauran noted that this tool cluttered Google's results pages, overshadowed already useful features, and mentioned that unexpectedly encountering an AI-generated result could be somewhat disconcerting.

That doesn't mean that Google hasn't improved on SGE since then. The keynote has only started so you can watch live here.

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