Google quietly testing its AI search results among general users

More Google users might be getting an unprompted taste of Google's AI-assisted Search capabilities, with the company quietly expanding its Search Generative Experience (SGE) to non-test users.

SGE appears as a colorfully-hued text pop-up directly under Google's Search bar, currently denoted by a generative AI warning at the top. The SGE results are queued up by the content of the question itself, not the user's request, offering what is essentially a summary of Google's results as well as simplified answers. In a basic sense, it turns the Google Search bar into a prompt form for a Google-trawling chatbot.

Months after its announcement, versions of the feature will be appearing for select Googlers without the need for a user's opt-in, and will only pop-up for a "subset of queries, on a small percentage of search traffic in the US," according to Search Engine Land.

It's a test for what Google's future could hold.

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The company told Search Engine Landthat the AI-assisted results are testing the AI's responses to "more complex" queries or "questions where it may be helpful to get information from a range of web pages." Examples provided include "How do I get marks off painted walls?"

The company's been on a Search revamp over the last year, including other AI-powered offerings, new Chrome features, and a pledge to remove "low quality" spam content from results pages.

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Google announced its foray into AI-powered Search in May 2023, describing it as an "AI-powered snapshot of key information to consider, with links to dig deeper." Mashable tests of the then Google Labs-only feature showed mixed results, with reporter Cecily Mauran writing that the tool complicates Google's results pages, competes with existing helpful features, and that "the experience of getting an AI result in this way is a little off-putting when you aren't expecting it."

As the tech giant explained, new tests specifically want to get that feedback directly from searchers who have not opted into SGE, a crowdsourcing effort determined to see if less AI-enthused users actually find the technology helpful.