• Google has upgraded a number of Search tools like Google Lens, Circle to Search and Search results themselves through its generative AI.
• This includes a new way to search with video, search with voice commands, find songs through audio like Shazam and more.
• Most of the features are now live worldwide, the company has said in a blog post.

Despite how popular Google Search is on the internet, the company behind it want to make it easier to use than ever and has been working on ways so you can ask your question “in any way you want.”

Now deep into its generative AI arms race against OpenAI, Google is expanding its Google Lens features as well as its Search with upgrades thanks to its Gemini generative AI technology. Previously, Lens was a form of image search where you could take an image with your smartphone camera and use that to run a search on Google.

Now, Google says in a blog post, after updating Google Lens with its AI earlier this year, you can search with Google Lens by taking a video using technology the company is calling “Video Understanding.”

“Say you’re at the aquarium and want to learn more about some interesting fish at one of the exhibits. Open Lens in the Google app and hold down the shutter button to record while asking your question out loud, like, ‘Why are they swimming together?'” it gives an example.

“Our systems will make sense of the video and your question together to produce an AI Overview, along with helpful resources from across the web.”

You may have noticed that now voice questions are also enabled with Google Lens, with the blog post announcing the change is global across Google apps for Android and iOS though only for English language queries.

Those that use Google Lens to find new products to buy will be excited to learn that the Search Giant has applied its AI to this facet as well, significantly expanding the feature.

“Starting this week, you’ll now see a dramatically more helpful results page that shows key information about the product you’re looking for, including reviews, price info across retailers and where to buy.”

“For example, say you spot a backpack at the airport and want to buy one for yourself. Just take a photo and Lens will bring together our advanced AI models and Google’s Shopping Graph — which has information on more than 45 billion products — to identify the exact item.”

What the AI does here is produce better links between pieces of information. When previously Google Lens may have produced visually similar backpacks, now Gemini take account of branding and other little details to deliver more complete search results.

Finally, Google is taking a run at Shazam’s music search functions. It now says that its latest update to the Circle to Search function on Android can be used to search for a tune while you’re watching a video on YouTube or scrolling through social media.

Just activate Circle to Search by long-pressing the home button or through the navigation bar, then Circle to Search will identity the track and open results on Google for what it believes the piece of audio is. We’d love to test this feature out over time to see what kind of audio the AI can pick up and how accurate the results are.

Google is also updating the way search results are presented to users on mobile – in the US only – with full-page experiencing with more relevant results organised and presented front and centre based on the user themselves. The company is also testing verified checkmarks across Search results.

“In our testing, people have found AI-organized search results pages more helpful. And with AI-organized search results pages, we’re bringing people more diverse content formats and sites, creating even more opportunities for content to be discovered,” the company says.

It’s getting hot between the big AI firms, with user experience and quality of life top of mind in order to eke out a crumb of popularity over the other. Just how much more optimization can be squeezed out of existing products? That waits to be seen.