SEO
Google Debuts New Search Technology, Including In-Video Search
Google is rolling out brand new search technology in India, one of the search company’s biggest markets, including bilingual search results and in-video search.
This week, Google held its eighth Google For India event, where it unveiled the following search features:
- Search in video
- Bilingual search results
- Bilingual voice search
- Natural language search in Google Pay
- Handwriting to text translation via Google Lens
These features may eventually make their way to North America, so it’s worth keeping them on your radar.
Here’s more information about the above-listed features, launching first in India.
Search In Video
Google is making it possible to search within YouTube videos.
As you’re watching a video on YouTube, tap on “Search in video” and enter the topic in the video you want to skip to.
Do you struggle with skipping to the good part of the video? 👀
▶ ──🔘── 19:19
We’re piloting the ability to search within videos on your phone’s Search app. Just type in your query using the ‘Search in video’ feature & find exactly what you’re looking for.#GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/G3KIhpO7ow— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022
In a blog post, Google states:
“Besides images, videos are also a rich source of visual information but it’s often hard to find something buried inside a long clip. For example, perhaps you’re watching a long video about Agra, and you’re curious if it also covers Fatehpur Sikri. With a new feature we’re piloting, you’re now able to search for anything that’s mentioned in a video, right from Search. Simply enter a search term using the ‘Search in video’ feature and quickly find what you’re looking for.”
Bilingual Search Results
Google is making search results in India bilingual, serving results in the user’s local languages alongside English results.
📣 Introducing an India-first 🇮🇳 innovation which makes Search results bilingual for people who prefer it that way.#GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/B4iCqeb6Zc
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022
Google states in a blog post:
“Language needs in India are becoming more dynamic, and multilingual, and we’re also seeing this reflected in people’s search experiences. Notably, the majority of Google users in India consume more than one language.
To make it easier for people who use more than one language to seek and explore information, we’re now making search results pages bilingual, for people who prefer it that way.”
This functionality is rolling out in Hindi and will expand to other Indian languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali, in the coming year.
Bilingual Voice Search
Google is improving speech recognition technology for Hinglish speakers, a hybrid of Hindi and English.
Searchers in India can conduct a voice search using Hindi and English in the same query, and Google will be able to understand what they’re looking for.
When you search “cheese kis cheez se banta hai”, Voice Search will better understand your Hinglish query – so you’ll always get gouda results 🫢#GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/f1vihmB9df
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022
Google states in a blog post:
“We want to help more people, and specifically Indians, ask questions naturally and intuitively with their voice. Today we’re announcing a new speech recognition model that can more effectively understand people who speak in Hinglish. We’re doing this through the use of a new, neural-network inspired speech recognition model that takes into account the individual’s accents, surrounding sounds, context, and speaking styles.”
Natural Language Search In Google Pay
Google is debuting a feature in India that allows users to conduct natural language searches in Google Pay.
Users can now query Google Pay using natural language questions like, “Show me how much I spent on coffee last week.”
🎙️🎙️🎙️
“Fuel expenses last month”
“Grocery spends last week”The new ‘Transaction Search’ feature on Google Pay, makes it possible to track our spends, and make month-ends smoother ✨ #GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/7kOHWA1hXB
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022
Handwriting To Text Translation
Google is working on a feature for Google Lens that translates doctors’ handwriting into legible text.
We’ve started working on the complex process of identifying what’s written on medical prescriptions by building an assistive model to digitise it, using AI, for medical healthcare professionals.#GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/XD8YwJ6HBr
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022
Google hasn’t committed to a launch date for this feature and notes that it’s intended for medical professionals.
However, the development of this technology could potentially lead to other use cases in the future.
Source: Google
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SEO
Google Declares It The “Gemini Era” As Revenue Grows 15%
Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, announced its first quarter 2024 financial results today.
While Google reported double-digit growth in key revenue areas, the focus was on its AI developments, dubbed the “Gemini era” by CEO Sundar Pichai.
The Numbers: 15% Revenue Growth, Operating Margins Expand
Alphabet reported Q1 revenues of $80.5 billion, a 15% increase year-over-year, exceeding Wall Street’s projections.
Net income was $23.7 billion, with diluted earnings per share of $1.89. Operating margins expanded to 32%, up from 25% in the prior year.
Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s President and CFO, stated:
“Our strong financial results reflect revenue strength across the company and ongoing efforts to durably reengineer our cost base.”
Google’s core advertising units, such as Search and YouTube, drove growth. Google advertising revenues hit $61.7 billion for the quarter.
The Cloud division also maintained momentum, with revenues of $9.6 billion, up 28% year-over-year.
Pichai highlighted that YouTube and Cloud are expected to exit 2024 at a combined $100 billion annual revenue run rate.
Generative AI Integration in Search
Google experimented with AI-powered features in Search Labs before recently introducing AI overviews into the main search results page.
Regarding the gradual rollout, Pichai states:
“We are being measured in how we do this, focusing on areas where gen AI can improve the Search experience, while also prioritizing traffic to websites and merchants.”
Pichai reports that Google’s generative AI features have answered over a billion queries already:
“We’ve already served billions of queries with our generative AI features. It’s enabling people to access new information, to ask questions in new ways, and to ask more complex questions.”
Google reports increased Search usage and user satisfaction among those interacting with the new AI overview results.
The company also highlighted its “Circle to Search” feature on Android, which allows users to circle objects on their screen or in videos to get instant AI-powered answers via Google Lens.
Reorganizing For The “Gemini Era”
As part of the AI roadmap, Alphabet is consolidating all teams building AI models under the Google DeepMind umbrella.
Pichai revealed that, through hardware and software improvements, the company has reduced machine costs associated with its generative AI search results by 80% over the past year.
He states:
“Our data centers are some of the most high-performing, secure, reliable and efficient in the world. We’ve developed new AI models and algorithms that are more than one hundred times more efficient than they were 18 months ago.
How Will Google Make Money With AI?
Alphabet sees opportunities to monetize AI through its advertising products, Cloud offerings, and subscription services.
Google is integrating Gemini into ad products like Performance Max. The company’s Cloud division is bringing “the best of Google AI” to enterprise customers worldwide.
Google One, the company’s subscription service, surpassed 100 million paid subscribers in Q1 and introduced a new premium plan featuring advanced generative AI capabilities powered by Gemini models.
Future Outlook
Pichai outlined six key advantages positioning Alphabet to lead the “next wave of AI innovation”:
- Research leadership in AI breakthroughs like the multimodal Gemini model
- Robust AI infrastructure and custom TPU chips
- Integrating generative AI into Search to enhance the user experience
- A global product footprint reaching billions
- Streamlined teams and improved execution velocity
- Multiple revenue streams to monetize AI through advertising and cloud
With upcoming events like Google I/O and Google Marketing Live, the company is expected to share further updates on its AI initiatives and product roadmap.
Featured Image: Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock
SEO
brightonSEO Live Blog
Hello everyone. It’s April again, so I’m back in Brighton for another two days of Being the introvert I am, my idea of fun isn’t hanging around our booth all day explaining we’ve run out of t-shirts (seriously, you need to be fast if you want swag!). So I decided to do something useful and live-blog the event instead.
Follow below for talk takeaways and (very) mildly humorous commentary. sun, sea, and SEO!
SEO
Google Further Postpones Third-Party Cookie Deprecation In Chrome
Google has again delayed its plan to phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome web browser. The latest postponement comes after ongoing challenges in reconciling feedback from industry stakeholders and regulators.
The announcement was made in Google and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) joint quarterly report on the Privacy Sandbox initiative, scheduled for release on April 26.
Chrome’s Third-Party Cookie Phaseout Pushed To 2025
Google states it “will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4” this year as planned.
Instead, the tech giant aims to begin deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome “starting early next year,” assuming an agreement can be reached with the CMA and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The statement reads:
“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem. It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence, including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June.”
Continued Engagement With Regulators
Google reiterated its commitment to “engaging closely with the CMA and ICO” throughout the process and hopes to conclude discussions this year.
This marks the third delay to Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies, initially aiming for a Q3 2023 phaseout before pushing it back to late 2024.
The postponements reflect the challenges in transitioning away from cross-site user tracking while balancing privacy and advertiser interests.
Transition Period & Impact
In January, Chrome began restricting third-party cookie access for 1% of users globally. This percentage was expected to gradually increase until 100% of users were covered by Q3 2024.
However, the latest delay gives websites and services more time to migrate away from third-party cookie dependencies through Google’s limited “deprecation trials” program.
The trials offer temporary cookie access extensions until December 27, 2024, for non-advertising use cases that can demonstrate direct user impact and functional breakage.
While easing the transition, the trials have strict eligibility rules. Advertising-related services are ineligible, and origins matching known ad-related domains are rejected.
Google states the program aims to address functional issues rather than relieve general data collection inconveniences.
Publisher & Advertiser Implications
The repeated delays highlight the potential disruption for digital publishers and advertisers relying on third-party cookie tracking.
Industry groups have raised concerns that restricting cross-site tracking could push websites toward more opaque privacy-invasive practices.
However, privacy advocates view the phaseout as crucial in preventing covert user profiling across the web.
With the latest postponement, all parties have more time to prepare for the eventual loss of third-party cookies and adopt Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox APIs as replacements.
Featured Image: Novikov Aleksey/Shutterstock
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