• Researchers found brands linked to Gmail activity appeared far more often in Google AI Mode results
• The effect was strongest for shopping searches like clothing, coffee machines and running shoes
• AI-powered search could reinforce existing habits instead of helping users discover new things

We all know that AI is often so eager to help that it can feel like it's simply reflecting whatever you think back at you in a way that feels sycophantic and artificial. We’ve written quite a few articles about how to stop chatbots like Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini from doing this, usually using some variation of the “be brutally honest” or “invert” prompt.

Now it turns out that AI’s tendency to keep you inside an echo chamber may extend beyond chatting with a bot. Researchers claim that if you’ve got Google’s Personal Intelligence switched on, AI Mode could start feeding more brands from your Gmail activity back into your search results.

Gmail has the biggest influence on AI Mode

Researchers at iPullRank tested nearly 2,000 Google AI Mode responses and found that brands connected to a user’s Personal Intelligence data appeared dramatically more often in results. In accounts linked to services like Gmail, certain brands showed up in AI answers almost three times as frequently and were far more likely to appear in the top recommendations.

Gmail appeared to have the biggest influence. Brands connected through email activity were cited far more often than brands linked through other Google services like Photos. The effect was especially noticeable for everyday shopping categories such as hoodies, coffee machines and running shoes, suggesting Google’s AI recommendations may become easier to shape based on a user’s personal data and habits.

As we reported recently, Google Search is increasingly turning into AI search, whether you like it or not, but if the new research from iPullRank is accurate then Google’s new AI-powered search risks becoming a giant confirmation-bias machine, feeding users more of the brands and products they already know instead of helping them discover new ones.

Turning Personal Intelligence off

Personally, I can see the benefits of Google wanting to become an answer engine rather than just a search engine. A lot of the time when I’m using search, I’m simply looking for a fast answer to a question, so this change can genuinely save me time. But the danger of personalization replacing exploration is that we lose some of the magic of Google Search leading us toward unexpected websites, products or ideas that turn out to be genuinely useful.

Before we raid Google towers carrying pitchforks and torches, it’s worth remembering that Personal Intelligence is an opt-in feature designed to make AI feel more useful and personalized to you. If you’re worried about it reducing the chance of serendipity in your search results, you can turn it off.

Personal Intelligence is off by default, but if you’ve enabled it and now want to disable it, open Gemini’s Settings (the gear icon at the bottom left), select Personal Intelligence, then click Connected Apps and toggle the services you want Gemini to access, such as Gmail.

It’s also important to note that this testing was carried out by external researchers, rather than Google publicly confirming exactly how AI Mode rankings and recommendations are generated.

Still, the findings raise an interesting question about the future of AI-powered search. If search engines become increasingly personalized around our habits, purchases, conversations and preferences, are they actually helping us explore the web, or just building increasingly convincing digital mirrors that reflect our existing tastes right back at us?

If you’re an APAC resident and you’ve found Google services intermittently glitchy all afternoon, it isn’t just you — thousands of users have flocked to outage-tracking sites like Downdetector and IsDown.app to report problems with the search giant, starting around 5:30am BST / 12:30am EDT / 2:30pm AEST on May 12.

Downdetector received as many as 6,625 reports from Australia, specifically relating to search, content not loading and the Google.com website. IsDown also received reports from India, the Philippines, New Zealand and Malaysia. There were also a handful of reports from the US and UK, though it’s unclear if this was due to the time difference (being after midnight in the US and and early morning in the UK) and the smaller number of online denizens that entails.

I’ve personally experienced the same issues all afternoon, alongside the rest of the TechRadar Australia team and other local colleagues, with searches on Google displaying an error message that reads:

Google has yet to confirm the outage in its Workspace Status Dashboard as of 8:00am BST / 3:00am EDT / 5:00pm AEST, which still says “No Incidents”. We’ve contacted Google Australia and New Zealand for comment, but had not yet received a response as of 5:45PM AEST.

This is a developing story.

• Ask Jeeves has closed after almost 30 years
• It pioneered natural language web searches
• Today, ChatGPT and Gemini work in similar ways

With AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini available, it's now easy to run web searches like "what are the best sights in Rome?" or "how do you fix a leaky shower?", but this natural language format was actually pioneered almost 30 years ago — and by a search portal that just closed down.

The portal was Ask Jeeves, later rebranded to Ask.com, and it opened fully to the public on June 1, 1997. As XDA Developers reports, what remained of Ask.com has now been shuttered by its current owner, InterActiveCorp (IAC).

If you were online just as the internet was taking off, you'll remember Ask Jeeves and its eponymous butler character — named after the valet Jeeves in the PG Wodehouse stories. The idea was to ask questions and get answers from the growing amount of information on the web, not just look for topics like "sports" or "movies".

At the time that Ask Jeeves launched, Google was still a prototype university project, and it offered something genuinely different to the search engines and web directories of the time (including Yahoo, AltaVista, and Lycos).

'Deeply grateful'

Google of course entirely changed the web search landscape, and after its initial success, Ask Jeeves struggled. It was renamed Ask.com in February 2006 as Jeeves was removed from the search portal, although the butler character did reappear on the UK version of the site between 2009 and 2016.

IAC took over operations in 2005, and has now made the decision to close the search engine down to "sharpen its focus" on other areas. The official end date for Ask Jeeves and Ask.com was May 1, 2026.

"We are deeply grateful to the brilliant engineers, designers, and teams who built and supported Ask over the decades," says IAC. "And to you — the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world — thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust. Jeeves' spirit endures."

It's interesting that as Google and other AI-led companies try and make web search like a natural conversation again, the site that first pioneered the approach is closing. Ask Jeeves really was ahead of its time, back in 1997.

• Google Search Live is now available globally in 200 countries and 98 languages
• Search Live uses the new Gemini 3.1 Flash Live audio and voice model to enable a “more natural” conversational search
• Audio responses have links to the information source

Google has rolled out its AI-powered conversational search tool, Search Live, globally to more than 200 countries and territories, and is available in 98 languages. First launched in the US in September 2025, Search Live lets you point your phone or tablet’s camera at something and ask the AI tool about it out loud, such as what model washing machine you have and how to use it.

The AI then responds with an audio answer that’s also, handily, captioned, and will continue listening for any clarifications and follow-up questions to emulate a natural conversation.

You can access Search Live through the Google app on Android or iOS by tapping the “Live” button under the search bar, placed between the AI Mode and Nano Banana buttons. It can also be accessed through Google Lens and the dedicated Gemini app.

Google has said the expansion has been made possible thanks to the launch of a new audio and voice model called Gemini 3.1 Flash Live, which it says is “inherently multilingual”. The company also claims the model also responds to queries faster, and aims to deliver “more natural and intuitive conversations”.

Analysis: Good but not perfect

Search Live uses query fan-out — an information retrieval technique that broadens the search by looking at related answers beyond a specific question — to provide a more comprehensive response and double down on the conversational aspect.

We tried Search Live in June last year, and noted how the tool continues to work in the background to use query fan-out, and my colleague Eric Hal Schwartz said the answers “didn’t feel boxed into a single form of response, even on relatively straightforward queries”.

I took it for a spin myself, testing it on my bike. While Search Live was good at identifying the specific model, year of release and why it had a specific paint job, it failed to recognize that I had swapped out the stock wheelset for a third-party set and thought that it still had the integrated handlebars that it originally came with. It also failed to correctly identify the accessories on the bike, like my rear light, water bottle and the bottle cages.

In a similar test, it failed to identify the Nothing Phone 4a Pro that was on my desk, calling it the Nothing Phone 2a instead. I compared the results with the same question on Gemini Live, and I received identical answers.

It’s understandable why some of the results were incorrect as the AI assistant was drawing from existing sources online and new products won’t necessarily have information for the model to learn from but, as it stands, it can handle a fair few general queries.

According to Google, over 1.5 billion people were using Google Lens to identify objects around them as of June 2025 and there are about 750 million Gemini Live users, so it would be interesting to see what the uptake of Search Live will be globally and if this becomes the default way to search for information online.

Search engines are a core component of the modern web, serving up the entirety of recorded human knowledge at the click of a button.

Naturally, Google is synonymous with this aspect of the web, but it hasn’t always been that way - as long before it even emerged on the scene, Archie paved the way for early web users and search engines alike.

Archie officially launched on September 10, 1990, and was born out of an ambitious project by Alan Emtage, a postgraduate student at Montreal’s McGill University.

In a 2017 interview with Digital Archaeology, Emtage said the inspiration behind the fledgling search engine came as a result of his role sourcing software for students to use as part of their studies.

“I ended up in System Administration for the School of Computer Science, being the person responsible for finding free software for that school, for those staff and the students,” he told the publication.

“You know, necessity is the mother of invention, and really, there was no great vision behind the first Internet search engine. It was done because I needed something to perform that function for me, to do the kind of work that I was doing.”

Early development of the search engine saw Emtage collaborate closely with colleagues Bill Heelan, and Peter Deutsch on the project. Emtage wrote the early code, while the latter two helped pull together the scripts that allowed users to log into the search engine.

How did Archie work?

You might expect the basic functionality that made Archie tick would resemble that of a modern search engine, but that wasn’t exactly the case.

Those using the search engine were met with a limited number of search options through a text-based landing page.

As Emtage told Digital Archaeology, development of the search engine may ring a few bells.

“You have a crawling phase, a retrieval phase where you pull the information in, and an indexing phase, where you build the data structures that allow the search, and then you have the ability to search,” he said.

The finished product allowed university students and faculty to search for information or resources, albeit in a limited fashion.

There is also a key caveat here thiough - Archie came before the ‘web’ as we know it was operating, and Emtage noted the arrival of the web added “another layer before the retrieval”, known as “discovery”.

“In the internet anonymous FTP archives, we didn’t have that phase. There was no way to discover new resources, so resources had to be manually discovered.”

Archie paved the way for life on the web

Archie might’ve been the first, but it certainly wasn’t the last. The 1990s saw a flurry of activity on this front, with more sophisticated search engines such as Jughead and Veronica bursting onto the scene.

1995 saw the arrival of Yahoo, while in 1998 Google was launched. From there on it was an upward trajectory for the new kid on the block, with the company capitalizing on previous learnings and fine-tuning search capabilities for users.

“People forget that there were a lot of search engines between Archie and Google,” Emtage told Digital Archeology.

“Everybody thinks of Google as being the search engine, but Google’s genius was to harness human knowledge and use that to provide more relevant results

A key factor in this success was Google’s use of the PageRank algorithm. This is used to rank results based on the volume of hyperlinks back to a particular webpage.

As Emtage noted, Google “harnessed human decision-making” to their advantage, placing it top of the pecking order - as it currently commands an 89.83% share of the global search engine market - and hopefully, it will also remember the debt it owes to the likes of Archie.

• Looking for an alternative to Google? Here's our review of DuckDuckGo

• Google has a new way to let you customize your search results
• The new 'preferred source' option in Top Stories is now live in the US
• Here's how to set TechRadar as one of your favorite sources

1. Search for tech news on Google

Search for a tech product or topic that's been in the news lately – this should give you a 'Top stories' box at the top of your results.

Google's new 'Preferred Sources' logo (a little star in a box) will appear to the right of the Top Stories banner, as you can see in the image above. Click or tap on this icon and you'll be taken to the Preferred Sources screen.

2. Find TechRadar and your other favorite sites

Search for 'TechRadar' and your other favorite sites in this search box, then check the box next to its name to add the site to your list of Preferred Sources.

3. Refresh the results

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Google is very keen on its AI Overview feature, rolling it out across the world and spending a lot of effort to minimize embarrassing moments like supposedly telling people to eat rocks. But apparently, those improvements don't always include things like the current year.

A viral Reddit post this week showed an AI Overview declaring it is still 2024 to question “Is it 2025?” Google soon claimed to have fixed the issue, according to an Android Authority report, but I found that to be only sometimes true.

Most of the time, the AI Overview provides accurate answers. It actually appears to be a manual fix because it's phrased as "Yes, according to the provided information, the current year is 2025," even though I had not provided any information. Around a tenth of the time, though, I get "No, it is not 2025. The current year is 2024."

That's odd enough, of course, but that's nothing compared to when I apparently caused a time paradox and the AI Overview said, "No, it is not 2025. The current year is 2025. According to a calendar, we are in the year 2025."

Overlooked AI Overview

Firstly, it's not 2025; it's 2025 is a good reminder that generative AI is often just a fancy autocomplete tool that doesn't have to make sense for the algorithm to function. Also, "a calendar" suggests that others disagree for some reason.

It's hardly a catastrophic bug, but it does bring back memories of AI Overview's other awkward moments. Most famously, the AI Overview briefly told people to “eat one small rock per day” for digestion and “put glue on pizza to make the cheese stick better.” When a product bills itself as an amalgamation of reliable sources but can’t reliably tell what year it is, it makes you wonder how much else it’s getting wrong.

Google calls these kinds of results edge cases. And most of the time, AI Overview gives you something sensible. It’s usually correct. It’s just that the times it’s not are sometimes so bizarre you might forget about how good its record is.

AI search is very much on the rise at Google. Search is also a central preoccupation for many AI developers, such as Perplexity and OpenAI. But since AI doesn’t quite understand the difference between fact and fiction, you'd do well to clarify and confirm whatever it tells you.

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• The FTC says a remedy should be "pry open" previously closed markets to competition
• Google must "share targeted portions of its search index" and more
• It might still have to sell off Chrome and end exclusivity deals

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has spoken out in favor of the Department of Justice's (DOJ) proposal for Google to share search data with competitors, stating that the resolution would include sufficient privacy safeguards.

The proposal aims to break Google's illegal monopoly in online search, per an August 2024 federal judge ruling. The company accounts for nine in 10 of all searches globally as of April 2025, according to Statcounter data.

In order to comply with DOJ proposals, Google must "share targeted portions of its search index, user, and ads data with certain competitors for a limited period of time with suitable security and privacy safeguards."

FTC agrees with DOJ proposal to tackle Google search market dominance

The Commission explained in a brief that any remedy, including in the case of Google, should "effectively pry open to competition a market that has been closed by defendants’ illegal restraints."

The brief concludes that the DOJ's Revised Proposed Final Judgement is "well designed to protect user privacy as it seeks to "pry open' long-monopolized markets."

It's hoped that, by increasing competition, Google will be forced to enhance its privacy practices, marking an overall win for American citizens.

The proposal also includes appointing a compliance committee, but the DOJ is still urging the court to force Google to divest its Chrome browser and to stop paying Apple and others to set Google as the default search engine for millions globally.

Katherine White, Deputy Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, commented: "The privacy safeguards proposed by DOJ are in line with the measures the FTC has required numerous companies to take to address privacy and data security failures."

Google said in an X post: "The remedies trial in the DOJ search case ended today. Over three weeks we saw how the DOJ’s proposed remedies go miles beyond the Court’s decision and would harm consumers, businesses and America’s tech leadership."

The company also published a blog post in response to the DOJ's proposals, including statements from Apple SVP of Services Eddy Cue, Mozilla CFO Eric Muhlheim and Microsoft.

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There’s no denying that Google has been a core part of the internet for decades (for better or for worse), but it’s also fair to say its search product is hardly at the peak of its powers anymore.

Clunky AI overviews that are often incorrect, too many sponsored results, and giving low-quality sites more of the limelight has left many scrambling for an alternative. Where it often felt like one would never come, now Perplexity AI offers a genuine rival.

Naturally, an AI search engine comes with the usual caveats: it’ll get some things wrong, but with the state of Google at the moment, there’s perhaps never been a better way to try something new.

With that in mind, here’s why Perplexity AI might be your next search engine of choice, and how to change it.

Why Perplexity AI could be your next search engine

The big draw of Perplexity AI as a search engine is that it’s not just a search engine. Let me explain — Google has piled more and more on top of its existing search product, and while some of it has undoubtedly been useful, it’s started to feel as though the whole thing is creaking.

In many ways, Perplexity AI’s search function is just a bonus to a very good LLM that’s pretty great at research.

You can Google when, say, the iPhone 17 is launching, but that’s it. After that, you start a fresh query, and the process begins again, whereas Perplexity lets you ask a follow-up question like “How many models will there be?” or “How many days is that?”.

It’s also great at doing, well, LLM things. Ask it for a summary of the news today, and it’ll condense it for you. Ask for a recipe for banana bread, and it’ll put its digital apron on, and even let you ask for potential replacements for ingredients you may not have in the house.

The whole thing is more conversational, and it’s remarkably easy to set up — even in Chrome, which has long been Google’s home turf.

How to make Perplexity AI your default search engine

The following instructions work on any Chromium browser, and some will let you log in on multiple profiles so you can flick between Google and Perplexity based on your context.

• Open Chrome on your device
• Click the three dots in the top-right corner, then click Settings.
• On the left-hand sidebar, click Search engine, and then Manage search engines and site search
• To add Perplexity to the browser, use the following information:
  • Name: Perplexity
  • Shortcut: perp
  • URL: https://www.perplexity.ai/?q=%s
• Click Add, then return to the list.
• Typing the ‘perp’ shortcut will trigger Perplexity, but you can also set it as Default if you’d prefer.

Using Firefox? It’s just as simple.

• Open Firefox on your device
• Open the Firefox Add-Ons storefront and add the Search Engines Helper Extension
• Open the extension, and then enter https://www.perplexity.ai/?q=%s for the Search URL, which will auto populate the rest of the list.
• Right-click the address bar in your browser and click Add “perplexity.ai” and you’re done.

How to use Perplexity on your phone

Switching to Perplexity on your phone is as easy as installing the Perplexity Ask app.

Doing so gives you a sort of 'live ticker' of news before you even get started.

Perhaps my favourite thing about Perplexity is that it attempts to put sources front-and-center. Asking "what's in the news today?" will give a series of stories, as well as tappable citations so you can expand a story.

There's also a handy set of 'Related' options you can tap, with each expanding the context of the day's biggest stories.

Paid subscribers can even get the news (or any other searches) delivered via audio recording.

Finally, I particularly appreciate the way you can quickly share a screenshot via a built-in share sheet — ideal for sharing fun or surprising results.

Will you be switching to Perplexity AI as your browser? Let us know, and don't forget you can always switch back to Google if you'd prefer.

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AI chatbots can be useful tools for learning about the world, but they aren't usually designed as educators and often are full of caveats regarding where their data comes from. Google has debuted a new AI tutor called Learn About to solve those issues. It's a personal tutor capable of adapting its teaching style in real time. Learn About isn't just a conversational AI chatbot; it combines visual aids and the ability to expand and simplify subjects as needed, like an interactive and intelligent textbook.

Learn About doesn't rely on the Gemini AI models employed by Google in most of its AI services. Instead, it uses the LearnLM model introduced at Google I/O this year. LearnLM has been trained specifically on educational and research-oriented data and is supposed to encourage users to think for themselves. That means the AI doesn't just give a quick answer but tries to impart the facts and the knowledge behind the straightforward answer, including diagrams and annotated text, along with suggested topics related to your initial query.

LearnLM also makes sure the common hallucinations and wrong information regurgitated by AI chatbots are less of an issue. You can ask a question, suggest a topic, or even upload images and let the AI run with whatever it can find about what's in the images. Learn About is currently available to a limited number of U.S. users, but expansion is likely coming soon.

Robotic education

As an experiment, I asked about building a humanoid robot. Learn About didn't just cite an encyclopedia on what that would entail. Instead, I got a whole list of necessary elements broken down with images, context boxes, and further reading. The 'get images' button at the bottom did exactly what it said it would, while the double-check with Google just seemed to confirm the information was accurate. The 'go deeper' button quickly led me down a path of technical details for machining an arm joint. Two paragraphs in, I was lost.

I had much more fun with the 'simplify' button because each time I tapped it, the AI would get more creative in being simple. First, it talked about building a robot like a toy, then it tried to explain how to build a robot like a gingerbread man, then a puppet show, and then a magic Lego man. After that, the AI apparently decided I didn't understand analogies and used very small words to explain robots without any window dressing. Still, the analogies and accompanying images and diagrams were like a window into textbooks for ever-younger children.

People don't always want a personal tutor. Sometimes, the trivia expert version of AI is preferable. But Gemini and LearnLM point out that Google wants people to continue thinking of it as the source of all knowledge, whether that's a simple yes or no answer about where a famous landmark is located or a full lecture on its history and place in local culture. Learn About helps Google set itself up as an information resource and a digital learning companion. And I have to give credit to Learn About for inspiring my upcoming gingerbread puppet show about robots.

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As if Microsoft’s Rewards loyalty program couldn’t get any better; it’s offering a chance to win $1,000,000 (USD) if you make a transition from your current search engine to Bing - starting October 8.

It may sound too good to be true but as Windows Central reports, anyone in the United States, United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Canada, France, and Germany has the chance of becoming a millionaire, just by browsing on Bing and entering the sweepstake for free.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has done this, with the possibility of earning points just by searching using Bing previously - but now the stakes are much higher, and it hardly requires any effort. You’ll instantly gain five entries when sharing your link with friends once they enter, increasing your chances of winning.

If you aren’t lucky enough to net the jackpot (there can only be one winner), ten more winners will receive $10,000, which isn’t too shabby!

Is this a sign of bigger rewards in the future?

While we’ve seen a plethora of gifts available to win via Microsoft Rewards before, none of them have been at this magnitude - it’s essentially a free lottery ticket, that only needs you to use your internet browser as normal. Of course, the catch is using Bing over Google (which is still behind Google in terms of usage) and waiting to see if you’re lucky enough.

This is a clear attempt by Microsoft to convince users to switch over to Bing, even if it’s only for the time being. Despite the big push for Bing to dethrone Google (especially with ads on Windows 11), the chances of this making a significant impact on the popular search engine are minimal - especially considering Google’s search functionality in comparison to Bing’s.

Will this work in the long run? Probably not, but it's certainly a great opportunity to showcase the benefits of the search engine such as AI searching capabilities (uses Open AI GPT-4 which has conversational capabilities), that could potentially retain users.

If the jump from rewards like Xbox Game Pass subscriptions to a $1 million prize is any indication, then we could be seeing Microsoft Rewards become far more generous in the near future than before. Sure, this might be a sign of desperation from Microsoft, but we’re not complaining.

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Google is bringing its AI Overviews feature to more than 100 countries around the world, a massive expansion after initially becoming available just in the U.S. and later a half dozen other countries. AI Overviews, which employ Google's Gemini AI models to summarize answers to search queries, will now be available to more than a billion monthly users.

The paragraphs written by the AI Overviews feature are concise and include links to the sources used to compose them, usually articles from publications, business websites, or related sources. Google has claimed since they debuted that AI Overviews have led to increased engagement with diverse sources on the web.

Along with the geographic expansion, Google is also adding new language support to the service. Depending on where you are located and what language you use for Google Search, you'll see AI Overviews in either English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, or Spanish. The wider access based on location and language isn't the only upgrade for AI Overviews. Google has also unveiled a new link display to showcase the websites and content sources used to produce better AI summaries. The AI Overviews also now include right-hand link displays formatted for desktop and mobile devices. In them, you can see related content on websites, augmenting the in-line links within the AI Overview text.

“With AI Overviews in Search, it’s easier than ever for people to find the information they need and discover relevant sites across the web, which opens up more opportunities to connect with publishers, businesses, and creators.,” Google Vice President of Search Quality Srinivasan Venkatachary explained in a blog post. “Since launching in May and expanding beyond the U.S. in August, the feedback we’ve received for AI Overviews has been highly positive. People prefer using Search with AI Overviews, and they find their search results more helpful. So now, in our largest expansion yet, we’re launching AI Overviews in more than 100 countries and making them accessible in more languages — helping you search in a whole new way, no matter what questions are on your mind.”

Global AI Overviews

The global rollout makes it clear that the signs that Google was pulling back on AI Overviews were exaggerated. Though there was some speculation that Google was leery about promoting the feature after reports of incorrect and even dangerous answers, that's clearly no longer the case.

Google has even started testing advertisements within AI Overviews, at least for U.S. mobile users. These ads are labeled to differentiate them from standard search results but are aimed at encouraging users to look at and potentially buy products and services relevant to their search terms. Search is the heart of Google's business and remains so despite judicial battles over whether the company is violating anti-monopoly laws. If Google feels comfortable enough with AI Overviews to make it a global feature, the ads are almost certain to follow in its wake, with multilingual AI-generated links that will be seen by billions.

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I've been using, testing, and experimenting with the best SEO tools for over a decade.

Like all search engine optimizers, I have spent much of that time using features and insights to work out why I can't get my content to rank on search engines or appear in AI results, as well as plenty of time defending my #1 position for some highly competitive search terms.

Now, I have created a list of the 14 very best SEO tools.

SEMRush tops the list in 2026 thanks to its well-rounded offering of advanced tools, including keyword research, competitor analysis, and content optimization insights. With all-in plans starting at $165/month (billed annually), it is far from the cheapest option, but it is a smart choice for businesses looking to take SEO seriously.

The best SEO tools of 2025 in full:

Best SEO tool overall

Semrush is one of the most popular SEO tools globally, offering a wide range of SEO and content marketing features. You can conduct keyword research, monitor backlinks, analyze competitors, optimize content, and much more, all through this platform.

However, what sets Semrush apart is its Competitor Analysis tool. You can monitor your competitors' SEO strategies, including their keyword rankings, advertising strategies, and backlink profiles. Additionally, its ability to track trends and changes in the SEO landscape provides a dynamic view of the competitive landscape.

Moving forward, Semrush features a powerful Keyword Research tool that offers insights such as search volume, difficulty levels, and trends, all of which are crucial for an effective SEO strategy. It also includes a Site Audit functionality that thoroughly analyzes your website’s health and identifies issues that must be addressed.

Semrush also offers Traffic Analytics, which helps identify your competitors' main sources of web traffic, such as the top referring sites. This allows you to delve into the details of how your and your competitors' sites compare in terms of average session duration and bounce rates. Additionally, the "Traffic Sources Comparison" feature provides an overview of digital marketing channels for multiple competitors simultaneously. For those new to SEO, 'bounce rates' refer to the percentage of visitors who visit a website and then leave without accessing any other pages on the same site.

The platform also includes a Domain Overview feature, which does much more than summarize your competitors' SEO strategies. You can detect specific keywords they've targeted and access the relative performance of your domains on both desktop and mobile devices.

Over time, Semrush has added a few more tools to its offerings, including a writer marketplace, a toolset for agencies, and even a white-glove service for PR agencies.

It has also recently added AI search and GEO tools such as a tracker for Google's AI Overview (AIO) mentions and the ability to list your business details on multiple local directories.

Semrush pricing and plans

The prices above apply to Semrush's 'One' plan, which includes a huge number of SEO, AI search, and GEO tools. If you are looking for a small set of features or specific tools only, Semrush offers a host of plans to pick from.

A 14-day free trial is available for Techradar readers to try out the service

Learn more about Semrush

Read our full Semrush review.

Best all-in-one SEO tool platform

If you’ve ever set foot in SEO, there is a very high probability that you have come across Ahrefs. It is a comprehensive SEO tool that comes with various features, including Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Content Explorer, etc.

Ahrefs boasts the largest backlink index of top SEO tools, with over 295 billion indexed pages and more than 16 trillion backlinks. Throw in an upgraded keywords explorer, tools for monitoring the competition, plus a serious amount of user documentation, and Ahrefs may be the tool you need to rank better and increase traffic.

At its core, Ahrefs comes out as a strong contender regarding backlink analysis, keyword research, and competitive analysis. Plus, you can see the search volume, keyword difficulty, and SERP analysis to build your content strategy through its Keyword Explorer.

Ahrefs has also recognized the changing landscape of search, adding tools for AI and GEO, such as AI brand mentions, citation gap analysis (where your competitors are being mentioned, but you are not), and Share of Voice (SoV).

Ahrefs boasts several powerful features that help set it apart, including a proprietary web crawler, which is one of the best in the market. However, Ahrefs even comes with some drawbacks. For instance, the tool’s depth can be a bit hard to learn for beginners, and its paid plans can be a major reason for concern for small businesses. Conversely, large enterprises might find the investment justifiable for the breadth of insights offered.

While price points are broadly aligned with those of similar products, best-in-class link analysis, powerful research tools, and knowledgeable user support help make Ahrefs one of the best options for understanding and improving your domain’s online presence.

Ahrefs pricing and plans

Learn more about Ahrefs

Read our full Ahrefs review.

Best SEO tool for content writers

When it comes to optimizing your website for search engines, using the right SEO tools is crucial. There are many options available in the market, but not all of them are created equal. While most SEO optimization tools come equipped with basic features such as keyword research and content editors, some like SurferSEO offer much more.

SurferSEO is a comprehensive SEO optimization tool that goes above and beyond to provide users with an all-in-one solution. It's equipped with a range of features that include keyword research, content analysis, SERP analyzer, audio tools, and more, all powered by AI technology.

This makes it a top choice for marketers who want to stay ahead of the game and optimize their content to its fullest potential.

One of the best things about SurferSEO is its seamless setup process. Regardless of your skill level, you can easily set up your account and start using the tool right away. It's also available at various price points, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes. Plus, it's enriched with a growing list of AI-based features, which are increasingly vital in the industry.

SurferSEO also provides an extensive array of training tools, including a blog, knowledge base, private SurferSEO community, and live training from the Surfer Academy. This allows users to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in SEO optimization.

By providing detailed insights and clear guidance, SurferSEO empowers marketers to optimize their content effectively and compete successfully in search engine rankings.

Whether you're a seasoned SEO professional or just starting, integrating SurferSEO into your SEO strategy could significantly enhance your online presence and drive more organic traffic to your site. With its advanced features, user-friendly interface, and comprehensive training resources, SurferSEO is undoubtedly one of the best SEO optimization tools available in the market today.

SurferSEO plans and pricing

Learn more about SurferSEO

Read our full SurferSEO review.

Best SEO tool for in-house teams

Moz Pro is a great SEO tool that helps you increase traffic, rankings, and visibility across search engine results.

Moz Pro comes with a Link Explorer that examines and analyzes your website’s backlink profile along with your competitors, giving detailed insights into the quantity and quality of the backlinks. You can even manage listings, monitor reviews, and publish accurate location data across the web through Moz Local. Additionally, SERP analysis uses the Search Engine Results Pages to deliver insights into the factors influencing the ranking of pages, helping to understand and identify opportunities that have room left for improvement.

Plus, you get a competitor analysis tool that compares your sites with your competitors, focusing on various aspects, including keyword rankings and online visibility, to gauge where you stand. There is also a Rank Checker tool that can check your website’s ranking for specific keywords to further escalate your SEO practices.

Similarly, users can also study Keywords and Keyword combinations that might be ideal for targeting through Moz Pro’s Keyword Research Tool. And, there's also a backlink analysis tool that mixes a combination of metrics, including anchor text in links as well as estimated domain authority.

Pricing for Moz Pro begins at $99 per month for the Standard plan, which covers the basic tools. The Medium plan offers a wider range of features for $179 per month, and a free trial is available. Note that plans come with a 20% discount if paid for annually. Additional plans are available for agency and enterprise needs, and there are additional paid-for tools for local listings and STAT data analysis.

Even if you don't sign up for Moz Pro, a number of free tools are available. There's also a huge supporting community ready to offer help, advice, and guidance across the breadth of search marketing issues.

Moz Pro pricing and plans

Learn more about Moz Pro

Read our full Moz Pro review.

Best SEO tool for tracking links

Majestic SEO tools have consistently received praise from SEO veterans since its inception in 2011. This also makes it one of the oldest SEO tools available today.

Majestic offers Trust Flow & Citation Flow Metrics that help to know the quality of the backlinks pointing to a website. You even have a Backlink History Checker that lets you see the number of backlinks detected by the platform over time. But, what makes Majestic stand out is its Search Explorer, which offers a search engine-like experience to rank pages based on their backlinks instead of the traditional search algorithms, giving a unique perspective on search relevance.

If you find yourself integrating your tools with custom applications and reports, then Majestic is just what you need, as you get the API access for the platform to play around with it. Plus, users can even create custom reports and set up alerts for changes in the backlink profile or new backlinks, all informing the user about the backlink’s health.

The tool's main focus is on backlinks, which represent links between one website and another. This has a significant influence on SEO performance, and as such, Majestic has a huge amount of backlink data.

Users can search both a 'Fresh Index,' which is crawled and updated throughout the day, in addition to a 'Historic Index' which has been praised online for its lightning retrieval speed. One of the most popular features is the 'Majestic Million', which displays a ranking of the top 1 million websites.

The 'Lite' version of Majestic incorporates useful features such as a bulk backlink checker, a record of referring domains, IPs, and subnets, as well as Majestic's integrated 'Site Explorer'. This feature, which is designed to give you an overview of your online store, has received some negative comments due to looking a little dated. Majestic also has no Google Analytics integration.

Majestic SEO pricing and plans

Learn more about Majestic SEO

Read our full Majestic SEO Tools review.

Best SEO tool for competitor analysis

SpyFu is a search analytics company that scrapes the internet for data. It is used to identify the keywords that companies are bidding on using Google AdWords. SpyFu also matches search results with search terms, providing companies with deeper insight into the types of searches and keywords for which they appear on Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

SpyFu's unique selling point is its ability to ‘spy’ on your competitors by helping you pinpoint the keywords your competitors target for online advertising and generating a report of the words and phrases that generate the most traffic. In this way, you can keep a step ahead of other companies or services working in your industry and attract more traffic to your own sites.

The tool's user interface stands out for its balance of in-depth analytics and accessibility, making it suitable for both seasoned professionals and newcomers to SEO. It provides historical data tracking, a unique feature that allows an in-depth view of how keywords have performed over time, offering a strategic edge in planning. Additionally, its backlink analysis goes beyond basic insights, providing a nuanced understanding of backlink profiles essential for off-page SEO strategies. However, compared to tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs, it may lag slightly in the breadth of its backlink database.

Few products come close to providing the depth and functionality you get with SpyFu. It is priced below its main competitors, is easy to use, and can be customized to your needs. It provides all of the PPC, SEO, and keyword research tools anyone from a big company to a small startup would need and is a highly effective and well-designed application.

SpyFu pricing and plans

Learn more about SpyFu

Read our full SpyFu review.

Best SEO tool for technical SEOs

SEO Spider was originally created in 2010 by the euphemistically named "Screaming Frog". This rowdy reptile's clients include major players like Disney, Shazam, and Dell.

At its core, SEO Spider excels in technical SEO, particularly through its advanced site crawling and auditing capabilities. This feature is extensively used for conducting thorough website audits and identifying a range of SEO issues like broken links, redirect chains, and server errors.

A standout feature is its duplicate content detection, widely used to resolve detrimental content duplication issues. Additionally, it offers detailed insights on pages with missing title tags, duplicate meta tags, and tags of the wrong length, as well as check the number of links placed on each page.

SEO Spider’s Broken Links Checker is another invaluable offering that identifies and reports each and every broken link throughout the website. However, one of the most attractive features of SEO Spider is its ability to integrate with Google Analytics and Search Console. It connects with the website you are trying to audit, uses GA and GSC API to fetch data from both ends and creates comprehensive reports for individual URLs on the website.

SEO Spider even excels when it comes to security features as it checks for secure pages and protocols, all of which are critical in identifying mixed content issues that could affect the site’s security. Despite its rich functionality, SEO Spider can have a steep learning curve for beginners, but luckily there are plenty of guides on the web to help you out.

There is both a free and paid version of SEO Spider. The free version contains most basic features such as crawling redirects but this is limited to 500 URLs. This makes the 'Lite' version of SEO Spider suitable only for smaller domains. The paid version is $180 per year and includes more advanced features as well as free tech support.

ScreamingFrog SEO Spider pricing and plans

Learn more about Spider SEO

Read our full SEO Spider review.

Best SEO tool for newbies

RankIQ is a great tool for optimizing SEO, but it has its pros and cons. Let's start with the good news.

RankIQ is one of the best SEO solutions for content analysis. Its AI-powered content optimizer gives clear and specific guidance to writers on how to optimize their content for SEO. This can be particularly useful for those who are new to SEO or want to streamline their content creation process.

Moreover, RankIQ offers an excellent keyword product that provides users with a list of high-traffic, low-competition keywords specifically tailored to their niche. This targeted approach can significantly improve the chances of ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs).

RankIQ is also user-friendly and affordable, making it accessible to bloggers, freelancers, and small businesses.

However, there are some downsides to using RankIQ. The service is best suited for bloggers and smaller websites, not larger enterprises. This lack of scalability could be an issue for rapidly growing businesses.

Additionally, RankIQ's SEO tools are more basic and may not be suitable for larger enterprises that require advanced features. The service also doesn't integrate with other digital marketing tools, which could be problematic for users who need such integrations.

Finally, RankIQ does provide a free trial, but some users may prefer to test the tool before committing to a subscription.

After testing RankIQ, we concluded that it's an effective tool for bloggers and smaller companies looking to improve their search engine ranking. It offers a user-friendly interface and AI-driven insights that can be useful for those new to SEO or who have limited time. However, larger enterprises or experienced SEO professionals may require a more comprehensive and integrated approach that RankIQ may not be able to provide.

As with any tool, it's essential to consider your specific needs, level of expertise, and resources before deciding if RankIQ is the right fit for your SEO strategy.

RankIQ pricing and plans

Best SEO tool for content strategists

MarketMuse is a versatile tool that caters to individuals, small and large teams alike. It is designed in such a way that it can help individuals and large organizations efficiently. It comes with an AI-powered guidance that assists in creating detailed and informative content related to your chosen topic. MarketMuse's AI-based guidance ensures that the content you create is comprehensive, authoritative, and relevant. By enhancing the relevance and depth of the content, MarketMuse can significantly improve the SEO success rate. With MarketMuse's ability to recognize related content, users can create a robust, interlinked content strategy that can enhance the website's domain authority.

However, there are a few things to criticize about MarketMuse. Firstly, there is a steep learning curve to master the platform's full range of features. Although users of all backgrounds can get started with MarketMuse with relative ease, it is recommended to opt for paid training through MarketMuse to gain expertise and maximize the benefits. MarketMuse offers training and support to help users overcome the learning curve and achieve their goals.

It is also essential to note that SEO optimization tools like MarketMuse have a significant drawback. They have no control over the dynamic nature of search engine algorithms. Whenever search engines change how they handle searches, even the best tools will be affected. Therefore, companies like MarketMuse must adjust the data behind their offerings, and end-users will also need to make necessary adjustments. This can be a challenging process for everyone involved. However, MarketMuse is known for regular updates and adapting to the changes in the search engine algorithms.

Overall, MarketMuse is one of the best SEO optimization tools available in the market. It is worth considering, and users can take advantage of the free trial to assess whether it’s worth the price of admission for their website. MarketMuse's comprehensive support and regular updates make it a reliable and efficient tool for content optimization.

MarketMuse pricing and plans

Best SEO tool for large content teams

Clearscope is a content optimization tool that has been gaining popularity among SEO professionals. It uses AI technology to analyze content and provide suggestions for using keywords that can enhance the chances of a piece of content ranking well on search engines.

One of the features that makes Clearscope stand out is its user interface, which is designed to suit experienced SEO professionals perfectly. Additionally, Clearscope integrates seamlessly with two widely used software products: Google Docs and WordPress. This makes it easy for content creators to optimize their content without having to switch between different applications.

Another notable feature of Clearscope is its reports, which provide real-time feedback that can assist in crafting search engine-friendly and relevant content. This feature is especially useful for content creators and marketers who need to optimize their content quickly and accurately.

However, as with any tool, Clearscope has its drawbacks. One major deterrent for some individuals might be the cost of using Clearscope. While the platform provides a lot of value, it may be too expensive for some users. Providing a trial could attract a more extensive user base regardless of Clearscope's pricing structure.

Moreover, beginners in SEO optimization might find it challenging to navigate Clearscope despite its user design. There is still a learning curve involved in using Clearscope. However, the platform offers plenty of resources to help users get started, including tutorials and webinars.

Another downside is that AI content outline generation is exclusively available to customers on the business plan with Clearscope. This limitation may seem unreasonable, especially considering the pricing tiers, particularly for the essentials package. Clearscope, it would benefit all your customers to access your AI tools.

Overall, Clearscope is a valuable tool for individuals and organizations looking to enhance their content SEO potential with data-driven insights and optimization suggestions. While the pricing and learning curve may deter some users, the platform's accurate recommendations, user-friendly interface, and immediate feedback make it a valuable resource for content creators and marketers striving to create content that performs well in search engine results.

Clearscope pricing and plans

Additional pages and drafts can be added to your chosen plan for an additional fee.

Learn more about Clearscope

Read our full Clearscope review.

Best free SEO tool platform

Google Search Console (GSC) is an excellent way for newbie webmasters to get started with SEO. This free service offered by Google is a powerhouse of data and insights, crucial for understanding and optimizing your website's performance in Google search results.

Using GSC, you can analyze clicks, impressions, click-through rates (CTR), and the average position of your site's URLs for specific queries and how it performs in Google Search. This data is pivotal for understanding what's working in your SEO strategy and what needs improvement. The best part? All this data is presented by Google itself and not a third-party app, so there’s no room for inaccuracies.

Another key feature is the ability to submit and test sitemaps. Ensuring that Google can find and crawl all important pages of your site is essential, and GSC aids in this by not only allowing sitemap submissions but also providing feedback on any sitemap-related issues, such as URLs that Google couldn't index.

While Google Search Console also has a Links report that showcases both internal and external links to your website, it’s limited to only 1000 links, which is not enough if you have a growing website.

The tool also plays a crucial role in site security and health, alerting you if any manual actions from Google are taken against your website. With page experience becoming a significant ranking factor, you’ll find GSC’s performance reports on page speed and Core Web Vitals to be very insightful too. They help identify pages needing improvements in loading speed, interactivity, and stability.

Overall, GSC is an invaluable tool for SEO, offering extensive data and insights across various aspects of website performance and health in Google Search. Even if you're not headstrong in SEO, whatever the size of your site or blog, Google's laudable Search Console (formerly Webmaster Central) and the myriad user-friendly tools under its bonnet should be your first port of call.

Google Search Console pricing and plans

Google Search Console is totally free to use.

Learn more about Google Search Console

Read our full Google Search Console review.

Best for quick SEO insights

The Detailed SEO Browser Extension is a specialized tool for on-page SEO analysis, catering to those who need quick, in-depth insights into the SEO setup of any webpage. This free tool, available as a browser add-on, is notable for its user-friendly interface and the efficiency it brings to SEO tasks.

One of the standout features of the extension is its ability to provide an instant overview of critical on-page SEO elements. This includes page titles, meta descriptions, canonical URLs, robot tags, and X-Robots tags. Such a snapshot is invaluable for SEO professionals and content creators looking to assess and optimize web pages for search engine visibility quickly.

Then there's this neat feature where you can export all the links from a page. It’s perfect when you're trying to figure out the internal link game of a site or checking out backlinks. Plus, it also lets you download all the image URLs, which is a lifesaver for making sure all the images are SEO-friendly.

Now, what we love about Detailed SEO the most is that it can preview the Open Graph data or Schema markup of any page in a single click. It also gives you direct shortcuts to a website's robots.txt and XML sitemap. These features alone eliminate the need for three separate Chrome extensions and consolidate everything in a single, comprehensive extension.

Moreover, the extension is designed to be lightweight and user-friendly, offering quick SEO insights without the complexity or depth of more advanced, paid SEO tools. While it doesn't provide the extensive analytics and deep-dive capabilities of these more comprehensive tools, it's an excellent choice for basic, on-the-go SEO analysis.

Detailed SEO pricing and plans

DetailedSEO is totally free.

Best value

SE ranking has been one of the fans' favorites for years now, thanks to its vast SEO features that help in improving website performance. First, it compares your web pages to 94 different parameters and even lists down the issues into various categories like errors, warnings, or notices. Plus, you also get tons of practical suggestions to fix them up.

If you like customizing your site audits and studying it based on your specific metrics, SE Ranking does that for you with different personalized settings. You have over 120 metrics in the tool that can help you audit your site efficiently and avoid even the slight details that could hamper your SEO results.

It further elevates your SEO games by presenting the backlink profile of your site. You can easily access the complete list of backlinks, referring domains, and critical metrics by entering the platform's domain name. Under this, your analysis goes beyond the basic evaluation as it presents the trustworthiness of each link based on domain, page, type, and follow status.

And, if you wish to target a local market, SE Ranking has various Local Marketing Tools that can improve your business’s online presence in a specific region. For this, you can find out how your target audience discovers and behaves within your locations in search results, letting you identify the most effective keywords. It also provides insights into customer interactions and the best times for user engagement.

That said, SE Ranking might not be the go-to tool for PPC campaigns, as it focuses primarily on SEO functionalities. Additionally, while the pricing structure is flexible, small businesses might find it excessive.

Pricing options start from the Essential plan, which covers 10 websites and includes core features like website audit, competitor analysis, and keyword suggestions. This plan is solid for small to medium-sized projects and offers a good balance between functionality and cost.

SE Ranking plans and pricing

Learn more about SE Ranking

Read our full SE ranking review.

Best for user experience

Microsoft Clarity stands out as a powerful analytics tool designed to provide website owners and developers with deep insights into user behavior through its heat maps and other features. One of the best features of Microsoft Clarity is its ability to generate detailed heat maps, which visually represent where users are clicking, scrolling, and interacting the most on a webpage. This visualization helps in identifying hotspots of activity and areas that may require improvement.

Another remarkable feature is the session recordings which lets you watch actual user sessions to understand how users navigate through your site, which can be invaluable for spotting usability issues. Furthermore, Clarity is designed to be privacy-friendly, ensuring that personal data is not recorded, making it a responsible choice for web analytics.

However, you might encounter a steep learning curve, especially if you’re new to web analytics. Luckily, Clarity offers a responsive support team that helps you navigate its complex interface and make the most of its analytics capabilities.

Microsoft Clarity pricing and plans

Microsoft clarity is totally free to use.

How we tested the best SEO tools

To test the best SEO tools, we considered many points, from their user interface and dashboard to the data presentation and pricing.

We evaluated what types of users the different tools would be best suited for (new website owners, small and midsized businesses, and large businesses). We checked if they had mobile apps, extensive documentation for learning, and the ability to process large amounts of data. We also looked at their pricing plans and the variety of tools they offered.

Read how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar.

Best SEO tool FAQs

When it comes to search, Google is a monopoly. That's the ruling from a US federal judge who called Google a "monopolist." It's not an opinion shared by all, but the weight of this decision could come crashing down on Google and its position as the world's most widely-used search engine.

I've long argued that Google achieved this dominant search engine position by being not just a good Internet wayfinder, but by being the best. GenZ may not remember a time before you "Googled" something, but some of us were there at the dawn of the World Wide Web, a network that grew so fast and wide that it quickly became unknowable. Web Search was a critical and, for a time, a varied industry. Google wasn't even there at the start. Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista, and Northern Light (really felt like a canny lighthouse reference) all predated Google, which arrived in 1999. 

Where early search focused on pure indexing and some unscalable browse-tree stratagems, Google, from day one, was algorithmic. Sure, it spidered and indexed, but it also weighted for relevancy. The story of how Google came to dominate is almost obvious and well-known. The question that this ruling appears to answer is how, after winning the battle, Google maintained control.

Race for the top

No market, especially those in technology, is written in stone. Players come and go. New ideas arrive, and sometimes they stick. Sometimes, they grow while others fall. Competition can feel like a zero-sum game because there are almost always winners and losers. In the smartphone space, the once-dominant Nokia and Blackberry had no answer for the innovative iPhone and lost that battle – badly.

Search was like that at the start, where even the once-vaunted Yahoo stumbled and fell before Google. This is not to say that there is no competition. In every market where there is a dominant player, smaller and perhaps more eager ones are trying to chip away at that market position. Sometimes, they can do it with innovation and maybe a bit of luck. Other times, they meet an invisible yet powerful market force that almost prevents them from participating in the race for the top.

When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, there wasn't even an App Store, but the device did arrive with a few baked-in apps, including YouTube and Maps., both powered by Google. There was also the Web browser Safari and even before Apple's first phone, the company was using Google as the default search engine in the Safari browser on the desktop.

The price of domination

That relationship has continued not because Apple and Google are friends. Apple eventually replaced Google's mapping system with one of its own. No, Apple sets Google as Safari's default search engine because Google pays Apple billions a year for the privilege. In 2022, it was a reported $20B.

This is no small thing. There are currently over 1.3B iPhones in use. Most of the remaining smartphone market is Android, which usually defaults to Chrome as the browser and Google as the search engine.

At least 95% of people use a mobile device to browse and search the web. On the iPhone and in Android (Chrome), you can use a different search engine like DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, or Bing, but those choices are hidden under settings and, to be honest, if it just works why would you? I'm not implying that these other search engines aren't good. DuckDuckGo is often touted for protecting your privacy better than others (looking mostly at Google), and Bing has vastly improved from its early days and led the way in generative AI search results. However, even with its AI overviews at the top of too many search results, Google's basic search results remain unmatched in quality.

This level of default control has made it nearly impossible for Microsoft (Bing) or DuckDuckGo to compete at scale. The default is the winner – by default. Having all that access also means that Google gets to serve you all those ads that appear at the top of many search results. Google's search ads position was not ruled as a monopoly, but it's hard to argue that the search engine control doesn't in some way strengthen its ad-serving position.

Google, 'Monopoly'

Google currently has 91% worldwide search engine market share. If you're splitting hairs, that's 9% short of a monopoly, but it's close enough. I guess the question is, did Google come by that dominance fairly? I think it did. Has it held onto it fairly? I don't know, but I will say that Google's ubiquity has had the unfortunate knock-on effect of Google essentially defining the Web experience not only for people who search but for anyone who visits any website, destinations built from foundation to the headlines you read to be seen and displayed by Google Search. No one does Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for DuckDuckGo or Yahoo. It's all about Google, and I often wonder why it's not called "Google Engine Optimization" or GEO.

Google will appeal but the pressure will now mount for Google to make changes, possibly divest the search business from the Alphabet parent company. Google could even stop paying Apple, and Apple might think it's finally time to get going on its own long-rumored search engine. Now might also turn out to be the perfect time for SearchGPT.

At the very least, you might soon see a change when you set up your next best iPhone or best Android. Perhaps the device will finally ask you to choose a search engine.

Naturally, you'll still choose Google. I mean, who wouldn't?

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Google is search. It has competitors, but they're like barnacles on the base of a mighty ship, slicing through the internet. No one does search better and yet, Google insists on mucking up its stellar results with, naturally, artificial intelligence.

If you know me – and by now I assume you do – I'm no Luddite. I love new technology and am especially intrigued by AI, which I've been covering for almost 20 years. Granted the last two years have been almost nothing like the preceding 18, where AI was understood as a powerful and growing tech sector that could automate processes, manage simple tasks behind the scenes, and to a very limited degree power chatbot conversations.

Now, AI is like the Frank's Red Hot Sauce tagline: "I put that sh*t on everything." The algorithm and machine-learning-driven technology is everywhere, an inescapable fact of modern life and a potential disrupter to the established way of doing almost anything.

Normally, emerging tech might operate on the periphery of the mainstream, a space AI formerly occupied for much of its existence. Now, the landrush to be part of the AI revolution means that AI is applied at the center. If there's something you do every day or perhaps are doing now (checking email, composing letters, making art) AI stands at the ready to assist. Unlike traditional tools, though, AI might not wait for you to ask. "Suggestion" is kind of AI's default mode. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're wrong. This is why I tend to prefer my AI standing on the sidelines, waiting to be called, and definitely not – as Google has chosen to implement Gemini in its search results – in an "AI Overview."

"Google is the first place I go when I want to find something on the web or figure out virtually anything. I not only type search terms into Google, I regularly ask it questions—and it nearly always has the answers." That is what I wrote 21 years ago about the then-still relatively new search engine.

Note the last bit. I was writing natural-language queries into Google's search box long before AI was a glimmer in anyone's eye. Google's search algorithm was so good that in 2003 it already understood your search intention. Since then, I've never really thought much about what I type into that box. Spelling mistakes? Never mattered. Missing a word? Not a problem. Google just figures it out.

The Google Search box is not a place for careful rumination. Usually, I type in a rough, haphazard query, and if the results are overly broad or, in the rare case, it gets it wrong (never happens, TBH), I refine the original query.

Already the best

Google was always good enough at search and, for a long time, miles ahead of the competition. In recent years, Microsoft Bing, which takes a more subtle approach to AI integration, by the way), has closed a lot of the gap – though I still think Google is better. Or I did.

Now, we have AI Overviews. Powered by Google Gemini, AI Overviews take the vast number of results you'd receive for any query and boil them down into a more digestible summary. Google still considers AI overviews an experimental feature, which is why you don't always see them. 95% of my search results do not include them. I wonder if we all see fewer of them because the initial results were often wrong or bizarre.

The wrongness is one problem, but it's not my issue. My concern is about why we need AI Overviews at all. It occurs to me that highlighting AI on a search result in this way is a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of online search – and it's coming from the King of Search.

AI Overview reminds me of a smart kid in class constantly raising their hand to show you how smart they are. I don't blame them for being smart, but you can achieve the same result by acing your tests and not making everyone else feel like idiots (this is a lesson I did not learn soon enough in grade school).

AI Overview is Google showing off. Yes, its AI is smart and powerful, but AI's purpose is not to be a showpiece or some kind of search and summarization magic trick. Google should be using AI to enhance the quality of its results without remaking them to showcase AI. 

What I see is a giant search company so concerned about competition from Microsoft and Copilot that it felt the need to put AI Overviews results above its best product: search results. And you know what that does, right? It pushes search results further down the page, and depending on the screen (desktop or mobile), you might not even see the traditional results.

Get out of my way

The other day, my adult son was on his phone searching and started cursing at his phone: "No, I don't want an AI overview. Get this thing out of the way." Of course, he cast a glance in my direction as if I had something to do with it. My family often blames me for all tech foibles because I'm "in the industry".

In this case, I agree with my son. There is simply no need to show AI Overviews when the current results are so good and accurate. I'm not even getting into the issue of how pushing down these results is going to hurt (or kill) the content creators who've supported the search engine for a generation. Your search engine is nothing without our information...but that's a different post.

What concerns me is that Google seems unaware that its efforts to keep up with the competition could hurt its most valuable product. People want search results and nothing else. Give them that, and they'll be Google search customers forever. Force them to scroll through AI Overviews, and you will lose them to the competition.

The answer is simple, Google can remain the leader if it takes the Gemni AI smarts and uses them to improve search results but without showing anyone how it's doing so. If Gemini is only allowed to trade in facts, this could make Google Search even more effective, and that's a win for Google and a win for its fans who just want to Google.

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If we're being honest with ourselves, none of us like Google News, at least not since a series of design overhauls that made it less inviting, dense, newsy, and useful. So when Google News went down for hours on Friday, the – ahem – news was met with a mixture of frustration and a little relief.

Oh, good, we're freed and maybe free to go elsewhere. I ended up on, of all places, Bing News.

I'm sure you've heard of Bing, Microsoft's search engine that was largely ignored until Microsoft added OpenAI's GPT to it (and later Copilot), which made it the first AI-infused search engine.

Like Google, Bing's search reaches across multiple content categories, including images, video, shopping, maps, and news. I've used various parts of the Bing search platform, with a heavy focus on its newer AI capabilities, but can't say I've ever looked at news. Even after Google's disastrous Google News redesign in 2022, I didn't check out Bing News.

Then Google News went temporarily "poof!" and I needed a news aggregation source. So, I opened Bing on the desktop and selected News. My first reaction was, "Oh, how simple, clean, accessible." 

At the Top of Bing News is a grid of six top stories; each has a large image with the headline below and slightly bleeding into the image above. While headlines from other news sources are not listed in each box, Bing News smartly includes media outlet icons and information about how many other stories on the topic are available. A quick click on one of the "relevant news" links and you get another smartly-designed page with a grid that prioritizes the text headlines, followed by videos and then a list of more news on the topic.

On the Bing News home page below that top stories grid, Bing News jumps into a small grid of "For You" stories (Bing News may think I care a bit too much about politics), and below that a side-scrolling set of "Trending on Bing" news boxes.

It's here Bing News takes a breather, with a clever side-scrolling "Take a break" section that features lighter stories. It's fortunately only one story deep, so it doesn't overwhelm the page. Below that it hops into geolocated local news, which is followed by a long list of "more news" headlines.

Fairly balanced

I think Bing News achieves a good balance here of prioritizing the top news, giving you a slate of tailored news, what other people are reading or discovering in search, a tiny break, and then getting to the meat of the news cycle. This structure is clean and logical.

Where Google News always leaned hard into news categories, Bing News takes a lighter touch (there is a broad category list on the left side) and it may be a better one, since you don't feel that any news is shoehorned into an unnecessary category.

This is a generally more inviting feel than Google News, which often seems to be trying too hard, especially in tailoring perhaps too much of the news to my interests when, in reality, I want news that's important and interesting. I do have my preferences but if I see too much news about only the stuff I care about, I won't learn anything new (and also might miss out on some differing points of view).

Google News is hyper-aware of fake and contested news and cares deeply about expertise and sources. How do I know? Google News insists on showing you "Suggested Sources" and a whole "Fact Check" section. The latter is so poorly designed I often can't tell whether the "Facts" presented are false or not.

Visually, Bing News wins by a mile. I just don't enjoy looking at the pale pastel Google News colors anymore and miss the stark, clear look of 2006 or even the OG Google News. I like the consistency of Bing News and that, in general, it's not trying too hard.

There's no Bing News app and even if you download the Bing app it basically hides Bing News under "Trending." It's in the mobile space that Google News almost outperforms Bing. Almost.

Google News on mobile is full of bizarre repetition and often insists, to my chagrin, on defaulting to "For You" news and I always have to select "Headlines" so I can see less filtered news.

If I have one request for Bing and Microsoft, it's that they bring Bing News to mobile as its own app and essentially replicate the lovely desktop experience. Then I can truly leave Google News behind.

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Editor's note: TechRadar makes some of its revenue via the use of affiliate links to products and services on retailer sites on certain pages, for which we can receive compensation if you click on those links or make purchases through them. Many readers of those pages reach us through Google search, so we therefore have a vested interest in the topics discussed within this article.   

Google Search has undergone many, many changes over the years – some big, some small, but every single one shifting the iconic internet search engine further and further away from its original form.

You can see an interactive timeline of Google Search on Google's own website, if you're curious about how it's evolved over the years. Some of these additions – such as the 'Did you mean...?' suggestions for typos and the inclusion of new search modes including image, news, and video – were obvious slam-dunks for Google, improving the versatility and functionality of its search engine. Others, like the inevitable arrival of sponsored ads in results and the recent AI-powered 'Search Generative Experience' (SGE), have been... less popular.

Well, Google has seemingly done the unimaginable: it's released a new 'web' setting for the search engine that will take you back to the glory days of Google Search in the year 2000, surfacing only a list of text-based links. That's right – no images, no shopping results, and no AI-generated answers.

A more perfect search engine

The 'web' mode has been rolled out globally and should be accessible for everyone now; you'll find it under the 'More' option at the top of the results, below the search bar itself. 

Unsurprisingly, it's been met with riotous applause on social media. Commenters on Twitter (cough, X) lauded Google for the change, with many remarking that this is exactly what they want from a search engine.

It's a little sad that Google's decision to turn back time on its most-used product has seen such a positive response, and it's no doubt been done to counter any potential backlash from the gradual rollout of SGE. The AI-powered search tool will use machine learning to 'scrape' the internet for relevant data and provide an AI-generated response, which may prove helpful to some users but which poses a significant threat to online media and information outlets.

It's worth noting that the web search view does still include sponsored text links, but I suppose we can't have it all. Personally, I'm massively happy to see this change – not only do I prefer to do my own reading rather than receive AI-generated slop from my online searches, but as a digital journalist, I have a vested interest in Google keeping search simple.

The perils of AI in search

See, Google's SGE experiment is one I fear may be doomed to fail – specifically because it might end up consuming itself. SGE is undeniably a powerful tool that can provide a neat summary of the information users are looking for, but it needs content written by humans to do that.

An example Google gave back when SGE was first unveiled was the query 'best Bluetooth speaker for a pool party'. Sure enough, SGE produced a list of suggested products with links to both retailers and sites reviewing the recommended speakers.

Now, we naturally have our own article ranking the best Bluetooth speakers, as do many other tech news sites. We have literally hundreds of buying guides, and keeping those up-to-date with useful information for consumers is a lot of work, but it's work we're happy to do, since it pays our bills and ultimately helps consumers find what they actually need to know – you know, the whole reason TechRadar exists as a site.

But if SGE takes over, all the affiliate and ad revenue made by us – and every other site making product recommendations out there – threatens to evaporate. 

If that happens, we'll pivot: the journalism industry has always been on the cutting edge, ready and able to adapt to the challenges of a constantly shifting media landscape. So yes, we'll find a new way to reach our readers, whether directly, via newsletters, social media, subscriptions or whatever other methods appear in the forthcoming years. 

However, if surfacing all those buying guides, recipes, and top-10 lists within Google search becomes pointless to the sites making them, many may choose to stop Google's bot from crawling them, or at the very least from using them to train its LLMs. And if that happens then Google's AI will steadily become less and less relevant and helpful in its SGE suggestions as its fuel source dries up.

I know this sounds like whining. 'Oh no, Google is going to kill our profitability!' But that doesn't mean it's not a problem. Google has potentially created a new version of online searches that will self-destruct if it becomes successful.

In other words, I'm delighted to see 'web search' make a heroic return in this time of AI uncertainty. After all, I'm not going to start using Bing…

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Have you used Bing search lately? There's now a better chance than ever that some small contingent of your coworkers, friends, and family are tapping into the Copilot AI-infused Bing to answer life's most mundane and important questions.

As MSPowerUser notes, during a recent Microsoft earnings call company CEO Satya Nadella announced that Bing Search now has more than 140 million active daily users. If they all lived in the US that would be almost half the population typing in Bing.com into their web browsers to launch a search. It's remarkable progress for the long-struggling search engine that got a fresh infusion of excitement when Microsoft integrated a custom version of ChatGPT into what was originally known as Bing AI over a year ago.

Since then, Microsoft rechristened it as AI Copilot and spread its artificial intelligence-enhanced search and generative AI response goodness across most of Microsoft's core products including Windows 11, Edge, Teams, and Office.

The level of integration is so complete that it can be difficult to separate Bing from Copilot in any meaningful way. If you complete a Bing search, you'll get a column of results below your query and a fast-typing, chatty Copilot on the right offering enhanced insight on your initial search. Compared to Google, which has yet to integrate Google's new Gemini AI into the search experience, Bing search results can feel a little over-stuffed.

Information-wise, Google still does a better job of getting to the point than Bing but I can't say that the results on the former are always superior.

When I searched for "I need the best pool cleaner for a kiddy pool" both search engines front-loaded commerce links for a wide variety of pool cleaners ranging in price from $59 to hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars. Bing followed with best of lists for pool vacuum reviews, but Google put useful instructions on how to use Clorox to clean my kiddie pool.

When I asked how to save my dying orchid, Bing listed a The Spruce article with its instructions at the top. On the left was some commiseration from Copilot and more natural language instructions. Google found the same article but below it listed step-by-step rescue instructions.

Again, deciding which is better may be a matter of taste. But that's the problem, isn't it? If Bing isn't wildly better than Google, why would people switch? And, to be clear, most people have not switched.

This StatCounter Search Engine Global market share chart (above) best illustrates my point. The red line living in the stratosphere is Google. Now, look down until you see the blue line. That's Bing. Yes, it's ticking up compared to Yahoo and Baidu (and, yes, Google is trending ever-so-slightly down), but it's still in the single digits when it comes to market share.

140 million is a lot of people, but if Google handles a reported 8.5 billion queries per day and the average person searches 3-to-4 times a day, that means Google has at least 2.1 billion daily active users. That's a guestimate, obviously, but it also puts Bing's progress in perspective.

Search the meaning of winning

The search engine is headed in the right direction but it has a long way to go before people start talking about "SEO" and "Bing" in the same sentence. What Google does to its search algorithm can change the fortunes of entire industries. Bing does not enjoy that kind of power, at least not yet.

Things could change and they could take a sharp turn if and when Google integrates Gemini into its core search. Some are already frustrated that you have to scroll through what are essentially ads before you get to your core Google search results. How will they feel when Gemini inserts its generative AI answers before that precious result? At least Bing has not put Copilot responses on top of its core results, at least not yet.

I'm happy to celebrate Bing's milestone but no one should be confused about who is still king of Search Mountain and its name does not start with a B.

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Google is continuing its experimentation with its best-known staple, Google Search, with trials of AI-generated answers that will appear ahead of the usual list of results. It began by trying out its new plan on a limited number of results in the US, and now the trial is expanding to the UK.

The idea is for Google to provide AI-generated comprehensive written answers, providing an ‘overview’ at the top of selected search results. In the initial testing phase, this will only be visible to a small number of UK users who are logged into their Google accounts when using Search. 

The AI-generated overviews will only appear as a part of certain search results, with Google now having a better idea based on its previous trials - which the company claims suggested that users found them helpful. Hema Budaraju, a senior director at Google of its Search Generative Experience (SGE) and one of the key drivers behind Google’s generative AI search efforts, spoke to the BBC about Google’s efforts and gave the example of "how to get marks off painted walls" as one where users had found the generated response useful. 

Google's intentions going forward

This SGE experiment started nearly a year ago when Google allowed users to opt in to try the new Search experience via Google Labs. Users had to sign up and often wait a while for their chance to try Google’s newly proposed search results. That is, until recently, when Google decided to start showing AI-generated results to a small proportion of US user results without users opting in, and the development will now be trialed with a "small slice" of Google’s traffic from logged-in users in the UK.

A major concern that Google and other tech firms have to address when it comes to generative AI models is that it’s difficult to prioritize answers that are both human-sounding and completely factual. They can (and have been known to) generate content that can be offensive, harmful, biased, or just inaccurate. 

Ms Budaraju stated that Google is focused on continuing to deliver “information quality,” and would "put in a lot of care and attention to do this in a responsible way.” She issued reassurances, saying that Google is adopting an approach that will see more constrained answers, even at the cost of fluency, to prioritize accuracy in search responses. 

She explained that if there weren’t enough high-quality sources on a certain topic, Google Search would probably not generate an AI answer for queries relating to it. 

She also solidified that Google is approaching this as an experiment, and welcomes user feedback if they’re met with unsatisfactory results. "We will find issues of bias and safety, but the commitment is to find [these] and then invest in making it better,” she told the BBC. 

What the future of Search looks like

Google isn’t the first tech company to integrate AI into its search engine, with Microsoft rolling out its Copilot AI chatbot and assistant for Bing, which it intends to become as fundamental to its overall user experience as many of its other staple products. 

Naturally, publishers and other companies that create online content are concerned about how this will affect traffic to their websites. If users’ curiosities and questions are satisfied with the longer-form SGE text answers, they might not feel the need to investigate further and check the actual websites Google is sourcing its information. Personally, I would always urge you to check the information that generative AI tools produce, which is why I think it would be great if the SGE results included consistent links to sources.

Ms Budaraju again reassured those concerned about traffic to their sites that the new search results would continue to display links and ads, reinforcing Google’s denial that it was considering an ad-free search experience. She said that Google would place importance on sending traffic to creators, and even stated that the AI results actually provided users a wider range of sources to check out. She followed this up by claiming that Google’s new approach actually led to users clicking a wider range of sources than before.

Google has apparently been seeing a positive reception to its AI search results experiments from users so far - but it’s early days. The AI-generated responses have only been shown to a proverbial handful of users relative to the number of people who use Google Search on a daily basis. If and when Google adopts this as a standard practice when it comes to Search, it will likely encounter new challenges. I hope that Google will consider making this new style of search opt-in (or at least, opt-out). Although, who knows? Google has decades of knowledge and experience in building products that users make a part of their everyday lives - maybe it’s right about this, too.

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Google is reportedly experimenting with its search results and looking to add AI overviews for more users. Previously, the feature was being tested for people who had opted into the Google Search Generative Experience (SGE),  which would allow them to try Google’s latest innovations with generative AI. Google claims that this update will give users more information and context to users’ searches.

Users can sign up to try search features that Google is testing and looking to receive feedback on via Search Labs. The Google Search Experience that Google has been working on displays an AI-generated answer which would be followed by the usual search result listings we’re used to. The AI-generated answer would be pre-empted by a very explicit ‘Generative AI is experimental’ disclaimer, and would be indicated visually by being sectioned off with a differently-colored background. 

Google will also show citations for where its AI model would source its information to give you your answer. You could then follow those citations and check out the sources for yourself, continue your search with another query or by perusing the other results, or toggle the AI-generated answer with options that Google provided at the bottom of it. 

The experiment is going outside the Search Labs

Search Engine Land reports that Google is expanding AI-generated answers to more users, even if they haven’t opted into the Search Labs program. A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land that this is being trialed on a “subset of queries, on a small percentage of search traffic in the U.S.”

The experimental search experience was announced in a Google Keyword blog post in May 2023, encouraging users to embrace the newer AI-powered features of search. These include searching visually with Google Lens and using multiple modalities, meaning different types of data, namely using text and images, to make search queries. Google claims it’s making progress in the way we can search, and now will be able to answer queries that it claims weren’t possible to answer earlier. 

The spokesperson continued that Google wants “feedback from searchers who have not opted into SGE specifically,” to get a sense of users' impressions from a more general population of searchers.

A major twist to a classic - big risk, big reward?

I can see why Google is pushing hard for this. Microsoft is going ahead at full steam to inject its AI tools into multiple apps, including many beloved classic applications. Google is still very much in the AI race with its recent release of the generative AI model, Gemini. 

Right now, it still seems like a very limited run of testing, but I expect that Google will expand this to more and more users. Now, I’ve found generative AI answers useful, especially for longer queries with more context, and having the sources there is a huge plus. That said, I’ve used it probably only a handful of times so far in place of when I maybe would have used a search engine. The way that legacy search engines, particularly Google Search, currently display results has become the industry standard, and it's pretty clear and straightforward. 

A change like this would be a pretty considerable shakeup to the status quo, and some industry observers are already concerned that Google is being too persistent with its efforts to integrate AI into existing products like Google Search. This could also affect how news and media sites operate in a significant way, as they largely depend on traffic from Google Search results, which would likely end up much further down the page.

Changes to things that have become staples of our day-to-day lives are almost always controversial, but maybe the proof is in the pudding and Google might be right that this will be a preferable way to search. The only way to know is to test it, which it’s doing, but I would be wary of making it a default search results format. Perhaps it would be better for Google to make it an opt-in change, even if prominently displayed, as that would give users the choice of whether they’d like to try the new format. If users aren’t even willing to try it after being offered, that’s also valuable feedback that Google should take on board.

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Phrases like “What’s on the internet is forever” have become commonplace, but lately that might be becoming less and less accurate, as Google is preparing to stop backing up cached pages. 

A cached page is a digital copy of a web page that’s stored in an individual user’s or organization’s temporary storage (such as short-term session storage). This essentially functions like a backup or ‘snapshot’ of these websites, and Google Search would make these backups as it combed the web for search results.  

Google has been creating and storing different types of cached pages for pretty much as long as Google Search has existed, and Google’s collection of cached pages is sometimes called a “backup of the Internet.” Its practice of caching websites has been fundamental to Google’s search infrastructure since the start, and these cached links allow people to be able to see at least a past version of the site. This can be handy if the web page has gone offline for some reason, or if there have been substantial changes made.

The implications and thinking beyond Google

That’s now going to change, and Google will cease caching websites, according to Google’s official “Search Liaison” Danny Sulivan, as explained in his lengthy X (formerly Twitter) post.

He writes: 

“Yes, it's been removed. I know, it's sad. I'm sad too. It's one of our oldest features. But it was meant for helping people access pages when way back, you often couldn't depend on a page loading. These days, things have greatly improved. So, it was decided to retire it.”

He also goes on to suggest that Google might make use of the Internet Archive’s library of snapshots of web pages in the About This Result section of future Google Search results. We can infer that he probably means the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, its digital archive of the World Wide Web. He praised the Internet Archive for what it does and clarifies that Google will have to reach out to the Internet Archive to make this happen.

The Wayback Machine is somewhat similar to Google’s collection of cached pages, except a good deal smaller and younger than Google Search. While Sulivan is probably on to something, it’s going to be a challenge for Google to resolve if it wants to keep up the credibility of its search results. 

The Wayback Machine is quite extensive, but it’s not as extensive as Google’s collection of cached information. Also, the Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization with more limited resources than the likes of Google, and it prioritizes more popular and significant websites. Additionally, it would be relinquishing a great deal of control over the archival process and passing over a lot of that responsibility to the Internet Archive.

The wider implications and how you can cache a page for yourself

Cached pages have been disappearing and reappearing for some users since December 2023, and according to Ars Technica, as of February 2, 2024, it couldn’t locate any Google Search cache links. 

It does point out that for now, you can create your own cache links through one of the following ways: 

1. Type "https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:" plus the website URL of the website you’d like to cache (without the quotation marks)

2. Enter “cache:” (without quotation marks) plus a URL straight into Google Search. 

Ars Technica also reports that Google has taken down all of the support pages about cached websites. 

Before this change, every result that came up in a Google Search would have cached links that could be found in the drop-down menu next to it. A Google web crawler would continuously scour the web to try and find updated pages (to make sure its search results were up to date), and in that process, it would save the version of the page that it came across at the moment it found it. 

It’s easy to imagine how all this storing of historical websites could pile up to immense amounts of data, especially as internet use and use of Google search in particular have grown over the past few decades. This might be a move to cut data storage costs, as getting rid of its vast collection of cached pages will probably free a lot of storage space.

If this is a cost-cutting move, then it will be a real shame, as Google’s caching of the internet has been a vital part of documenting and preserving the ever-evolving World Wide Web, which has not just been useful for researchers and students, but for anyone who wanted to revisit sites and pages that have otherwise disappeared.

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A study by German researchers has confirmed what many of us have long suspected: Google search really is getting worse.

A team of researchers led by Leipzig University, Bauhaus-University Weimar, and the Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, have conducted a year-long research experiment to answer the question "Is Google Getting Worse?", and the answer was essentially a resounding ‘yes’. The study wasn’t specifically confined to Google, also analyzing results from the Bing and DuckDuckGo search engines.

The researchers specifically examined product review search terms, meaning that we shouldn’t immediately panic: searches for short questions with factual answers still return accurate results, for example. However, the study did find that across all search engines, “higher-ranked pages” frequently showed “signs of lower text quality” - specifically, SEO spam.

Seek, Engage, Obliterate

For the uninitiated, SEO stands for ‘search engine optimization’: the process of optimizing the content of a web page to secure better rankings in search engine results. This process has evolved significantly over the years; gone are the days when you could simply slap the product name into an article 100 times and lock in the top search result spot. Google works tirelessly to optimize its own search algorithms to combat spam and deliver the best results for users, so the demands of SEO are constantly changing.

SEO has become a dirty word among many online media outlets - trying to keep up with Google’s ever-shifting algorithms often sees sites throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, and sometimes results in low-quality content being ‘rewarded’ by search engines because it manages to tick the right boxes. SEO has become a cottage industry of sorts, with companies promising (sometimes falsely) to ensure that your site will be the top-ranked result for the relevant search terms. The need for good SEO can come at the expense of content quality itself, a frustrating paradox since high-quality content should naturally rise to the top of search results.

Google isn’t entirely to blame here, of course. The study did note that Google performed better than Bing and DuckDuckGo in several key areas, and when we reached out for comment, a Google spokesperson concurred that “the study itself points out that Google has improved over the past year and is performing better than other search engines”. They also claimed that Google has “launched specific improvements to address these issues”, and highlighted that other third-party studies have found that “Google consistently surfaces higher quality results”, including this New York Times study from 2022.

However, there may be deeper problems at play than mere SEO spam attempts. The advent of generative AI tools such as the immensely popular ChatGPT has seen a marked increase in low-quality content specifically targeted to Google’s algorithm, and we’re only at the start of it.

The machines are coming… for your search results

The German team behind the study noted “a trend toward simplified, repetitive, and potentially AI-generated content”, and Bing and Google themselves are already introducing AI-produced search results, via the ChatGPT-powered Bing AI and Google’s own Google Bard. After all, why bother writing content and trying to optimize it for a search engine if a machine can do it for you?

There’s been a veritable avalanche of AI-generated content online since the dawn of ChatGPT, with many turning to machine learning tools to try to make a quick buck off the back of Google search traffic. Sites like the aptly named Robots.net are designed to churn out articles that target popular search terms, trying to draw traffic away from legitimate reviewers and journalists. These articles are assembled from the actual work of product reviewers and buying guide editors, scraped from dozens of reputable sites, and smashed together into something the AI thinks will please Google. Algorithms trying to satisfy algorithms… it’s a weird world, isn’t it?

You’ll notice I haven’t linked Robots.net despite our usual practice of linking directly to other news sites when we reference them, which is - somewhat amusingly - for SEO reasons. I don’t particularly want Google’s all-seeing algorithm to think we here at TechRadar are in any way associated with that sort of AI-authored drivel, but you can check it out for yourself if you’d like; it’s dismal stuff.

As the reach of AI expands, the researchers warn that many internet users have already noticed “a torrent of low-quality content” that “keeps drowning any kind of useful information in search results.” I can’t say I disagree, and AI programs arguably have far greater capacity than human writers and editors to ‘game the system’ when it comes to SEO, so there’s a definite danger things are only going to get worse.

Of course, Google isn’t going to take this lying down. Combating AI spam is a major priority for the tech giant right now, although some have questioned Google’s sincerity on the matter - understandable, given Google’s own forays into AI use for search results. But I’d like to believe the powers that be at Google know that people don’t want content written by bots, for bots. Hopefully, the near future will hold changes that ensure the articles you get when you search for ‘best budget gaming PC’ are written by humans, for humans.

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Currently, Apple and Google are engaged in a lucrative partnership that nets the former around $8 billion a year. This partnership involves Apple sending its sizable userbase (think billions!) to Google Search and, in return, it receives a commission from Google’s search ad revenue. Though Apple benefits tremendously, Google still needs Apple to promote the search engine and maintain its market dominance.

This arrangement means that Apple gets to enjoy several advantages, like having free resources to improve its non-web search capabilities, as well as having the world’s most effective bargaining chip when it comes to price negotiations with Google.

Despite this, Apple’s policy has always been to “own the core technologies underlying its products,” as Bloomberg puts it. If the tech giant ever took advantage of its knowledge and close proximity to Google’s search engine, it would wield great search power and get to keep more ad revenue. It wouldn’t have to match Google’s ability to sell advertising and search slots. Making its own in-house engine would be more than enough to increase revenue.

However, Apple has been developing its own search engine for years now. According to Bloomberg, John Giannandrea, a former Google executive who’s now in charge of machine learning and AI at Apple, has been running a search engine team for several years. The engine is codenamed ‘Pegasus,’ and it’s essentially a search engine for Apple’s own apps that’ll be making its way to more of them, including the App Store.

There’s also Spotlight, an engine that lets users find features and tools across their devices. Recently, Apple added web search support to Spotlight, which helped users find answers to their questions by pointing them to various sites. 

Apple's web search has been powered by both Microsoft Bing and Google in the past. Giannandrea and his team have also been looking to integrate Apple’s search features into iOS and macOS while enhancing that tech with generative AI tools.

There’s also tech that Apple already uses to enhance its search tools’ capabilities, including Applebot. It works by scouring the internet and indexing websites for more accurate search results, providing its users with more websites through Siri and Spotlight. 

Apple also has an advertising technology team, something that puts it much closer to Google if the former ever decides to actually create its own full-fledged search engine.

What’s stopping the massive tech giant? It seems that Apple has no desire to make its own search engines. Its partnership with Google works best, at least according to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services. 

Cue is most likely on the money, as Apple tends to keep partnerships that serve its best interests. If Apple ever decided to fully invest in a search engine, it would simply do so, similar to how Apple partnered with Intel for years for its chips, until it didn’t and began designing its own silicon in-house.

A search engine is its own behemoth, one that Apple is probably not interested in tackling anytime soon.

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Most people don’t remember what it was like to search the Internet before Google, which turns 25 today. It’s not that Google was the first to crawl and index the web. Others, like Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, and Northern Lights did their best to help us make sense of the rapidly expanding Information superhighway (read our round-up of pre-Google services).

We searched because it was faster than crawling through links, hoping you’d find the right site, or using a browse tree like Yahoo search. I don’t know, though, that we thought of a web search and its results as answering questions. Or maybe we did but assumed that the Web was already, by 1998, too vast to spelunk to the center and hope to find anything.

The internet was so big, it became like some unsolvable math proof. The search engines of the time were not up to the task and most of us threw up our hands in surrender. We assumed the web would keep growing and become ever more unknowable.

Google, though, started by solving that equation. Founders and then Stanford Ph.D. students Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s measures for rank and relevancy changed how we search the web and think about it, too.

Less than a year into launch Google was lauded by PC Magazine, which awarded it a Technical Excellence Award, as “a search engine that consistently returns good results.”

Google PageRanked it all

What Google showed us is that the Internet was not billions of unconnected pages full of buried information. Instead, Google recognized the hidden power of interconnectedness 

Links were the key to relevance because when someone trusted an information source, they linked to it from their own web page. If enough people did that, Google was designed to assign that a higher relevance value than information that no one pointed to. Added to that was early text recognition that could verify the quality and, again, the connectedness of the information. If the words on linked pages matched, they were talking about the same topic. The cross-link and that were strong signals of value.

Because this worked so well, Google’s PageRank soon became king or kingmaker.

I can’t imagine an online world in which we do not look at the web like this. Imagine if all the bazillion bits of information were still seen as a flat plain of information wrapping around and around the world, overlapping but never connecting. What a tragedy that would’ve been.

Conversely, Google’s insistence that information is only relevant if someone else deemed it so with a link transformed how we built the web. No new information could be added without internal and external links.

Google made us

Over time, we learned that Google had not just these two signals, PageRank, and text matching, but dozens of others that helped Google assess page and information value.

The more we learned, the more we built the Web in Google’s image.

Without Google, it might be impossible to effectively search the web but then it also might be a more egalitarian space where even the smallest bit of seemingly inconsequential information could rise up and be found. But, of course, it would never be found because there’s too much information. 

Google is now, obviously so much more than just search. It’s not even Google anymore. It’s Alphabet, with Google Search being just a small piece of it.

While the original Google knew its purpose and how to achieve it, today’s Google is juggling competing interests. A Google query might just as easily bring back video clips, images, or shopping links, as it might a text result. Modern Google is trying to solve for a new math proof, ‘What does the best result look like?”

It might also be struggling, just a tiny bit, to maintain relevance. Gen Z prefers searching with TikTok instead of traditional search engines.

Even so, no platform handles complex queries like Google. We use it because Google is so effective at answering not just single-word queries, but full-sentence questions (AI is taking that to paragraphs).

Do you feel lucky?

25 years in, the solution to the Web remains Google.

Still, I do miss the simpler times of Google where a query returned a spare page that focused less on juggling a smorgasbord of multimedia than just a list of relevant results with the keywords highlighted in blue (and cached pages that I miss to this day). The rabbit hole of information was confined to similar results and not much else.

A vestige of those simpler times remains on Google: the “I Feel Lucky” button.

It’s been there almost from day one, a randomized search result based not on a query but Google’s whim. It’s a little different now. Within the button is a set of random options like “I feel doodly”, “I feel funny,” and so on. With each click, you can get a different result, a new avenue of wild discovery.

When I clicked the “doodly” one, I got a retrospective of 25 years of Google Doodles. Another click on “I feel playful” gave my entire page result a barrel roll (the screen rotated as if it was rolling). And when I clicked “I feel lucky”, I got a list of animal sounds that I could play. All nods to the many Google easter eggs we've seen over the years.

It reminds me that while Google and the efforts of those who seek to appear on the first page in Google Search results are serious business, redefining the web didn’t start out that way.

The web of the 1990s was mysterious, funny, weird, dangerous, and entertaining. It was unknowable and exciting because you never knew what you were going to find. Until Google came along; then we knew exactly what we wanted and how to find it.

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Most tech companies change their logo once or twice in a lifetime. But for Google, rebranding is a weekly exercise: since August 30, 1998 (exactly 25 years ago today) the search giant has regularly replaced its official homepage emblem with artistic Doodles that recognize historical figures, events and inventions.

From the Olympics to the London Underground, Bob Ross to Beethoven, the subjects of Google’s Doodles have been many and varied. Some honor famous names and public holidays, while others use the platform to shine a spotlight on characters and stories that might otherwise escape our attention.

And it’s not just the subjects that deserve attention. Interactive puzzles, animated scenes and impressionist illustrations: the best Google Doodles showcase the creative talent and inventive originality of their designers.

Over the last 25 years, Google has redesigned its logo thousands of times. What started as playful way for founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to share their out-of-office message with staff (see 'Burning Man', right) has grown into a company tradition that now employs a team of illustrators – or doodlers, in Google lingo – to produce alternative logos that salute anniversaries of innovation.

You’ll find each and every version available to view in the Doodles Archive, together with the story behind the interpretation and the countries where it was seen. Many entries in the Archive also include the doodles behind the Doodle – the early ideas and sketches that led to the end result.

Don’t have time to delve? To celebrate a quarter of a century since the first Google Doodle hit our computer screens, we’ve picked out 12 of our all-time favorites and explained their meaning. And yes, we are a little biased towards tech and pop culture, naturally...

12. 50th Anniversary of the LEGO Brick (28 January 2008)

Nothing says creativity quite like a Lego brick. Although Larry and Sergey used Duplo clone blocks to create the first Google server enclosure while studying at Stanford, anecdotal evidence suggests Google’s corporate colors were inspired by the Danish building system.

True or otherwise, Google marked the 50th anniversary of the humble Lego brick with a well-constructed Doodle in 2008. Sticking with its traditional hues of blue, red, yellow and green, Google replaced the letters in its logo with brick-built equivalents, rendered in 3D and positioned at different angles to emphasize the effect – complete with an dungaree-clad minifigure teetering atop the middle “g”.

• Read more about the 50th anniversary of the Lego Brick Doodle

11. Celebrating 50 years of Kids Coding (4 December 2017)

Google’s only as good as its coders, so it makes sense that the software company would encourage youngsters to have a go at programming. This collaboration between Google’s Doodle and Blockly teams, together with researchers from MIT, did exactly that.

Unveiled during Computer Science Education Week in 2017, the Coding for Carrots Doodle helped kids to engage with the basics of coding, as they guided a rabbit around isometric levels on the hunt for root vegetables.

With Scratch-based coding blocks and natty graphics, it was an apt way to celebrate 50 years since the introduction of children’s programming languages. 

• Play the Coding for Carrots Doodle

10. Jim Henson's 75th Birthday (24 September 2011)

From The Muppet Show to Sesame Street, Jim Henson entertained millions with his mastery of puppetry and animatronics. Each of his characters started life as a doodle, before evolving into the larger-than-life creatures seen on screens the world over. It’s apt, then, that Google recognized his 75th birthday with a Doodle that let us take control of digital puppets.

Modelled by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, each of the five original characters epitomized the quirky creativity of the Muppets inventor. Click the hand icon beneath a puppet and it would start following your mouse with its gaze, while clicking again would make its mouth move. And just like Henson’s imagination, the puppets kept things surprising with animation Easter eggs – including one puppet eating another.

• Play with the Jim Henson's 75th Birthday Doodle

9. 30th Anniversary of the World Wide Web (12 March 2019)

Google wouldn’t mean much without the World Wide Web. Created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee to help colleagues at the CERN laboratory share information, the World Wide Web – and its HTML and HTTP building blocks, also developed by Berners-Lee – is the foundation of all our browsing today. It’s fitting, then, that the 30th anniversary of its invention was commemorated with this Doodle. 

Depicting a pixellated take on the Google logo, the second “o” is replaced by a desktop PC, connected to a data outlet at the center of the first. The animated graphic shows a low-res image of the earth loading and then revolving – a nod to how the Web connected the world.

• Read more about the 30th Anniversary of the World Wide Web Doodle

8. Rubik's Cube (19 May 2014)

Few puzzle toys are as instantly recognizable as the Rubik’s cube. Challenging players for decades, its premise is a deceptively straightforward one: match up all the colors on each side by rotating its segments around three axes. Easy to pick up but tricky to master, it remains an enduring favorite for tactile solving.

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, Google released a Rubik’s Cube Doodle in 2014. The placeholder animation cleverly references the colors of the Google logo across two sides of the Cube, while the full puzzle let users try and solve a virtual version using their mouse or keyboard.

Sadly, the interactive Doodle is no longer available online, but it remains one of our favorites for its simple brilliance – much like the original.

• Read more about the Rubik's Cube Doodle

7. Mundaneum co-founder Paul Otlet's 147th Birthday (23 August 2015)

Visionary ideas looked different at the turn of the 20th century. Working together with Henri La Fontaine, Belgian lawyer Paul Otlet developed a system of some 12 million searchable index cards – a kind of analog precursor to Google. In a display of remarkable (and prescient) forward thinking, pioneering Paul had a vision for this Mundaneum as a universal repository for information, freely accessible to all. 

Google revealed this Doodle on the 147th anniversary of his birth. Cleverly spelling Google using the drawers of the Mundaneum, it’s designed as a tribute to Otlet’s ideas and how much they continue to influence Google.

• Read more about the Mundaneum co-founder Paul Otlet's 147th Birthday

6. Alan Turing's 100th Birthday (23 June 2012)

Widely regarded as the founder of computer science, Alan Turing’s far-sighted ideas still shape technology today. His codebreaking work during World War II both shortened the conflict and pioneered early computing, while his test for artificial intelligence remains as salient as ever.

To commemorate what would have been his 100th birthday, Google developed a Doodle which brought to life a Turing Machine – a logical model developed by Turing for the computation of numbers. No mean feat, according to the team behind it: due to its theoretical nature, they “had to walk a fine line between technical accuracy and accessibility”.

The end result is a series of twelve interactive puzzles which reveal the Google logo when solved. A clever tribute to a very clever man.

• See the Google Doodle for Alan Turing's 100th Birthday

5. 44th Anniversary of the Birth of Hip Hop (11 August 2017)

On one look alone, this Hip Hop-themed Doodle does enough to earn a spot in this list: its logo graphic is the work of celebrated graffiti artist Cey Adams. But the records replacing the “o” letters are your clue that something more is in store: hit the pulsating play button and you’ll be taken on a journey through hip hop history, narrated by Fab 5 Freddy – a legend of the genre – plus a tutorial on mixing.

An animated intro tells the story of how DJ Kool Herc sent crowds into a frenzy at a party in the Bronx, playing only the instrumental sections of songs. Then the Doodle turns it over to you: after a short tutorial, you’re let loose on a virtual set of decks. Goals encourage you to scratch your way through a basket stacked with Seventies and Eighties records, many of which can be heard as samples in some of hip hop’s greatest hits.

• Watch and play the 44th Anniversary of the Birth of Hip Hop Doodle

4. Gerald "Jerry" Lawson's 82nd Birthday (1 December 2022)

Without Gerald Lawson, a generation of gamers would never have blown dust out of plastic cartridges. In 1976, the electronic engineer headed up the team that created the first cartridge-based video game system, setting the stage for later living room legends like the Atari 2600 and NES.

Acknowledging his pivotal contribution to modern video gaming, Google produced an interactive Doodle for what would have been Jerry’s 82nd birthday. Featuring several playable levels created by guest artists and game designers, it tells the story of the Brooklyn-born innovator, before allowing you to create and edit levels of your own.

• Play the Gerald "Jerry" Lawson's 82nd Birthday Doodle

3. Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary (23 November 2013)

Like the TARDIS, this Doodle’s bigger on the inside. Requested by a Doctor Who fan at Google, it’s an adventure in time and space befitting TV’s longest-running sci-fi show.

Released to mark 50 years of Time Lords appearing on our screens, the Doctor Who Doodle features the first eleven Doctors, each wielding a sonic screwdriver and clad in trademark attire – whether bow tie or Panama hat.

Select your favorite generation, then click across the galaxy as you navigate six mini games to recover stolen letters, steering clear of the deadly Daleks. It’s so entertaining that you might find you’ve travelled in time past a deadline.

• Play the Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary Doodle

2. Robert Moog's 78th Birthday (23 May 2012)

Robert Moog’s modular synthesizer bridged the gap between analog and digital. Built in the 1960s, its rich tones shaped the sound of music for decades after, featuring on records by everyone from The Beatles to the Beastie Boys.

According to the Doodle description, “Bob Moog is…a hero to many of us”. So in honor of his 78th birthday, Google replaced its logo with a fully functioning digital replica of the innovative synth, which could be operated by mouse or keyboard.

Like the real thing, its array of knobs and dials made it possible to create all sorts of sonic flavors. What’s more, Google also included a virtual four-track tape recorder, allowing you to capture your electronic jams and share them via – what else? – Google Plus. 

• Play the Robert Moog's 78th Birthday Doodle

1. 30th Anniversary of PAC-MAN (21 May 2010)

Pac-Man’s cultural impact can’t really be overstated. An icon of Eighties 8-bit gaming, the arcade classic has spawned sequels, merch and even movie cameos. With simple mechanics that made gaming more accessible – not to mention the trademark “waka waka” that rang out as Pac-Man munched his way away from the ghosts – it remains addictively fun to play today.

Created for the game’s 30th birthday, Google’s Pac-Man emulator became one of the most memorable Doodles ever – and in our opinion, the best one so far. Staying true to the original’s graphics and sounds, users click to insert a coin, before navigating with the arrow keys around a maze featuring Google’s moniker. 

Cue hours spent procrastinating instead of searching – especially when you discover the Google Easter egg: click again to insert a second coin and Ms Pac-Man joins the fray, controlled by the WASD keys. Back yourself to set a high-score? Try it in the Doodles Archive.

• Play the 30th Anniversary of PAC-MAN Doodle

After a heavy-handed ad push targeting users who use a default search engine other than Microsoft Bing, it appears that Microsoft has put a pause on it.  

Both Neowin and Windows Latest reported in recent articles that they’ve been seeing an increasing number of ads for Bing and Edge while using Windows 10 and Windows 11. 

Many users have been seeing repeated ads trying to herd them over to Microsoft products (like Bing search) while using the Google Chrome browser (which, rather unsurprisingly, uses Google as the default search engine). Some have even apparently been bugged by these ads while playing games. As detailed by Windows Latest, the new ad was a pop-up that appeared in the lower right corner of the desktop screen, persistently showing up over a number apps and games. 

This pop-up would try to convince Chrome users to consider using Bing as their default search engine, touting the benefits of Bing’s AI chat, as well as highlighting Microsoft Rewards. 

Microsoft Rewards is the company’s loyalty program, and offers rewards in exchange for use of Microsoft Edge and Bing for things like searching, buying apps and games, and playing Microsoft games. We've looked at how Microsoft Rewards compares with other tech rewards schemes.

Microsoft backtracks

Now, according to a statement obtained by Windows Latest, a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed that Microsoft is conscious of the Bing ad campaign, including the pop-up over appearing over the top of games (which seemingly overrode notification settings), and that the tech giant has paused the adverts while it looks into the situation. Windows Latest reports that the adverts appear to have indeed stopped popping up.

The suspected overriding of notification settings such as focus-assist, which targeted users of Google Chrome and Google Search specifically, is particularly concerning. This ad would appear over and over, ignoring the user’s wishes. Clearly, users who have decided to go with Google’s products, rather than Microsoft’s, won’t be too happy being constantly bugged about changing their mind.

Further digging by Windows Latest has shown that the recurring notification is tied to an executed process named “BGAUpsell.EXE '' that’s linked to Microsoft Bing Service 2.0, which is intended to prop up Bing in the operating system. 

The file has a line reference named  “IsEdgeUsedInLast48Hours,” which probably does what it says on the tin and notifies the system if Microsoft Edge hasn’t been used in the last forty eight hours. 

There’s further speculation that Microsoft is capable of detecting whether Google Search (or any search engine in general) is used actively on a Windows device, allowing it to target those who choose to use a browser or search engine that isn’t made by Microsoft. One ad highlighted that Edge has all the features of Chrome (as it’s based on Google's own Chromium) but with Microsoft’s improved security (an interesting and possibly debatable claim).

Users left frustrated

It makes sense to me that people are annoyed with Microsoft’s nagging. Neowin calls Microsoft “desperate” and the marketing tactic “aggressive,” and I find it hard not to agree. That said, Microsoft isn’t the only one guilty of this sort of forceful advertising.

For example, Google engages in similar strategies, presenting Google recommendation pop-ups when a user visits YouTube, Gmail, or some other Google services in the Edge browser. 

Hopefully Microsoft at least rethinks how it advertises its products without coming across as too pushy, and Google follows suit. 

Users should be allowed to use the browser and search engine of their choice in peace. I wonder how long the halt in advertising will be and, most of all, I hope Microsoft takes note of users’ relief during the pause.

Google Search is apparently now an English teacher as, not only will it check your spelling, it will now check your grammar.

Available on both desktop and mobile devices, the aptly named grammar check tool will determine whether a sentence or phrase you entered is grammatically correct. If it isn’t, Google will offer suggestions on how to fix it. For example, typing in “the cat bite me check grammar” into the search bar will cause Google to respond with “the cat bit me” as the correction. Hovering over the fixed text makes a “Copy” button appear for quick copying. If you enter a grammatically correct sentence, the tool will simply respond with a green checkmark next to the entry.

Unlike spell check, grammar check won’t activate automatically. Instead, you'll have to enter a trigger command such as “grammar checker”, “grammar check”, or “check grammar” at the end of a phrase. This is probably for the best as people don’t always enter full sentences into Google Search. It would get annoying really fast if every time you typed in a few words, the feature activated.

Limitations

There are some restrictions. First, it’s currently only available in English with no word if the update will expand to other languages. Next, the company is warning people that results “might not be 100 percent accurate, especially with partial sentences.” It’s recommended you stick with double-checking fleshed-out sentences instead, although the tool may still have some trouble.

In our experience, grammar check is unable to determine the difference between “less” and “fewer”. We entered, “My grocery cart has less items than the person in front” with a trigger command at the end. No matter what command we used, the feature would not activate. Because of its limited nature, Google is asking people to provide feedback which you can do by clicking the Feedback button on a grammar check result. A window will pop up where you make comments.

It’s also important to mention that the text you enter must adhere to Google Search policy. You cannot input profanity or anything hateful, dangerous, or medical in nature among other things. The full policy can be read on the Google Search Help website. 

We reached out to Google to ask if it has plans to expand to other languages and if this update is available in other countries or if is it US-only. None of the official pages mention any other global regions. This story will be updated if we hear back. 

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Google is introducing several new privacy changes to its search engine including an alert system that lets you know if personal information suddenly pops up online.

The alerts will be a part of the Results About You tool which is getting an improved dashboard letting “you know if web results with your contact [details] are showing up on Search.” If they do show up, you can request their removal right on the dashboard. Google will also let you know if any new results containing personal details ever crop up in the future. There is an alternate method the company recommends trying out. Google says you can enter your name into the search bar, and if you see your sensitive information anywhere on-screen, click the three dots to the right. You will see a “Remove Result” in the About This Result window.

The image below shows you what it looks like.

It may take a few days before the tech giant actually pulls the content. Google says it will perform a mini investigation to make sure the request lines up with its “policy requirements for removal”. The company will apparently deny requests to pull information from websites owned by either a “government or educational institution.”

The redesigned Results About You dashboard is currently rolling out to users in the United States where it will be available in English only – at least, for now. There are plans to expand the tool to support more “languages and locations soon.”

Search engine tweaks

As for the rest of the privacy upgrade, Google is making a few tweaks to its search engine. The blurring effect in image searches, something that was first seen earlier this year, is now being made into a default setting to protect families from encountering “explicit imagery”.

Speaking of families, parental controls can now be directly accessed on Search. All you have to do is enter in “google parental controls” or “google family link”. A box offering quick access to parental control management will appear on the right side. 

The last feature is a policy update giving people the opportunity to take down “personal, explicit images that they no longer wish to be visible” on the platform. The company gives the example of removing intimate content “being published elsewhere without approval” or consent. This change, however, “doesn’t apply to content” currently being commercialized. The removal form for this can be found on the Google Search Help website.

It’s unknown if either the blurring effect or policy update will be present outside the United States. The wording is a little vague.  We asked a company representative for more details. This story will be updated at a later time.

Deleting information from Google Search is just one step in being totally anonymous on the internet. If you’d like to learn more, be sure to check out TechRadar’s guide on how to remove yourself from the internet. We’ve put together a list of nine suggested actions you can take right now. 

Update 8/4/23: A company representative confirmed that both the blurring setting and the updated removals policy are available globally.

Google Search is the cornerstone of just about everyone’s online experience. Often, it’s the first thing you see when you boot up your computer in the morning, and the first place you go on your phone when planning trips, asking questions, or looking for recommendations.

The household-name search engine company has already shown its chops in the field of artificial intelligence with Google Bard, talkative rival chatbot to OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT. Now, Google plans to update its search experience with AI, and you can try it out for yourself if you’re signed up to the tech giant’s ‘Search Labs’ testing platform.

With Google’s AI-powered ‘generative search experience’ (announced earlier this year at Google I/O, abbreviated to SGE) you’ll put an inquiry into the search bar and receive AI-generated responses on the topic, photos, and other relevant information from the web. So rather than seeing the first few results from different websites or platforms as you normally would, you’d first get the AI-generated results in a sort of brief summary, and then will be able to scroll down to find the usual results.

But how exactly does this new form of googling - an activity that has literally made it into most dictionaries at this point - stand to improve our online search experiences? Google has broken down three ways that SGE will make a big difference; let’s take a look.

1. See it to understand it

The official blog gives an example of how visual results will be improved by the new search function. When you search for ‘tiniest birds of prey’, you’ll first get pictures of the cute little birds, the generated text response, and relevant links below. Previously, you would’ve had to navigate to a different page for images, and go to a whole new website to receive any actual information. 

2. Faster AI-powered overviews

With a new search engine layout, Google plans to cut AI response time in half with a recent improvement which will get you results a lot faster. If you’re looking for cleaning advice, a place to grab lunch, or how-to guides, you’re going to want that information fast. AI-generated responses can help cut down the time spent searching for answers to your query.

3. Learn more about what interests you

Google describes SGE as a ‘jumping off point for exploring helpful information’ and will include links to actual search results with each AI overview. They will be adding publish dates to these links to make sure you’re kept up to date. In other words, SGE will help ensure you don’t stumble across outdated info, and provide in-context AI-curated sources for further reading.

4. Get product recommendations instantly

Don’t get us wrong - if you want a properly curated list of product reviews (say, a ranking of the best laptops), you’re generally going to want to go to an actual website. But SGE can provide you a sort of potted summary of these best-of lists; search for a specific product you want to buy - Google suggests ‘peel and stick wallpaper for kitchen’ - and SGE can generate a list of the best options with links to retailers, along with an FAQ about the product you’re searching for. It's a potentially useful alternative for web users who aren't sure which sites they can trust.

Google has opened up access to its Search Labs testing program allowing users to try out the upcoming search engine update with the most notable change being the Search Generative Experience or SGE.

To be clear, Search Labs isn’t technically open to the public as you’ll have to first join a waitlist. If you’ve already signed up, be sure to check your email account for an invitation from Google as they're currently rolling out. Don’t worry if you haven’t entered as there’s still room left in the waitlist on both desktop and mobile.

To join on desktop, you need to first install Google Chrome on your computer. From there, head on over to the Search Labs website, select Join Waitlist, and wait for the invitation to arrive. On mobile devices, launch the Google app. You should see a science beaker-esque icon in the top left corner of the screen. Just like before, select Join Waitlist then wait for the invite. Search Labs is available on both iOS and Android so no one’s being left out. Install the latest app update if you don't see the icon.

Limited-time only

Unless you’re a subscriber to Google One Premium, it may take a while until you get an invite. A recent report from 9To5Google states Premium subscribers are getting “priority access” to Search Labs, although “it won’t be immediate.” “Access spots are limited” at the moment, but more will open up over “the coming weeks. 

But once you get the invite, act fast. SGE and the rest of the Search Labs experiments will be available for a limited time only. It’s unknown for how long, so we asked Google for more information. This story will be updated if we hear back.

There’s been a fair amount of hype surrounding SGE ever since it was first revealed during I/O 2023. The technology essentially enhances Google Search to provide long, detailed responses to queries by taking context into consideration. It could very well completely change how people use the search engine. 

Word of advice

For the lucky few who get early access to SGE, Google recommends starting off with simple terms so you can get used to how the AI works. Once you get a feel for it, try entering more specific queries. One of the highlighted use cases of SGE is to help people with their shopping. The AI can generate a detailed list of features, reviews, price points, and even link to the product itself.

In addition to Google’s advice, we have some of our own because we’ve used multiple generative AI models from Bing to Brave Summarizer. One thing we’ve learned is generative AIs can hallucinate, meaning they come up with totally false information that bears no resemblance to reality. Don't always believe what you read. And do be mindful of what you enter as generative AIs keep the information you type in. In fact, some major tech corporations, like Samsung, have banned their employees from using ChatGPT after some sensitive information was leaked.

Google I/O 2023 revealed a lot more than just the tech giant’s AI tools. Be sure to check out TechRadar’s coverage of the event as it happened.

Like us, Google is a big fan of Easter eggs, though it particularly likes the software rather than chocolate kind – those little hidden surprises tucked away inside apps and services for users to stumble upon.

The search giant has been burying Easter Eggs in its software more consistently than any other tech company for the past 25 years. Whether you're using Google Search, Google Maps, Android, Google Earth or its Assistant, there are dozens of little inside jokes and waiting to be found.

But what are its best Easter eggs and how do you find them? We've been out on a digital hunt to track them down, and you'll find all of our favorite ones below. Use the navigation bar to find your way around – there's everything from recent nods to The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Last of Us, to some brilliant Street View art in New York.

Not all of the Easter Eggs below are just for mild amusement either – we've also picked out some handy hidden tools that you may not know were tucked away in Google Search, from bubble levels to guitar tuners.

So as we head towards the launch of the Google Pixel 8 and potential surprises that event has in store, here's our pick of the best Google Easter eggs of the past 25 years that you can still find. And no, they don't yet include Google Bard, which says it doesn't have any hidden features – for now, at least...

New Google Easter eggs

Google has been hiding Easter eggs inside Search for a quarter of a century, but we thought we'd start by highlighting some of its most recent nods to films, TV shows and gaming (tap the arrow on the right of each image to scroll through them)...

Classic Google Easter eggs

Not familiar with the staples of Google's Easter egg history? Here are some of its all-time highlights, including a time machine back to 1998 and, our personal favorite, its interactive treat for puppies and cats (tap the arrow on the right of each image to scroll through them)...

Google Search Easter egg tools

Google's Easter eggs aren't just about games and nerdy in-jokes – some of them are actually pretty handy tools that you can call on when you need them. Here are some of the useful ones that are hidden in Google Search (tap the arrow on the right of each image to scroll through them)...

Google Search Easter egg games

Google Search may not quite be able to run Crysis or Hogwarts Legacy inside its search engine, but there are quite a few hidden games for those who have a couple of minutes to spare while waiting for a meeting.

Many of them were originally among the best Google Doodles, and while some of those have been retired these ones are all still available to pla (tap the arrow on the right of each image to scroll through them)...

Google Maps Easter eggs

To get into the true spirit of Easter egg hunting, there's no better place than Google Maps, Street View and Google Earth – here are our favorite secrets that are hidden away in those mapping services...

21. Visit the International Space Station

Back in 2017, the astronaut and flight engineer Thomas Pesquet popped up to the International Space Station and shot some special photos for Google Street View. Naturally, there wasn't quite enough room for the usual Street View car or apparatus up there, so NASA had to help design a gravity-free method of collecting the imagery using DSLR cameras and equipment that was already on the ISS. 

These were stitched together back on earth – and fortunately you can still visit the virtual space station today to get a sense of what it's like to peek out from The Cupola (the small observation module on the ISS).
Try it: head to the International Space Station on Google Street View

22. Experience surreal Street View art

Over the years, Google Street View has been 'hacked' (or at least co-opted) by many artists to make online pieces that are hidden away as Easter eggs for people to find. One of the most memorable recent ones was created by a mysterious group called the 'Loosi Ninjas'. 

They discovered that the Brookyln Navy Yard was one of the few public spaces in New York that has never been visited by Google's Street View Car. So they made their own stop-motion animation, which took Reddit by storm, that takes you on a journey following a man in a white jumpsuit through some surreal scenes that include paper airplanes, umbrellas, beach balls and fragments of sky. For the full behind-the-scenes story, head to this interview on Moving Image Artists.
Try it: Head here on Google Maps to start the adventure, or type 'Brooklyn Navy Yard' into Google Maps and drop the Street View Pegman anywhere in that area.

23. 'No ice cream for you'

The Google Maps Navigation assistant might sound robotic and unerringly polite, but it is possible to make them break character and reveal their inner sass. When you're in navigation mode, try tapping the microphone and saying "are we there yet?".

Your first response will be the usual polite reminder about how much further you have to go. But try three more times and the Navigation voice will snap and say "If you ask me again, we won't stop for ice cream." That's us told.

24. Have a poke around the TARDIS

A blue police box has been standing outside London's Earls Court underground station for over 25 years, and ten years ago Doctor Who fans were happy to discover that in Google Street View it offers a portal the the heart of the TARDIS. You can have a good look around its control room by clicking on the Street View arrow that appears when your cursor is directly over (or on front of) its doors.
Try it: Head to the Earls Court Police Box in Google Street View, hover your cursor over the box and click the arrow that appears.

25. Pegman Easter eggs

Google Maps' 'Pegman', the little character in the bottom right-hand corner who helps you open Street View, usually just looks like an orange rag doll. But in a few special locations, you'll seem him change into a fitting icon instead.

For example, around Scotland's Loch Ness, Pegman will turn into a little green 'Nessie' with a tartan hat, to honor the famous Loch Ness Monster. Other examples include Pegman turning into an astronaut around the Kennedy Space Center, or a UFO when you type in 'Area 51'.
Try it: Type 'Loch Ness' or 'Area 51' into Google Maps, and drag Pegman from the bottom right-hand corner into the map.

Android Easter eggs

26. Android 14 Easter egg

Google has always been fond of placing Easter eggs into its Android operating system – and it's followed up the cat-theme ones from Android 13 with a new space-themed on in Android 14.

The process is a little involved, but bear with us. If you have a phone that's running Android 14, head over to the Settings app, then scroll down to About Phone and tap that. Now find and press the Android Version option. Tap the number 14 a few times until the settings app closes, and you'll see the Android 14 logo.

Tap and hold this logo and you should see the logo shaking like a rocket during take-off, with stars zooming by in the background. This is just the start – after the logo's lift-off, a space exploration game starts, letting you control a ship by tapping on the screen and dragging it in different directions.

If you're still on Android 13, you can also check out our full guide to the Android 13 Easter egg.

As the weather warms up, people will naturally begin planning their next vacation. Google, in response, is adding four new features across several platforms on smartphones in an effort to help users find good travel deals and build an itinerary.

Arguably the most impactful addition, Google Flights(opens in new tab) is getting a new price guarantee badge to indicate the current price of a ticket is the lowest it will be for that day. That price point will be monitored “every day until departure, and if it does go down,” Google states it will pay you back the difference via Google Pay. The badge is part of a new pilot program so its reach will be limited. It’ll only show information on flights departing from the United States. 

Google Search, on the other hand, is getting a new Stories-like feature for hotel listings where you can swipe through a series of images to give you an idea of what to expect. User reviews and the location’s website will be present on-screen for more information alongside a booking button. The third Search feature adds prices for local tourist attractions and tour companies with an accompanying booking link. Famous locations in particular will have suggestions underneath the listing “for related experiences”, almost like a mini “city-wide tour”.

And finally, Google Maps(opens in new tab) will be getting a Recents tab for desktop displaying recently searched locales on the left-hand menu. You can then place everything in a new list to be saved for the future or to be shared with friends. Recents will be available “globally starting next week” with no word on a mobile version yet. That same Maps post does mention other notable travel tools, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen before like Immersive View and the AR-based Live View.

Availability

The Google Search update is currently rolling out to mobile with some already online. We were able to try out the hotel Stories slideshow, but neither the flight guarantee badge nor tourist attraction prices were available at the time of this writing. Additionally, we asked Google if the company has plans to expand its badge pilot program to other countries and flights arriving in the US. This story will be updated at a later time if we hear back.

Before you go on vacation, there are a couple of other tools we recommend you become familiar with. Google recently launched extreme heat alerts to Search(opens in new tab) to let people know of upcoming heat waves and what to do to stay cool. There's also the tracking tool on Maps allowing users to share their location with friends in case they get lost.

You can learn more about this tracking feature and more by checking out TechRadar’s list of the 10 things you didn’t know Google Maps could do.

Immersive View, the interactive Google Maps feature first announced at Google I/O 2022, is finally rolling out. The feature will initially be available for London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo, and is set to go live for more cities in the coming months. 

Immersive View uses a combination of Street View and aerial imagery to present digital, real-time representations of cities in Google Maps, and Google has confirmed that users in Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence, and Venice will soon be able to access the innovative navigational tool. 

Despite having offices in New York and London, we haven’t yet been able to access (and therefore test) Immersive View for ourselves, which suggests Google is rolling out the new feature on an area-by-area basis (likely due to the significant amount of data-crunching required to implement it on a large scale). Some Reddit users have shared images of Immersive View in action, though, so we know it’s currently live in certain neighborhoods.

In addition to giving you an aerial view of – and real-time crowd, weather, and traffic information for – famous landmarks, Immersive View also highlights essential places like shops, ATMs, and restaurants in your area by using your phone’s camera. 

Again, Google has already begun the rollout of this sub-feature – dubbed Search with Live View – in London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo, but Barcelona, Dublin, and Madrid are next on the agenda. 

Indoor Live View – a Google Maps feature that displays AR-powered arrows to help you find the closest restrooms, lounges, taxi stands, car rentals and other indoor spots – is likewise expanding to more regions. This particular feature has been around in the US, Zurich and Tokyo since 2021, but Google is now planning on making more than 1,000 new airports, train stations and malls across Barcelona, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Paris, Prague, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei compatible with Indoor Live View. 

In other words, Google’s Immersive View Google Maps features are coming to more users in more regions than ever over the next few months – so keep checking your Google Maps app to see what new options are available. 

We’d suggest you connect to Wi-Fi before testing any of those features, mind. One Redditor has pointed out that Immersive View ate up 2GB of data in just half an hour, so those with limited mobile data should use Google Maps cautiously. 

For more Google Maps content, check out our roundup of 10 things you didn't know Google Maps could do, as well as our head-to-head comparison of Apple Maps vs. Google Maps.

Microsoft struck first yesterday with its new ChatGPT-flavored version of Bing yesterday – and now we've just seen Google counter-punch with its AI-themed 'Live from Paris' event.

Google's event wasn't quite as grand as Microsoft's, with its own AI chatbot – called Bard – announced two days ago. Instead, Google chose to showcase the many ways it's baking AI tech into its many apps and services, including Maps, Lens and Translate.

While we've seen many of the features before at events like Google I/O, a few are now actually being rolled out. For example, Google Maps' Immersive View – which gives you Superman-style flyovers of tourist hotspots, complete with simulated weather for different times of the day – is launching in more cities (including London, New York and LA) today and others in the "coming months".

Elsewhere, we also saw a preview of a new Google Lens feature that'll let Android users call on its AI powers in any context with a double-tap of their power button. Electric cars owners will also be pleased to see some new EV-specific features coming to Google Maps, including the best routes that include charging stops.

If you missed the event, the video is now available to re-watch again below. But you can also scan through our commentary to see the main announcements, or check out our quick recap below. The Microsoft Bing vs Google Bard scrap just got very interesting.

What was announced at Google's 'Live from Paris' event?

• Google's "experimental" Bard chatbot is heading to Search within weeks
• Google Maps 'Immersive View' is being rolled out to five major cities
• Google Lens expands on Android phones with new home button feature
• Google Maps Indoor Live View comes to 1,000 new destinations worldwide
• Electric car owners get EV-focused routes and features on Google Maps
• The Google Translate app is getting a fresh redesign with AR features soon

Good morning and welcome to our Google 'Live from Paris' liveblog.

It's another exciting day in AI-land, as Google prepares to counter-punch Microsoft's big announcements for Bing and Edge yesterday. This week's tussle reminds me of the big heavyweight tech battles of the early 2010s, when Microsoft and Google traded petty attacks over mobile and desktop software.

But this is a new era and the squared circle is now AI and machine learning. Microsoft seems to think it can steal a march on Google Search – and against all odds, it might actually do it. I'll reserve judgement until we see what Google announced today. 

So what exactly are we expecting to see from Google today? Clearly, Search is going to be the big theme, as we start to get more detail on exactly how Google's conversational AI is going to be baked into Search.

Any big change to Search would clearly be a huge deal, as Google has barely changed the external UI of the minimalist bar most of us type into without thinking.

But we're more likely to see baby steps today – Google has called Bard an "experimental" feature and it's only based on a "lightweight model version" of LaMDA AI tech (which is short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, if you were wondering). 

Like Microsoft's new Bing, any integration of Bard in search will likely be presented as an optional extra rather than a replacement for the classic search bar – but even that would be huge news for a search engine that has 84% market share (for now, at least).

Just 15 minutes to go until Google's 'Live from Paris' event kicks off. One of the big questions for me is how interactive Google's conversational AI is going to be – in the new version of Microsoft Bing, the chat results gradually expand in more detail. 

That's a big change from traditional search, because it means your first result can be the start of a longer conversation. Also, will Google be citing its sources in the same as the new Bing? The early screenshots were unclear on this, but we'll find out more very soon.

Right then, just two minutes to go until Google's livestream clicks off. It's unclear why it's chosen Paris as the location for the event – but perhaps it has something to do with those hinted Maps features...

Senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan is on stage talking about the "next frontier of our information products and how AI is powering that future".

He points to Google Lens going "beyond the traditional notion of search" to help you shop and place a virtual armchair you're looking to buy in your living room. But as he says "search is never solved" and it remains Google's moonshot product.

The message right now is that Google has been using AI technologies for a while.

One billion people use Google Translate. Google says many Ukrainians seeking refuge have used it to help them navigate new environments. 

A new 'Zero-shot Machine Translation' technique learns to translate into another language without needing traditional training. It's added 24 new languages to Translate using this method.

Google Lens has also reached a major milestone – people now use Lens more than 10 billion times per month. It's no longer a novelty.

Google Lens is getting a big boost. In the coming months, you’ll be able to user Lens to search your phone screen.

For example, long press the power button on Android phone to search a photo. As Google says, "if you can see it, you can search it".

Multisearch also lets you find real-world objects in different colors – for example, a shirt or chair – and is being rolled out globally for any image search image results.

Okay, we're onto ‘large language models’, like LaMDA. It's the power behind Google's new AI chat service 'Bard', which it calls "experimental".

As Google previously announced, it's releasing a lightweight model of LaMDA to "trusted testers" this week. No news yet on when it's rolling out publicly, beyond the "coming weeks" Google mentioned earlier this week.

Generative AI is coming to Google Search and Google is giving more examples of how it’ll work.

For example, you'll be able to ask "what are the best constellations to look for when star-gazing”, and then dig deeper into what time of year is best to see them. All very similar to Microsoft's new Bing chat.

Google is also talking about generative imagery, which can create 3D images from stills. It says we'll be able to use them to design products, or find the perfect pocket square for your new blazer. No specifics on how that'll rollout though. 

Developers will also be getting a big suite of tools and APIs to make AI-powered apps.

Google's VP & GM at Chris Philips now on stage talking about Google Maps. "We’re transforming Google Maps again" he says.

The very impressive 'Immersive View' is being demoed, which we've seen before. It uses AI to fuse billions of Street View images to give you Superman flyovers of big landmarks, and indoor views of restaurants.

The good news: Immersive view is finally rolling out to several cities, including London, Los Angles, New York and San Francisco today, and other cities in the next few months. Now we're looking at 'Search with Live View'...

Google Maps' 'Search with Live View' combines AI with AR to help your visually find things nearby, like restaurants, ATMs and transit hubs by looking through your phone's camera.

It's already live in five cities on Android and iOS and "In the coming months" it'll be expanded to Barcelona, Dublin and Madrid. Now we're getting an outdoor demo –you tap on the camera icon in Google Maps show you real places overlaid on the camera view, including ones that are out of view.

You can see if they're busy currently and how highly they're rated. Not a brand new feature, but definitely a useful one that's being rolled out more widely.

Google is now talking up the less well-known 'Indoor Live View' for airports, train stations and shopping centres. In a few select cities and locations, this uses AR arrows to show you where things like elevators and baggage claim are – pretty darn useful, if a bit limited right now.

Fortunately, Google is rolling it out more widely with its "largest expansion of Indoor Live View to date", bringing it to 1,000 new venues at airports, train stations and shopping centers in London, Tokyo and Paris "in the coming months". 

Good news for electric cars owners. Google is also launching new Maps features for EV owners to make sure you have enough charge.

“To help eliminate range anxiety, we’ll use AI to suggest the best charging stop, whether you’re taking a road trip or just running errands nearby”.

It’ll factor in traffic, charge level and the energy conniption of your trip. It’ll also show ‘very fast charging’ stops for a quick boost.

Hmm, the livestream now appears to be down – maybe Microsoft's Clippy has been up to some nefarious tricks. We'll hopefully be back shortly folks.

There were a couple of more minor announcements to finish off Google's presentation, along with an appearance from the Blob Opera.

Google has also announced a suite of new AI-powered Arts and Culture features. Among the new tools is the ability to search for – and study in impressive detail – famous paintings by thousands of artists. 

The company says it's making a conscious effort to preserve endangered languages, too, by leveraging AI and Google Lens to intuitively translate words for common household items.

So that’s it from Google today – with a slightly abrupt pulling of the livestream plug to mark the end of the event.

Overall, it was pretty underwhelming and felt like a defensive ploy to pop Microsoft’s AI hype balloon. While there were a few mini announcements – an expansion of Indoor View for Google Maps, a 'search screen' feature for Google Lens, and a demo of Google Bard in Search – there certainly wasn't anything new on the scale of Microsoft's new chat function for Bing and Edge.

Google slightly undermined its own AI event by rushing to publish a Google Bard preview a couple of days ago – and we didn't really get any new information about exactly how it'll work when it's rolling out to the public in the "coming weeks".

Right, we're off to see if Google Maps' Immersive View is working yet in London – thanks for tuning in, and keep an eye out for fresh updates here as we get some more official post-event info from Google.

It's the day after Google's slightly underwhelming AI event in Paris – and it seems that AI chatbots aren't quite ready for prime-time in search engines. Reuters has spotted that one of Bard's answers in Google's demo was inaccurate. 

After being asked to provide some examples of discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope, the AI chatbot suggested that the JWST "took the very first pictures of a planet out of our own solar system" – when that actually happened in 2004 thanks to the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope.

A Google spokesperson admitted that “this highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process, something that we’re kicking off this week with our Trusted Tester program." The spokesperson added that “we’ll combine external feedback with our own internal testing to make sure Bard’s responses meet a high bar for quality, safety and groundedness in real-world information.”

Clearly, Microsoft has pushed Google into making Bard public a little earlier than it's comfortable with. And Google has now admitted as much in some leaked emails that suggest we're on a "long journey" to reliable chatbots.

Google has stressed that the AI chatbot is "experimental" and a disclaimer beneath the search box says that "Bard may give inaccurate or inappropriate information". 

Still, that doesn't mean we aren't very much looking forward to taking Bard for a spin when it's available "in the coming weeks".

As part of Safer Internet Day, Google is releasing a variety of security features to better protect people as they browse the internet. Chief among these, the SafeSearch filter for underaged users, is expanding and will become a default setting for all.

This means Google Search will automatically blur explicit images appearing in search results even if you don’t have the filter enabled. The reason for the expansion, according to the company, is to make sure that users, especially minors, don’t inadvertently run into explicit content on Search. Users will be able to either disable the new blur at any time or make it stricter.

As it currently stands, the feature doesn’t mask any texts or links to explicit content. However, looking at the images on Google’s post, it appears you can turn on the new Filter setting to do just that.

Users over the age of 18 will see the new default setting within “the coming months” as it rolls out periodically. Instructions on how to tweak SafeSearch can be found on Google’s Search Help webpage. 

Three new tools

Besides the SafeSearch change, Google is adding three other security tools on its other platforms. 

Google Password Manager on the Chrome browser and Android will begin supporting biometric authentication to verify your identity. The announcement states this feature can be used to “securely reveal, copy or edit passwords saved” on the Password Manager without having to type them in every single time. 

Next, virtual cards, which are “unique numbers for online transactions [that keep] your payment information safe”, will now be available to “American Express customers” – so long as you’re eligible. 

As for the final feature, iOS users will be able to use Face ID to protect their privacy on the Google app and prevent unwanted access. It's unknown if an Android version is in development.

The launch date for these tools is a mystery as Google doesn’t really say if they'll be out soon or months down the line like with the SafeSearch change. We reached out to ask if the company could give us a launch window for three tools. This story will be updated if we hear back.

Over the past couple of years, Google has been consistently working on improving its family-centric features like the revamped Family Link app with updated parental controls and smarter Google TV recommendations. But if you want more, be sure to check TechRadar’s list of the best identity theft protection plans for families. These applications will keep bad actors from accessing sensitive information as well as warn you of any suspicious activities. 

There's a prescient New York Times article about Google's purchase of the online ad giant DoubleClick for $3.1B in 2007: "The sale also raises questions about how Google will manage its existing business and that of the new DoubleClick unit while avoiding conflicts of interest," note the authors.

Guess what? Google didn't and, for a long time, no one seemed to care.

Now, more than a decade after the ink dried, the US Department of Justice unveiled a sweeping anti-trust case against Google "for monopolizing digital advertising technologies."

Sure, Google's apparent violation of the long-standing Sherman Act might seem dry and have little to do with consumers, but Google's vice-like control of the ad tech business, including display, the auction that fills those ad spaces, the relationships with advertisers, and the relationship with publishers who display those ads often defines our online experience.

Atop that 2007 New York Times article is what we call a banner ad -- and as billions of other online ads are, It's served by Google. You can tell this by the little triangle and "x" in the upper right corner. If you click on one of those, it hides the ad and shows you "Ads by Google" with two buttons below it. One is "Stop Seeing this ad" and the other is "Why this ad?" 

These are Google's way of giving consumers some consent and control over their ad experience. The reality, though, is the only one in control is, at least according to the DOJ, Google.

When Google purchased DoubleClick in 2007, the latter company was already the chief provider of most online banner ads across virtually any site you visited. They would basically help sites sell what could be a lot of unsold inventory or traffic to the site. Put another way, if The New York Times has 30 million pageviews a month and its sales team sells display space on just 10 million of those views, the rest of it might go through DoubleClick to sell to its network of less differentiated advertisers.

As Google was buying the already successful platform, DoubleClick was just about to launch its ad exchange, a sort of Nasdaq-like stock exchange for ad inventory. This automated even more of the ad inventory sale process and when Google did launch the technology, it gave the search giant even greater control of the online ad market.

If you're wondering why so many of the ads you see online are what might charitably be called "garbage," this is the reason. They're tied to things like location, time of day, and where you were prior to viewing that page, but rarely aligned with a value proposition or even your interests when viewing that page.

Google said it itself

The DOJ painted a pretty dark picture of Google's ad tech business practices but mostly by using Google's own words. They quoted multiple Google execs (though they did not name a single one).

One, according to the DOJ, asked, "Is there a problem with us owning the platform, the exchange, and the huge network?"

Naturally, the DOJ answered, "Yes."

The DOJ said Google described its own platform as an "authoritarian intermediary," and it made the work of trying to switch away from Google's platform "a nightmare that...takes an act of god" - again, Google's own words, according to the DOJ.

Alleged in the antitrust charges is that Google engaged in exclusionary acts, locked content creators into its platform, manipulated the auctions they used to fill ad inventory, and blocked customers from using rival technologies.

Quite honestly, no ad-serving rival has a comparable business or control of the ad network. Spend some time looking at any of the dozens of web pages you'll view today and you will see those same two telltale marks. This is Google's ad game, one in which it has allegedly played both sides against its own middle and made it almost impossible for anyone else to enter, let alone win.

The DOJ's case is just beginning and it may be years before it achieves its goals of applying what could be billions of dollars in fines against Google and forcing the company to divest some portion of its adtech business.

It's a shame no one heeded The New York Times's warnings: "If DoubleClick’s existing clients start to feel that Google is using DoubleClick’s relationships to further its own ad network, some Web publishers or advertisers might jump ship."

No one jumped ship and now the questions are, how does Google navigate this DOJ iceberg that's right ahead, and will the DOJ's actions improve your web browsing experience?

By the way, since we can't control our ads except block them, perhaps you want to check out our list of the best web browsers. Surely, one of them will do a better job of managing your web and ad experience than Google (unless it's Chrome, and then it's Google all over again).

Google’s engineers must’ve been hungry when designing these latest updates, as Google Lens is getting a feast of new features that make it easier to find delicious-looking food.

Google Lens is Google’s picture-based search tool that allows you to use images instead of text; you can snap a picture or screenshot something and search for similar-looking images on the web (it's Ctrl + F for the real world). Beyond that Google, Lens can also scan text in the image, letting you search what a written phrase means, look up help for your homework or translate some text.

Being able to look up what something is using a picture is certainly helpful, but if you’re like us you don’t just want to know what a delicious-looking meal is called, you need to know where you can go to munch on it right away. Well, the Google Lens Multisearch 'near me' feature allows you to search using a snapped picture of a food item, and then add a 'near me' tag to find a list of nearby locations that serve that food. 

As seen in the example above, rather than trying to deduce what the treats are by googling 'jam-filled cookies,' the person was able to snap a pic to find out that they’re Linzer Augen. Then by tapping the search bar at the top they added 'near me' to discover close-by bakeries and restaurants that said they serve the treat.

But just because you know what Linzer Augen is and where to find it, you might not be able to eat it – if it's made with almonds and you have a nut allergy, the cookies could cause you serious trouble. So, when you search for food near you (like soup dumplings as seen in the example below) in Lens or regular Google Search, you can find out additional information about the treat you want to eat.

This includes information about ingredients, how spicy the food is, and if it’s vegetarian or vegan – you can even filter the results so you only see nearby options that meet your requirements.

These new tools should be available in Google Lens – both the Android and iOS versions of the app – and Google Search right now (they launched on November 17). However, for now, they’re restricted to users and restaurants in the US, which is often the case for new Google features. So if you live somewhere else, or are traveling abroad, you won’t be able to rely on these new tools right away; we expect they’ll be rolled out to other regions in the not-too-distant future.

Fashion with function

Another new feature, which is now available worldwide, is Lens’s AR translation update.

AR translation does what it sounds like – you can take a snap of some written text, and your smartphone is able to translate it to the language of your choice. It’s probably the Google Lens feature we rely on most as it works pretty well – it’s not always perfect, but the translation is almost always good enough for you to get the gist of what a sign or menu is saying.

This latest improvement won’t make the translations more accurate; instead, it’ll improve how they look on the image you take. Normally Google Lens will block out the original writing and superimpose the translation on top, but this can look fairly ugly – especially if there’s a beautiful background underneath.

The new change to Lens allows the app to erase the original text rather than covering it up, reconstruct the background using AI, and then place the translation on top, making it look more like it’s meant to be there. If you’re a restaurant owner who wants to create a quick translation of your lovingly designed menu for foreign guests, or a foodie who wants to share the translated menu online so other people know what to expect, this tool should help make your translations look a lot nicer.

Just in time for the holiday season, Google Search is getting three new shopping features to help you sniff out good deals on the internet.

The upcoming tools are all about making life easier for online shoppers, especially during these economically rocky times. Google states it expects to see a 43 percent jump in American shoppers looking for discounts or special deals compared to last year. To facilitate this, a new “Special Offer” tag will appear on product thumbnails on both mobile and desktop results that have a coupon available. These tags are meant to make promotions a lot more visible when browsing.

Selecting the item will give you a coupon code that you can enter at checkout. However, the coupon code won't say how much money you’ll be saving. Google states it has plans to add a new “coupon clipping feature,” which is basically the ability to copy and paste the code without having to type it in. “Special Offer” tags are slated to roll out within the coming weeks, but no hard date was given.

Price insights

Price insights from the Shopping tab are also set to make their way over to the main Search page, on both desktop and mobile. This means you can check prices from multiple stores and see how a product’s price tag fluctuates. It'll help you see when it was at its cheapest. This small but helpful change means you won’t have to hop back and forth between tabs. Everything is right in front of you. And launching by the end of November is a new, mobile exclusive side-by-side view for comparing deals. Instead of having full-priced and on-sale items jumbled together in a mess, Google will group products in a “Deals” category for quick browsing. 

All the shopping features will be exclusive to US users “at present,” according to a company representative. So it’s possible other countries will see these features at a later date. The same goes for the side-by-side view, as it may see a desktop version in the future but not much is known beyond that.

Expanding tools

During the Search On 2022 event back in September, Google revealed a wave of features to make shopping more personable. Search results will show you complementary pieces and accessories to go with a potential new jacket, for example. Helpful buyer's guides have been added to more complex products such as mountain bikes. A guide will have an FAQ of sorts to answer common questions, such as what type of suspension or brakes should you get. Combined with the Search update and Chrome’s price tracker feature, you might be able to find exactly what you're looking for at a good price.

If Google’s discount-hunting tools weren’t enough, be sure to check out TechRadar’s Black Friday deals for 2022. You can read up on our predictions for this year’s event, where we expect to see steeper discounts than in previous years and sales starting earlier.

Google has announced a bunch of changes to its core search functionality, focusing on making searching the web a quicker and more convenient process, and more besides.

Announced at its Search On conference, All of these changes will be rolling out in the US down the line, and the first major introduction is that shortcuts to various tools are going to be brought in, nestling right underneath the search bar.

These are things like an icon for translating text with the camera, or identifying a tune by humming it, or indeed to help with a homework problem via the camera – common tasks that you might need, and can now be very swiftly accessed with a tap on the relevant shortcut.

In this case, the feature is coming to the Google app for iOS in the US (English language) to begin with, and a wider rollout will doubtless follow.

In terms of making core search quicker and more intuitive, Google is ushering in topic options that appear directly below the search box as you type a query. The example Google gives is someone typing a search for ‘best Mexico cities’, and after having entered that text, a bunch of suggestions for finishing the query pop up – such as ‘for families’, ‘for expats’, ‘to retire’, and so forth. These are the most likely options you’ll need, and will hopefully allow you to quickly finish your query with a simple tap.

Again, this feature will launch in the US (in English) to begin with, in the “coming months” Google informs us, and the same is true of the remaining capabilities we’re about to explore.

Next up are the details surfaced by a search, which again in Google’s example of searching for a city will now prominently include visual stories and the likes of video clips from folks who have visited that particular place. The emphasis is on imparting more practical info such as tips on getting around the city, how to travel there, or what to do during your stay, rather than just, say, historical or geographical facts for example (not that you won’t still receive some of that as results).

After a search, suggestion buttons will also pop up below the search box pointing to further topics you might want to explore, such as the beaches of that city you’re going to visit – and you simply tap these, and dive down even deeper into further suggestions if required.

Finally, Google tells us it’s revamping the way search results are presented to “better reflect the ways people explore topics”, meaning that as you scroll down, related topics will be highlighted. Sticking with the city example provided, those subjects include the likes of results pertaining to the local cuisine and recipes, musical traditions, art, and so forth.

Analysis: Some chunky changes to move with the times

The broad thrust here, then, is to make searching easier and quicker as we mentioned at the outset, and to surface more practical content and advice – with the likes of videos from folks who have visited a place – as well as making it as simple as possible to see and explore all manner of related topics.

In some corners of the web in more recent times, we’ve noticed complaint threads about how Google isn’t what it used to be when it comes to the quality of search results, and so perhaps the company felt it was time to start changing things up – in a pretty big way. There’s certainly a fresh take on search here with all these different elements, so it’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out when we actually get to use the new search; and of course what the reaction is from those who have become more skeptical about Google.

Google is about as old a veteran of the web as you’ll find, and mustn’t fail to move with the times. So when there’s chatter about youngsters hitting up TikTok to discover things rather than Google search, that must be, well, maybe not a threat to Google, but certainly something which is a bit of a worry and should be paid attention to.

When other regions outside the US will get these changes, we don’t know, but seeing as they’re down as arriving in the “coming months” in the States, it sounds like it’ll be a slow rollout, particularly in global terms.

At its 'Search On' conference (September 28), Google announced a bunch of improvements to its services, such as Multisearch which can combine queries into one search, and its Translate feature, which can remove the blurred box of the previous language, as if the poster was always English or another language to begin with for example.

The company has also been announcing a bunch of improvements to its search services at the conference, with better ways to shop for the right product. Alongside this, there's been improvements to Maps and better recommendations for places and businesses.

Google has been slow to adapt it products to the features that Microsoft and Apple have been bringing out lately, with iOS 16 and Windows 11's first major update showcasing LiveText and better accessibility features.

However, Search On was the company's stake in the sand to show just what its apps are capable of, and what it could be to its millions of users in the coming months.

Multisearch and Translate are the big highlights

Multisearch allows you to search with an image and a block of text at once, so you can better find the result you need. This is currently rolling out in English globally, alongisde it coming to over 70 languages in the coming months.

With Google Translate, the company is introducing an update that will not only show the translated text, but will erase the previous text, and repaint the background using AI. This results in translated text that looks as though it's always been there without looking out of place, seeming more natural.

Google confirmed to us that this improvement to Translate will arrive later this year, both to iOS and Android devices.

There's been a bunch of improvements that have appealed to users, whether that's Live Captions or gestures for the Apple Watch, but with Multisearch and Translate rolling out to users soon, Google could have an ace up its sleeve.

Google is readying a wide-reaching search engine update that it says will improve the quality and authenticity of results.

In a new blog post, the company describes a series of changes set to roll out in the coming months, the broad objective of which is to crack down on “SEO-first” content designed to perform well in search rankings instead of directly addressing the needs of human readers.

Similarly, Google will attempt to deprioritize unoriginal content and reporting, including  information aggregators that do not themselves add value to the conversation, and promote product reviews that demonstrate clear first-hand expertise.

Quality over quantity

Google releases many thousands of updates for its search engine ranking system each year. Although most bring with them incremental improvements (and probably sometimes a dip in the quality of the results), the latest is expected to have a significant effect on the user experience.

In response to questions from TechRadar Pro, Google’s Danny Sullivan, whose job is to help the public better understand Search, explained that queries relating to shopping, entertainment and technology, as well as “how-to”-style searches, stand to benefit most.

“We typically announce ranking updates that will be noticeable, or we expect to be particularly felt by publishers,” he said.

“This is a meaningful ranking update to Search, and we’ll continue this work with more updates in this vein in the months ahead. Users should expect to see the helpfulness of search results evolve and improve over this time.”

Broadly, the aim is to minimize the frequency with which users are disappointed by search results, whether because the content is designed predominantly to generate clicks, or fails to provide the necessary information. Google says the update will yield a larger volume of results that contain “something you haven’t seen before”.

On the other side of the equation, the update is expected to have a material impact on publishers and content creators too. Sullivan told us that outlets already providing “original, helpful content” will probably be unaffected by the change, or may experience an increase in traffic. Others, however, will likely see their pages drop down the rankings.

“This update aggregates a variety of signals about the page and site to determine the ranking of a page, but you can primarily describe the content as helpful, and designed to help or inform people rather than rank well on search engines,” he added.

“Specific tactics creators can take into account with their content include clearly demonstrating first-hand experience or depth of knowledge with a topic, and giving your site (and content) a primary purpose or focus.”

That’s not to say that Google will penalize publishers following SEO best practices “to bring searchers additional value”; it’s about disincentivising clickbait, the quantity over quality approach, and shortcuts designed to game the system.

• Fine-tune your SEO practices with the best onpage SEO tools around

*Update: Google got back to us and clarified the questions we had. For starters, the new snippets are available on Android, iOS, and desktop. They’re currently a work in progress and Google will continue to improve upon them, according to a company representative.

The About This changes are split into two. About This Result is on mobile devices and desktop with plans to expand language support which will include German and Dutch. About This Page is exclusive to iOS right now with Android support coming soon. This feature is also coming to French, Italian, and Spanish users across the world, but no concrete date has been given.

And finally, the content advisories are confirmed to be on mobile and desktop as well, but in English only. The notices are also landlocked to five countries: the US, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. It’s unknown if and when these advisories will roll out elsewhere.

Original story continues below.*

Google is updating its search engine to cut down on misleading snippets and improve the ways it educates people by adding more contextual information. Put another way, Google's expanding its efforts to stamp out misinformation across its formidable search service.

Snippets are the text you see highlighted at the top of a Search results page and are meant to provide a quick answer. While sources are included to back up the information, it appears there were instances of snippets giving a source that goes against the common scientific consensus. In what is arguably the biggest change in the update, featured snippets will have information that’s based on “multiple high-quality sources.”  

The improved snippets will be backed up by a Google AI called the Multitask United Model (MUM). The AI will actively check featured snippets and cross-reference that information against other sources to see if they all agree or if changes are necessary. Google claims this “technique has meaningfully improved the quality and helpfulness…” of featured snippets. 

Omitting misinformation

MUM will also help fight misleading information by not displaying snippets for questions that don’t have an answer or are considered to be a "false premise." Google offers the strange scenario of a user searching for the day Snoopy from Peanuts assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. That never happened, so it’s impossible to inform the user accurately and may result in a misleading snippet or give the wrong impression.

The company admits situations of Search creating misleading snippets are rare, but they do happen. It wants to preemptively combat this situation. Google claims snippets based on these “false premises” have already dropped 40 percent as part of the update.

Adding context

Other changes to Google Search affect the About This page and content advisories.

About This will now inform you how widespread a source is, reviews about the source, whether or not it’s owned by a parent company, and if there is any missing information. Google states all this is important to provide proper context. The Search feature is also getting support in eight other languages which all launch later this year. Language support includes Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, and Indonesian.

Content advisories are being expanded beyond developing news stories to include results that have questionable quality and sources. The announcement clarifies by stating this doesn’t mean good information isn’t out there for a particular search query or it was bad. It’s merely a reminder to be more skeptical of the things you find on that page.

A release date for the updates hasn’t been revealed, but it may be rolling out soon. When we checked Google on desktop and mobile, we didn’t see any differences: no new content advisories or About This page. We asked Google when people can expect the changes. This story will be updated if we get a response. 

Google has been hard at work combating misinformation on its search engine. In a recent Q&A, the company’s Public Liaison for Search revealed Google Search has dropped the number of irrelevant results by more than 50 percent. And recently, the tech giant revealed it's making some big changes to the Google Play Store to get rid of annoying ads and impersonators. Be sure to check out our coverage.

As part of its twentieth anniversary, the Google News redesign has officially launched adding a bigger emphasis on accessibility and customization.

Google states the redesign “was inspired by feedback [they] received from readers” as the desktop site aims to make catching up on the news easier. Major stories will have a bigger thumbnail and adjacent articles next to them for different types of coverage.

Rearranged sections

Immediately upon opening Google News on the desktop, you’ll be greeted with the top stories of the day with a Local News section (no longer tucked behind menus) and personalized picks to the right. You can add multiple locations to Local News if coverage for one city isn’t enough for you. And the menu bar that was on the left-hand side now makes its home at the top of the page.

Scrolling down past the initial sections, you’ll come across Your Topics which are six different categories that you can select out of a selection of eight. These include Technology, Entertainment, Business, and Sports.

After that, you have what is arguably the biggest change: the new Fact Check section. Previously, stories under Fact Check were relegated to a simple headline from a fact-checking organization like PolitiFact. Now headlines will have an accompanying claim that has been fact-checked. For example, there could be a claim that President Joe Biden vetoed a certain bill. Next to that, you may see a fact check by PolitiFact that states the claim is True, False, or even Altered.

Below that is the Beyond the Front Page section for more off-kilter stories and even in-depth posts from tech companies. 

The redesign is currently live and will be “available in over 125 countries and 40 languages” including a return to Spain which didn’t have Google News for about eight years. Google claims it was because of a copyright law that prevented them from operating there, but the law has since been amended.

You can go to Google News right now and click “Try it out” at the top to switch to the new design. To revert back to the old style, open the Settings menu and uncheck the box next to “Start using the new Google News.”

Analysis: Looking cluttered

It’s difficult to say whether or not people will like the redesign. The new Google News has been in the works since May when some people randomly stumbled upon it. Initially, not everyone embraced the redesign. Some found it to be overly designed with the headlines being too big.

Google News does look more like a newspaper now with headlines and images thrown together in a small space. Despite a cluttered look, some may appreciate the emphasis on local news and revamped fact-checking. Misinformation is still a hot topic, after all. 

Speaking of fake news, Google recently banned deepfake projects from its Colaboratory service. Despite our investigation, no one knows exactly why Google made the move.

My favorite version of Google News is from 2006. It was a lean, austere, two-column design, that prioritized HTML text over aesthetics. The look was so function-first that Google News soon became my homepage.

To this day, the very first thing I open in the morning is Google News. It's the single best way to get a broad overview of news of the world across a wide swath of categories. Judging by the amount of traffic sites like my own, TechRadar, receive from Google News, it's a popular homepage for millions of others, as well.

Google has been messing with the platform for all these 16 years, prioritizing images, bloating the simple navigation with personalization, and doing its best to tailor the landing page to what Google's algorithms think I want to read about. On mobile this means I have to remember to switch from the "For You" tab to "Top Stories" to see a less filtered news list.

At least on the desktop, Google still feeds me the Top Headlines with a nice linear list of boxes devoted to each news section: Headlines (all the categories), World, Business, Technology, Entertainment, Sports, Science, and Health.

Well, they did.

Recently, I got randomly drafted into testing a trial version of Google News and exposed to a very different design.

My first reaction was...well, I can't write that here.

I can share that I thought, 'Wait. What's this?" did I miss the memo that Google was redesigning News again? It took me a while to notice the "trial" message at the top of the page. Now the only way I can see the old look is by opening an incognito web browser.

Where the current, public Google News is lean and sensible, this test version looks over-designed, with lots of shaded boxes, oversized headlines, and an icky gray (or is it light purple?) background.

There's a significant Your Topics section below the oversized "Your Briefing" that makes it harder to quickly spot the sections I care about most: Tech, Science. It's also worth noting that "Your briefing" is huge and there's a ton of wasted negative space next to it.

My goal in starting with Google News is to quickly digest as many headlines as possible. I'm not saying Google should go all DrudgeReport on me, but I always thought the current Google News was a happy medium of style and substance.

Also, shifting the navbar to the top of the page, somehow makes it less visible to me.

My point is since Google is asking for feedback, let's not do this, Google. Take another look at Google News from 2006 and try to remember why that was so wonderful. Let's head in that direction and not overdo it with the design.

Please, and thanks.

Announced during Google IO 2022, “Skin Tone Research” is a new free and open-source development tool from Google Responsible AI that utilizes Dr. Ellis Monk’s Monk Skin Tone Scale in order to make more inclusive AI that should work better for all users. 

During Google’s IO keynote presentation, Annie Jean-Baptiste claimed that their research indicates “more people in the US find the Monk Scale to more accurately reflect their skin tone compared to the current industry standard.” Annie Jean-Baptist additionally stated this was especially true for people with darker skin tones.

Google has already been using the Monk Skin Tone Scale for some time in order to improve how they understand and represent skin tone across their products such as Photos and Search, however now Google has begun testing the scale globally in order to improve users’ experience and the software. 

Users will be able to see improvements brought about through the Monk Skin Tone Scale through apps such as Image Search, which will now show a range of skin tones in search results while also offering a new way to filter by relevant skin tones, to help find more useful information. 

During the presentation, and accompanying blog post, it also announced that later this month, Google Photos will be getting new Real Tone filters thanks to their work using the Monk Skin Tone Sale. These filters are designed to work well across skin tones and have been created by “a diverse range of renowned image-makers who are celebrated for beautiful and accurate depictions of their subjects.” 

Analysis: One step closer to inclusivity

With many artificial intelligence programs having been criticized for their ability to detect and serve the needs of people of color, Google and Dr. Monk’s Skin Tone Research has the power to be an incredibly useful tool for both developers and users who’re looking for more accessibility in the apps they create and use. 

While Google’s Skin Tone Research is a huge step towards creating a more inclusive tomorrow, it will take a lot more than just one company to create the level of inclusivity that people deserve. Hopefully, thanks to Google making its Skin Tone Research open-source that inclusivity isn’t as much of a pipe dream as it once was. 

• Android 13 announced at Google IO 2022

Google has announced plans to update its ambitious Multisearch feature with local business information, giving users the opportunity to find nearby product sellers using only their mobile cameras.

Company VP Prabhakar Raghavan shared the upgrade, dubbed Multisearch Near Me, at Google I/O 2022. It’s set to launch worldwide “later this year” for Google app users. 

Google launched its Multisearch feature, which lets users search for products by simply taking a photograph, earlier in 2022. Imagine you need to replace a faucet: simply grab a snap of the faucet in question, and in one single search, Google will identify the product and find resellers across the web.

Soon, Multisearch will be updated with the addition of a “near me” toggle, offering results specific to an individual's location in Google Maps and Google Search. 

This has interesting implications, not just for leaky faucets or other household items, but food items, Raghavan noted. See a picture of a delicious dish? Simply Google it, and you can find local restaurants that make it. 

This is currently a breaking news story… 

With the internet in a constant state of evolution, people with less-than-savory intentions will, unfortunately, always be looking for ways to compromise you by tracking down your most sensitive information. Finally, though, Google is taking greater strides in protecting internet users from having their data fall into the wrong hands.

Google has officially announced that it's expanding its personally identifiable info (PII) removal policies, with users now able to request the removal of sensitive information including email addresses, phone numbers, and home addresses should they spot them in Google Search results.

While it's arguable that Google should have had these basic protections implemented long ago, it's certainly a case of "better late than never," and should help protect the sensitive info of people who need it most, such as those who work on the web in a professional capacity, as well as those requiring protection from doxxing and / or stalking.

Read on, then, to learn how to request Google directly for the removal of personally identifiable information like email addresses, bank account details, phone numbers, and much more.

What personally identifiable info can I request the removal of?

A helpful page on the Google Help Center portal details everything the company deems as sensitive information. For your request to be considered, then, the information you find of yourself through Google Search results must fall under one or more of the following categories:

• Confidential government identification (ID) numbers like U.S. Social Security Number, Argentine Single Tax Identification Number, Brazil Cadastro de pessoas Físicas, Korea Resident Registration Number, China Resident Identity Card, etc.
• Bank account numbers
• Credit card numbers
• Images of handwritten signatures
• Images of ID docs
• Highly personal, restricted, and official records, like medical records
• Personal contact info (physical addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses)
• Confidential login credentials

Google also details the requirements that must be met in order to remove 'doxxing' content from Search results. Doxxing is the act of a third party revealing your personally identifiable information in a public capacity, such as on social media or via forums or email chains.

To request the removal of doxxing content, the Search result must contain the following:

• Personal contact information such as an address or phone number
• Explicit or implicit threats to you personally, or calls to action to harm or harass your person

How to request removal of personal information from Google Search results

To request the removal of your personal information from Google Search results, you'll need to fill out this form on the Google Help Center portal. This form can also be accessed via the Help Center page linked above.

As shown in the above image, the form you'll need to fill out is quite simple. Simply choose the options that best represent your query. Further down, you'll also need to specify whether or not the personal information is being exploited with the intent of doxxing, and whether or not the content is currently live.

Under the 'Personal information' section, you'll need to enter the name of the person mentioned in the offending content, your country of residence, and an email address which Google will use to contact you in response to the removal request.

Lastly, under 'Removal Request', include the URLs that are showing the content you wish to remove, as well as the URL(s) of the Google Search results that are displaying your personal information. You can optionally attach screenshots of the content in question, too, which we recommend doing to give you the best chance of Google following through with your request.

What happens next?

Upon submitting your request for approval, you'll receive an automated email confirmation from Google, simply stating that your request has been received. Google will then look into your removal request based on the information you provided in the request form.

It's possible that Google will reach out to you again via email, requesting further information to help your request along. But this will only happen in the event that crucial information was missing from the form, such as missing URLs.

If there are no further issues on Google's end, it'll send you a message detailing the action it's taken in regards to your request. If Google finds that the URLs you included in the form fall under its removal policy, then it'll remove them from Google Search results.

One last thing to keep in mind is that while Google can remove sensitive personal information from search results, in most cases, it won't scrub them from the websites themselves. In this case, you may want to contact the website's host or support center directly.

Google has developed a new feature that allows you to view the air quality of major cities within the US. This is likely tied to other sustainability and environmental education efforts from the company for Earth Day on April 22. 

As reported by MSPoweruser, this feature was initially released in India but has since also been rolled out in Victoria, Australia, and various cities across the US, using data from airnow.gov and PurpleAir.

“We’re always working on new ways to connect people with helpful information when they come to Google,” a Google spokesperson said. “We continue to explore ways to make authoritative information on a range of sustainability and environmental topics readily accessible and look forward to sharing more in this space soon.”

To use this feature you can simply type "Air quality in Washington DC" (or the name of the city you're searching for) into the search engine on your mobile, laptop, or computer, and you'll be presented with a map of the local area, alongside a US Air Quality Index (AQI) which measures air quality from a scale of 0 to 500.

This scale is also color-labeled with the usual Green = good and Red = bad, with specific areas on the map showing how the air quality can differ across the entire city. This is especially useful if you're wanting to relocate, but stay within the city area and wish to be mindful of local pollution.

We tried a few other major cities such as London and Paris and found that while metrics are provided in a graph, no map appears to clearly display the air quality in various zones of either city. It also isn't clear how many US cities are included within this feature right now, but we certainly hope that it gets rolled out on a more global scale so we can breathe easy in the knowledge that we can...well, breathe easy.

Analysis: good, but we need more

Google has a good habit of trying to include additional sustainability efforts across many of its hardware and search engine integrations. Being able to measure the air quality directly is a great asset and one that could benefit folks that live outside of the US.

Thing is, there are rival search engines that market themselves as an environmentally friendly alternative to Google, so why isn't it doing more to level the playing field? Ecosia comes to mind, with its promise that using its search engine will plant trees, using funds raised through ad revenues when you use the platform. 

Does Google do something similar? Perhaps, but I certainly can't find any trace of similar practices, and even searching for results on Google itself using the term 'Does Google plant trees' comes up with pages and pages of articles for Ecosia instead. If the tech giant was making such efforts, it would do well to shout about them more.

Thankfully there is a middle ground as Ecosia has a chrome extension that works alongside the Google web browser, though we found that our own company administration blocks this from being installed, which is likely to be a similar story across a lot of corporate devices.

Still, with Google integrating functions that allow you to check on pollution and air quality, it would be nice to see if the company was taking greater steps to improve the results given its status as one of the largest companies in the world. The environment is all of our responsibility after all, and Google certainly has more power and money to make changes than asthmatic individuals visiting a new city for the first time.

• Celebrating Earth Day? Play this delightful Google Doodle game about bees

Google searches are about to get even more precise with the introduction of multisearch, a combination of text and image searching with Google Lens. 

After making an image search via Lens, you’ll now be able to ask additional questions or add parameters to your search to narrow the results down. Google’s use cases for the feature include shopping for clothes with a particular pattern in different colors or pointing your camera at a bike wheel and then typing “how to fix” to see guides and videos on bike repairs. According to Google, the best use case for multisearch, for now, is shopping results. 

The company is rolling out the beta of this feature on Thursday to US users of the Google app on both Android and iOS platforms. Just click the camera icon next to the microphone icon or open a photo from your gallery, select what you want to search, and swipe up on your results to reveal an “add to search” button where you can type additional text.

This announcement is a public trial of the feature that the search giant has been teasing for almost a year; Google discussed the feature when introducing MUM at Google I/O 2021, then provided more information on it in September 2021. MUM, or Multitask Unified Model, is Google’s new AI model for search that was revealed at the company’s I/O event the same year. 

MUM replaced the old AI model, BERT; Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. MUM, according to Google, is around a thousand times more powerful than BERT.

Analysis: will it be any good?

It’s in beta for now, but Google sure was making a big hoopla about MUM during its announcement. From what we’ve seen, Lens is usually pretty good at identifying objects and translating text. However, the AI enhancements will add another dimension to it and could make it a more useful tool for finding the information you need about what you're looking at right now, as opposed to general information about something like it.

It does, though, beg the questions about how good it’ll be at specifying exactly what you want. For example, if you see a couch with a striking pattern on it but would rather have it as a chair, will you be able to reasonably find what you want? Will it be at a physical store or at an online storefront like WayFair? Google searches can often get inaccurate physical inventories of nearby stores, are those getting better, as well?

We have plenty of questions, but they’ll likely only be answered once more people start using multisearch. The nature of AI is to get better with use, after all.

Google could soon make its dark mode even darker with some of the search engine’s users reporting that the gray Dark Theme is now pitch black.

The change was first spotted by 9to5Google though it's possible you haven’t noticed any differences. That’s because Google appears to be A/B testing its two dark modes, some users are stuck with the gray while others are able to make the search engine go full-on goth.

Reaction online appears mixed - some users love the true black dark mode while others find it jarring when they click onto light-colored webpages. We’ll have to see which version of the dark theme Google settles on, but most likely it will appeal to both sides by offering a Dark and Darker Theme respectively.

If you want to see which version of Google’s Dark Theme you’ve been assigned, you’ll want to head to Google.com then search for anything (we’d recommend TechRadar). Once the results flash up you can find a gear icon in the top right corner of the page, click it, and under appearance, you opt for either the Light or Dark Theme.

Right now though, there’s currently no way to choose one of the Dark Themes over the other (Google will decide for you), but there is a way to experience the darker dark mode in a small way.

For those of you using the Google Chrome browser, you can head into Settings and then Appearance. At the top of this page’s menu, you should then see a Theme option. Clicking on it will take you to the Chrome Web Store where you can choose a new theme  - specifically, you want to look for the Just Black option.

Once set up, your Chrome tabs should turn darker, and your Google.com homepage will take on the new darker dark mode’s black appearance.

If you then use the search bar tool, however, your results will take you to a page colored in whichever version of dark mode Google chose for you.

We hope the option to choose your preferred Google Dark theme will arrive soon.

• Check out: the best Google Chrome extensions in 2022