Google Introduces Six New Features To Ease Searches

Renowned American multinational technology firm, Google has in a bid to help researchers get quick and satisfying results to their queries, announced six new features.

The additional features Naija News understands will provide simplicity during a search to help people gather and explore information in new ways.

Confirming the new features, the company’s Head of Communication, West Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, said in Lagos on Thursday that the search engine will provide even more shortcuts to discovering things on the web.

He highlighted the six new features as “multi-search, multi-search near me, translation in the blink of an eye, Google for iOS updates, even faster ways to find what you are looking for and new ways to explore information.”

Kola-Ogunlade noted that people usually use lens on the search engine to answer over eight billion questions monthly. He said the newly introduced multi-search is a major milestone meant to help people search for information earlier this year.

The statement added: “With multisearch, you can take a picture or use a screenshot and then add text to it — similar to the way you might naturally point at something and ask a question about it.

‘’Multisearch is available in English globally, and will now be rolling out in 70 languages in the next few months.

‘’Multisearch near me allows you to take a screenshot or a photo of an item, and then find it nearby.

‘’So, if you have a hankering for your favourite local dish, all you need to do is screenshot it, and Google will connect you with nearby restaurants serving it,” Kola-Ogunlade.

According to him, in translation, in the blink of an eye, one of the most powerful aspects of visual understanding, is its ability to break down language barriers.

“Google has gone beyond translating text to translating pictures – with Google translating text in images over one billion times monthly in more than 100 languages,” Kola-Ogunlade said.

He said with major advancements in machine learning, Google is now able to blend translated text into complex images, adding that the search engine has also optimised its machine learning models to get even more results in just 100 milliseconds – shorter than the blink of an eye.

He said that this used generative adversarial networks (GAN models) which powered the technology behind the Magic Eraser on Pixel.

“Google is working to make it possible to ask questions with fewer words- or even none at all- and still help you find what you are looking for.

“For those who do not know exactly what they are looking for until they see it, Google will help you to specify your question.

“Google is reinventing the way it displays search results to better reflect the ways people explore topics to see the most relevant content,” Kola-Ogunlade said.