Google Releases Web Guide Experimental Feature in Search, Uses AI to Organise Search Results Page

Google is bringing another new experimental artificial intelligence (AI) feature to Search. On Thursday, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced Web Guide, a new filter on the search results page that categorises information and groups URLs to make it easier for users to learn more about the topic. It is currently an opt-in feature, which means users will not see it unless they proactively sign up for it. Additionally, the feature appears to be only available in some specific locations.

Google Search Gets Web Guide to Better Display Queried Information

In a blog post, the tech giant detailed the new experimental feature. The company said it is available in Search Labs, and users can opt in by selecting the Web Guide option. While a TechCrunch report claims to have seen this feature, Gadgets 360 staff members were not able to spot it. However, that is not surprising given that Search Labs' features are usually available in the US at first, and then they are expanded to other regions.

Web Guide on Google Search
Photo Credit: Google

Those users who can see the feature can tap on opt-in, and should be able to see a new filter added to the Google Search results page. The “Web” filter is placed on the right side of “All”. As per the post, the feature organises the search results page “intelligently” to make it easier to find web pages and information.

Essentially, the feature breaks down a complex search query and creates important points that the user might want to see. Then, based on these pointers, Web Guide categorises the different URLs. Each section also comes with a summary, likely taken from the listed web pages.

Google says Web Guide is powered by a custom version of Gemini that better understands both search queries and content on the web. It uses the same “query fan-out technique” that AI Mode also uses. With this, AI can issue multiple related search queries simultaneously to identify the most relevant results.

The new experimental feature will only be available when users click on the Web tab on Search, while the All tab will continue to show traditional results, accompanied by AI Overviews. However, Google says that in the future, this version of results will also be integrated into the All tab, if the company feels this would be more helpful to users.