Google opens Search Generative Experience to US Search Labs users

A screenshot of Search Generative Experience

Google users in the United States that signed up to Search Labs after Google I/O can now start using some of the early experiments including SGE (Search Generative Experience), Code Tips, and Add to Sheets. If you want to try out the features, you can sign up by visiting this website, you can also check your waitlist status there if you’ve signed up.

The company said that its generative AI-powered Search will make searching easier. You will be able to learn about topics faster, get more viewpoints and insights, and have information pieced together for you instead of having to sift through information yourself.

If you need to ask the AI any follow-up questions, you’ll find an option to “ask a follow-up question” which will take you into conversational mode. If you do try out the features, Google warns that this experiment is just a first step into adding generative AI into Search and that improvements will be made over time.

In its announcement, Google laid out some examples of how SGE could provide you with better search results. It gave an example search query of “Learning ukulele vs guitar”. It said that SGE would help you get a snapshot of the benefits of both instruments to help you make a more informed choice.

It also said that it could help you learn quick tips to queries such as “How to get an old coffee stain out of a wool sweater?” and help you discover new products with queries like “Peel and stick wallpaper for kitchen”.

The inclusion of generative AI in Search is convenient but will also lead to problems for publishers of content. If you ask Google for a quick way to remove those coffee stains and Search tells you directly, you never need to go to the publisher’s website and view the ads that keep the website going.

Google also has to ramp up the SGE feature to users quite quickly as both Bing and Brave Search already incorporate AI into their results so Google Search is falling behind a little bit. Hopefully, users outside the US won’t need to wait long for SGE and other Labs features.