Google Rolls Out ‘Perspectives’ Search Feed to Showcase Human Perspectives
Google has launched its new search feature, ‘Perspectives’, a dedicated search filter that presents users with a variety of views, ideally from humans, on search results. This innovative feature was made available on Friday, according to the company’s announcement on Twitter.
The ‘Perspectives’ tab will appear alongside Images, Maps, and other topic-based filters on eligible queries that “benefit from the experiences of others”. Users can tap the filter to view a mix of long and short-form videos, images, and written posts that people have shared across discussion boards, Q&A sites, and social media platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and Quora.
The user interface of ‘Perspectives’ on mobile devices presents the results in a scrollable feed of cards shown side-by-side. Each card offers additional information about the creators of the content, such as their name, profile photo, or the popularity of their content.
One of the key queries triggering the ‘Perspectives’ feature is “What to eat in [city],” offering a plethora of personal stories and tips from forum threads, creating an intimate and informed environment for users.
The ‘Perspectives’ search feature prioritizes pages based on first-hand experience or those created by individuals with deep knowledge in a particular subject. As Google underscores the importance of “experience” as an element of helpful content, it continues to focus on information quality and critical attributes like authoritativeness, expertise, and trustworthiness, enabling users to rely on the information they find.
The ‘Perspectives’ feature, which initially appeared as a carousel for certain search results, seems to be Google’s strategy to prevent users from appending “Reddit” to their search queries to find information from actual humans. This approach had become less effective due to Reddit communities going offline in protest of Reddit’s planned API changes. However, many subreddits have since reopened and can be accessed directly through search.
Amidst the ongoing conflict between subreddit moderators and Reddit, some critics argue that Google sees an opportunity to gain some of Reddit’s audience with its ‘Perspectives’ feed. However, the timing might just be coincidental, as Google announced the new ‘Perspectives’ tab during Google I/O in May, stating that the feature would be rolling out in the coming weeks.
In addition to the ‘Perspectives’ feature, Google also mentioned during its I/O conference that it plans to roll out an update in the coming months that will allow the search engine to better understand content created from a personal or expert point of view, with the ultimate goal of surfacing more “hidden gems” on Search.
Google’s ‘Perspectives’ search feature is a significant leap forward in the evolution of search engines, emphasizing the human element in the digital age. It opens a new avenue for users to access diverse viewpoints, contributing to a more informed and engaged online community.
