Google is rolling out brand new search technology in India, one of the search company’s biggest markets, including bilingual search results and in-video search.
This week, Google held its eighth Google For India event, where it unveiled the following search features:
- Search in video
- Bilingual search results
- Bilingual voice search
- Natural language search in Google Pay
- Handwriting to text translation via Google Lens
These features may eventually make their way to North America, so it’s worth keeping them on your radar.
Here’s more information about the above-listed features, launching first in India.
Search In Video
Google is making it possible to search within YouTube videos.
As you’re watching a video on YouTube, tap on “Search in video” and enter the topic in the video you want to skip to.
Do you struggle with skipping to the good part of the video? 👀
▶ ──🔘── 19:19
We're piloting the ability to search within videos on your phone's Search app. Just type in your query using the ‘Search in video’ feature & find exactly what you’re looking for.#GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/G3KIhpO7ow— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022
In a blog post, Google states:
“Besides images, videos are also a rich source of visual information but it’s often hard to find something buried inside a long clip. For example, perhaps you’re watching a long video about Agra, and you’re curious if it also covers Fatehpur Sikri. With a new feature we’re piloting, you’re now able to search for anything that’s mentioned in a video, right from Search. Simply enter a search term using the ‘Search in video’ feature and quickly find what you’re looking for.”
Bilingual Search Results
Google is making search results in India bilingual, serving results in the user’s local languages alongside English results.
📣 Introducing an India-first 🇮🇳 innovation which makes Search results bilingual for people who prefer it that way.#GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/B4iCqeb6Zc
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022
Google states in a blog post:
“Language needs in India are becoming more dynamic, and multilingual, and we’re also seeing this reflected in people’s search experiences. Notably, the majority of Google users in India consume more than one language.
To make it easier for people who use more than one language to seek and explore information, we’re now making search results pages bilingual, for people who prefer it that way.”
This functionality is rolling out in Hindi and will expand to other Indian languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali, in the coming year.
Bilingual Voice Search
Google is improving speech recognition technology for Hinglish speakers, a hybrid of Hindi and English.
Searchers in India can conduct a voice search using Hindi and English in the same query, and Google will be able to understand what they’re looking for.
When you search "cheese kis cheez se banta hai", Voice Search will better understand your Hinglish query – so you'll always get gouda results 🫢#GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/f1vihmB9df
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022
Google states in a blog post:
“We want to help more people, and specifically Indians, ask questions naturally and intuitively with their voice. Today we’re announcing a new speech recognition model that can more effectively understand people who speak in Hinglish. We’re doing this through the use of a new, neural-network inspired speech recognition model that takes into account the individual’s accents, surrounding sounds, context, and speaking styles.”
Natural Language Search In Google Pay
Google is debuting a feature in India that allows users to conduct natural language searches in Google Pay.
Users can now query Google Pay using natural language questions like, “Show me how much I spent on coffee last week.”
🎙️🎙️🎙️
"Fuel expenses last month"
"Grocery spends last week"The new ‘Transaction Search’ feature on Google Pay, makes it possible to track our spends, and make month-ends smoother ✨ #GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/7kOHWA1hXB
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022
Handwriting To Text Translation
Google is working on a feature for Google Lens that translates doctors’ handwriting into legible text.
We’ve started working on the complex process of identifying what’s written on medical prescriptions by building an assistive model to digitise it, using AI, for medical healthcare professionals.#GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/XD8YwJ6HBr
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022
Google hasn’t committed to a launch date for this feature and notes that it’s intended for medical professionals.
However, the development of this technology could potentially lead to other use cases in the future.
Source: Google
