Google's new search changes show you what you want to see – but is it really what we need?

With the increasing commercial use of AI, the platforms we use daily are becoming more and more personalized. When a social media platform recommends the best content for you, it distills things you do not like, providing you with this infamous room-and-echo effect. Of course, this is not limited to social networks alone. Google Search also uses the AI. In fact, the tech giant has just announced the addition of several "smart" recommendation features to its original product, with a focus on what it [search] sessions, "which extend over several days." In the ad blog, Google calls this a "fundamental transformation" – but is it one that could hinder the discovery of different sources and points of view?

The most important change may be the addition of activity cards. These will appear below the search bar when you search for information on a topic you've already viewed on Google. The map shows the pages you have already visited and the previous search terms you have used on this topic.

Activity map displaying recently visited pages relevant to research

This is without a doubt a useful tool. It is frustrating to lose a link because you do not remember the exact search term you used before – with the activity cards, this problem is solved. More than that, the intention is to link the points thematically between several searches in order to anticipate the information you are actually working on. However, its ramifications may be more important than we can imagine at the moment. This restricts your movements on Google Search and makes you a little less likely to venture further into the nature of the Internet. Instead, the new cards make it easier to access safe bets – the places you used to be.

Google promises that you will have full control over this feature. You can delete the results from your history, pause the reading of the map or choose not to see everything. Yet when Google makes a change in functionality, hundreds of millions of people around the world use it immediately; The feature will have a major effect on search patterns when it is deployed "later this year".

Mountain View research giant also announced a new "dynamic organization" of search results (shown in the header image). Users are now starting to see the most common and relevant subthemes for some general searches. Google example: When you search for "pug", the sub-themes are specific to this breed – you will not see the same topics for a "Yorkshire Terrier" search. In addition, these sub-themes will remain up-to-date, evolving to become more relevant to this topic. This is a less customized update than activity cards, but it provides a more accurate and channelized set of results.

Collections – the search feature that lets you track the content you've visited and come back to it later – also gets some new features. You can add content from an activity map directly to collections, and Google has added content suggestions, depending on what you are looking for and what you are saving, like the Explorer page. # 39; Instagram. These changes take place later this fall.

Collections in Google Search

All updates are activated by a new layer in Google's Knowledge Graph, the knowledge base that connects people, places, things, and facts about them. The new "Subject" layer links headings and subtopics. Google explains that it examines patterns to understand how sub-themes relate to each other, so that it can intelligently bring content that you might want to see next.

Google cedes all this to the announcement yesterday that Google Feed is now "Discover" and will join the Google Search homepage – a bold move in itself.

"All of this allows for experiences that make it easier than ever to explore your interests, even if you do not have your next research in mind," writes the company.

But all this is based on the idea that you know exactly what you want to see. And if you still decide? An even better question might be: what happens if you need to see something that defies your preconceptions? More than ever, the Internet should be an open place. Fortunately, "smart" features like these do not allow us to better understand.