Google LLC will enable brands to display ads in AI Overviews, the natural language explainers that its search engine generates in response to some queries. 

The change is part of a broader product update that the Alphabet Inc. company detailed this morning. Google is refreshing not only AI Overviews but also Lens, an intelligence tool that helps users identify objects in images. A number of other search features are receiving enhancements as well. 

Introduced last year, Google’s AI Overviews capability answers some search queries with a natural language explanation that appears above regular search results. Depending on the question, the response can be up to several paragraphs long. The text appears alongside citations to the websites from which AI Overviews sourced the information.

As part of today’s update, Google is redesigning the AI Overviews interface panel to display citations more prominently. “In our tests, we’ve seen that this improved experience has driven an increase in traffic to supporting websites,” Liz Reid, the head of Google Search, detailed in a blog post. 

For mobile users in the U.S., AI Overviews can now display ads below the AI-generated text and citations. Those ads appear “when relevant to both the query and the response provided,” Shashi Thakur, vice president and general manager of Google Ads, explained in a separate post. 

If a user searches for information on how to debug Python scripts, AI Overviews might point out that some development tools can automate certain aspects of the task. Companies that develop coding assistants, meanwhile, could advertise their software below the AI-generated answer. Google today detailed an AI Overviews ad format that displays multiple promotions in a scrollable carousel.

The other search tool for which the company is rolling out an interface refresh is Lens. It’s a suite of computer vision features in Google’s mobile app that can automatically recognize objects in images. Lens also lends itself to a number of related tasks, such as translating street signs. 

About 20% of Lens searches are shopping-related, Thakur detailed today. When users come across a product they wish to buy, they can photograph it and have Lens automatically find offers from e-commerce stores. 

Google is enhancing the search results that Lens displays in response to shopping-related queries. According to the company, a revamped results page will display reviews about the product depicted in a photo along with pricing information and a list of stores that carry it. Later this year, the page will also start displaying ads.

“You can show ads in these experiences with your existing AI-powered Search ads, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns,” Thakur wrote. “There’s no additional action required.”

Online shopping is not the only focus of the Lens refresh. Google is adding support for voice commands to let users refine the information that the tool surfaces about a photo by asking questions. Additionally, Lens can now generate explanations about objects in videos.

The AI Overviews and Lens updates will be joined by a number of other product enhancements.

Google is equipping Circle to Search, a search tool available on Android devices, with a feature that can help users identify songs. In parallel, the company is rolling out a new type of search results page that contains content aggregated by AI. The page format will initially appear in response to certain cooking-related queries.

Image: Google