Google Crowd Sources Answers With Notes And Follow Features

Google is testing a new feature in its Search Labs that allows users to ask for advice on very niche topics and view responses from other users.

The feature, called Notes, will show at the bottom of search results allowing users to add their own notes or view notes from others.

Users can subscribe to topics using the Follow button which will show new curated articles on the topic directly on the Google home page.

The concept is not that different from the questions and answers users receive on sites like Reddit, which can be helpful on very specific types of questions.

Google envisions this as a great source of ideas and tips for everything from cooking tips, to coaching tips, to ideas on fashion.

The idea of personalized answers is a growing trend at Google.

In May, the company began testing Perspectives which utilizes AI to gather answers to questions from across a host of forums and social media sites.

Users can ask more generalized questions like “How do I make new friends when I move” and link to others who have written on the same topic.

Google is prioritizing links that people click as being “more helpful” first to help provide the best answers.

Much of these new contextual search results are powered behind the scenes by Google Bard, the company’s generative AI tool.

All of these tools are still in testing with no timetable for general release, but the strategy of Google’s next-generation search engine is coming into focus and is clearly working toward being the source of collected knowledge.