Google users have long been accustomed to adding the term “Reddit” to their search queries to discover valuable information on various subjects. However, during a recent series of Reddit forum blackouts, this method lost its effectiveness. The blackouts occurred as a protest against Reddit’s decision to charge developers for accessing its data, leading many moderators to make their pages private.
Consequently, numerous pages in Google’s search results became inaccessible or unhelpful. To address this issue, Google has introduced a new feature called Perspectives, which aims to alleviate the problem. This feature, available on the mobile web and the Google app in the United States, includes a Perspectives tab highlighting discussion forums and videos from social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and Quora.
During a recent company-wide meeting, Prabhakar Raghavan, the Senior Vice President overseeing Google’s search division, addressed employees regarding user feedback on the search experience. Raghavan admitted that users had expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of search, particularly in relation to the reliance on adding “Reddit” to their search queries to find relevant resources. In response to this feedback, he reassured the team that Google was actively enhancing search functionality to provide helpful results without users needing to append “Reddit” to their searches.
Raghavan said, “Many of you may wonder how we have a search team that’s iterating and building all this new stuff and yet somehow, users are still not quite happy. We need to make users happy.”
Addressing the Challenge of “Authentic Discussion” in Light of the Reddit Blackout
In response to an employee’s comment during the meeting, Prabhakar Raghavan addressed concerns raised by users regarding excessive ads and irrelevant search results. The employee questioned how Google could enhance the user experience of its core product, which has become synonymous with the company’s success.
Google is currently undertaking a search revamp to stay competitive and leverage the latest advancements in generative artificial intelligence. This revamp aims to offer more sophisticated and conversational responses to text-based queries. During its annual developer conference in May, Google unveiled a project called Search Generative Experience, which is still being tested and not widely available. This initiative aims to provide more comprehensive search results powered by generative AI.
Furthermore, Google introduced a competitor to ChatGPT called Bard earlier this year. However, it’s important to note that Bard operates separately from the search function and is still in experimental mode.
During the company-wide meeting, another employee raised a question regarding the ability of Google to surface “authentic discussion,” especially considering the challenges posed by the recent “Reddit blackout” that hindered the discovery of such content.
In response, CEO Sundar Pichai expressed that users are more interested in receiving “comprehensive answers” than being presented with traditional “blue links.” Pichai highlighted that users often append the names of forum sites like Reddit to their search queries to find the desired information.
HJ Kim, the Vice President of Engineering in the search division, acknowledged that users have desired more content from platforms like Reddit. As a response, Kim mentioned the Perspectives tab as one of the features being developed by the company. However, he also acknowledged room for improvement in delivering on user expectations.
Striving for Enhanced User Experience: Assessing Traction, Expanding Beyond AI
Kim said, “Over the last couple of years, search overall has developed these large, cross-functional teams to go after this kind of content. We could do a better job. We realize that. And over the last couple of years, we’ve actually developed quite a bit.”
Raghavan emphasized that Google’s approach would be based on assessing what was gaining the most traction and proving effective. Rather than simply appending additional information, the goal is to provide immediate and accurate answers to questions from multiple perspectives. Raghavan expressed satisfaction with the early engagement observed in this approach.
He also clarified that while AI, particularly generative AI, is important, it alone cannot fully address the issue. Google has dedicated teams conducting experiments to tackle these challenges, with Perspectives as one example.
Raghavan stressed the need to continually adapt and improve to meet the evolving needs of users. He acknowledged that the company is investing significant effort in AI but recognized it as part of the solution.
Lara Levin, a Google spokeswoman, commented to CNBC that search currently fulfills the vast majority of user needs, and Google is continuously enhancing the search experience to meet the ever-changing requirements of its users.
