Google’s long-awaited Pixel 7 and 7 Pro are scheduled for the October 6 Pixel launch event, but it was preceded by the annual Search On conference related to Google’s core business: Search. The company talked about several interesting improvements, including changes to make Google Lens more intuitive to use and search improvements that help with food-specific hunger pangs.
Google knows all too well that translation is one of the main use cases for Lens. The company now uses generative adversarial networks (GANs) to realistically overlay translated text with the same background as foreign language text. This makes the translation look realistic and immersive, so a poster in a foreign language won’t lose context in translation.
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Google says that Lens answers 8 billion questions every month, and the company is confident that users are ready for the next big step: combining image searches in Lens with text entries through a feature called multisearch. It introduced this feature to us at Google I/O, after which it was beta tested in the US. In Search On, Google announced that multisearch is now available in 70 new languages.
Multisearch is also getting better at delivering localized results with what Google calls Multisearch Near Me. Starting this fall in the US, the feature should help you point Lens at an item and find similar items in nearby stores. The company says this will also work with food and plants. Just have Lens identify the item in question and use the multiple search to find a restaurant that serves the same dish or a garden store that sells seedlings of that plant.
Speaking of food, search can help you satisfy your craving for a specific dish more easily than before. Instead of searching for Chinese restaurants near you, you can directly search for “noodles near me” and Search will help you find nearby restaurants that serve noodles. Google says you can further narrow your search based on your desired level of spice, giving the example of “soup dumplings.” To help you find the best place for a dish, Google says that in the coming months, Search will use machine learning to identify each restaurant’s special dishes, complete with filters for vegan and vegetarian preparations. Google may add more filters in due course.
In addition to these improvements to Lens and Search, Google also showed us changes to Maps at the conference, including aerial views of landmarks and a new “vibe check” feature for the neighborhoods you’re planning to visit. The display of search results is also changing, so you’ll find all relevant information in a more user-friendly design.