In May 2023, Google introduced several AI-powered technologies to its existing products. One such product is SGE (Search Generative Experience) in Google Search. It uses AI to create summaries of search results and saves you a lot of time. Today, Google is adding yet another functionality to SGE—SGE While Browsing— that can summarise articles so you can get the gist of the article without reading it completely.
To use the SGE While Browsing feature, you have to tap on the ‘Generate‘ button at the bottom of the screen, and Google Search will pull up a tab containing the key points of the article. You can even tap on a key point to go to the relevant section. That’s not all, though. This tab also has an ‘Explore on page‘ section where you can “see questions the article answers and jump to the relevant section to learn more.“
According to Google, SGE While Browsing will be “available in the Google app on Android and iOS, and coming to Chrome on the desktop in the days ahead.” More importantly, the feature is currently in the beta stage, and you have to opt-in to the Search Labs program to use it. It is also worth mentioning that this feature will work only with articles that are freely available to the public and not with the ones that are paywalled (hidden behind a paid subscription).
Google has also made a few other improvements to SGE. According to it, when you hover over certain words in the SGE result, the feature will show you their definitions and/or diagrams, making it easier for you to understand words or concepts that you aren’t aware of. According to the CEO of Alphabet and Google, Sundar Pichai, the user feedback on SGE has been “very positive,” and over time, “this will just be how Search works.”
