Google’s Scene Exploration adds reviews and product details to searches in Lens

At its I/O 2022 keynote today, Google provided a number of updates regarding search including a powerful new feature called scene exploration. One new addition is support for Google Lens inside the default Google Search bar, which makes it easier to point your camera at an object and look it up on the web. However, to support more natural search across a range of inputs, the company is looking to enhance multisearch by making it easier to find info about local businesses with the new Near Me feature. 

That said, the big upcoming addition might actually be Scene Exploration, which uses your phone’s camera to condense info from places like cluttered store shelves and then surface it in a more digestible way. On stage, Google demoed this by showing a picture of chocolate bars in a store, before using Scene Exploration to call out additional info like the presence of nuts, user ratings and more. And in the future Scene exploration will even call out details like products that are minority-owned or come from sustainable farming methods. 

As part of its ongoing efforts to promote racial equity, Google is adding new skin tone filters to serarch.
Google

Additionally, as part of Google’s ongoing efforts to promote racial equity, the company is updating image search so that users can filter results based on specific skin tones. This should make it easier to find the right shade of makeup or an outfit that works best for you. And, later this month, Google will also add new real tone filters in Google photos, with Google also making Professor Monk’s skin tone scale available for open source collaboration. 

Meanwhile, in order to provide more context about the web pages you visit, Google is adding a new tab in the Google App that includes a description of the site sourced from both the author and other comments from across the net. 

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!

Google Maps adds an ‘Immersive View’ of major cities

Google Maps is getting an “Immersive View” that will offer users digitally rendered looks at major US cityscapes, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told the audience at Google’s I/O 2022 keynote on Wednesday.  

The new feature uses computer vision and AI to blend Maps’ existing Street View function with aerial photography to create high-resolution models of the various buildings and urban features of a given location. “With our new immersive view, you’ll be able to experience what a neighborhood, landmark, restaurant or popular venue is like — and even feel like you’re right there before you ever set foot inside,” wrote Miriam Daniel, VP of Google Maps, in a blog post. What’s more, Maps’ other tools and features can be applied to the view as well, enabling users to see what the area looks like at different times of the day and varying weather conditions.

Immersive View will first be available for Los Angeles, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo later this year, with more cities to follow. The company also notes that its recently released eco-routing feature, which lets drivers in the US and Canada to pick the most fuel efficient route for their trip, has already been used to travel 86 billion miles and prevented the release of roughly half a million metric tons of carbon emissions.

Google isn’t the only company making its navigation systems more readable and user friendly. At WWDC 2021 last June, Apple rolled out a higher-fidelity version of its Maps app, offering added detail like elevation gradients, brighter road colors, more prominent location labels, and hundreds of custom icons for local landmarks.

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!

Google is bringing automatic summaries to Docs and Chat

Google is making it easy to catch up on long documents with a new auto summarization feature, which will soon be available on Google Docs. It relies on machine learning to break down the key points in a file and generate a readable briefing. Think of it like automatic Cliff’s Notes for all of those work reports you never read. Google originally announced the feature in March, but now it’s closer to reaching the public.

Google Docs Auto Summary
Google

As Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai explained at today’s Google I/O keynote, the automatic summary feature relies on language understanding, information compression and natural language generation to work its magic. And while it’s coming to Docs soon, he says it’ll eventually make its way to Google Spaces and Chats, where it can summarize your conversations so you don’t have to spend hours scrolling up. If anything, it’ll be a nice way to keep tabs on those group chats you’re lurking in. (And hopefully automatic summaries will work better than Google’s AI-powered inclusive language warnings.)

As for other Google Workplace updates, the company is introducing a Portrait Restore feature to clean up crummy webcam video in Google Meet, and it showed off a customizable way to simulate studio portrait lighting. It’s also using AI to de-reverberate sound, which makes it seem like you’re talking into a high-quality microphone, and bringing automatic transcriptions to Google Meet later this year.   

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!

Google Translate adds support for 24 new languages

Google is adding support for 24 new languages to its Translate tool, the company announced today during its I/O 2022 developer conference. Among the newly available languages are Sanskrit, Tsongae and Sorani Kurdish. One of the new additions, Assamese, is used by approximately 25 million people in Northeast India. Another, Dhivehi, is spoken by about 300,000 people in the Maldives. 

According to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the expansion allows the company to cover languages spoken by more than 300 million people and brings the total number of languages supported by Translate to 133. Pichai credited the breakthrough to a new monolingual AI learning approach where Google’s translation algorithm learns how to translate a section of text without first seeing a sample. In a blog post published during the event, Google admitted the approach isn’t perfect yet, but said it would keep working on the technology so that it can deliver the same experience it does with languages like Spanish and German.      

The last time Google added a significant number of languages to Translate was 2020 when the company updated the tool to support Kinyarwanda, Odia, Tata, Turkmen and Uyghur. Google still has its work cut out for itself. It’s estimated there are more than 7,151 spoken languages globally. Still, today’s additions may help people communicate in situations where they otherwise couldn’t.   

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!

Twitter made a game to explain its privacy policy

Twitter has revamped its privacy policy to help you understand how it handles your data, but it’s not convinced that’s enough. The social network has launched a Data Dash game that it hopes will help you understand the trickier parts of the new policy in simpler terms. At its heart, it’s a simple platformer that has you guide your dog Data around unwanted ads (for cats, naturally), navigate through spam DMs and avoid trolls. Complete a level and you’ll learn more about Twitter’s approach and how you can take control of the experience.

Data Dash won’t exactly challenge hardcore gamers, and the mechanics are a bit crude. The 8-bit retro style is cute (if unoriginal), though, and the easy gameplay makes it more likely that you’ll learn something rather than give up in frustration.

The biggest issue may simply be the tone. While the game is glib, the issues it’s dealing with are potentially serious — we doubt people will enjoy this if they’ve been targets for harassment or hate speech. Data Dash is more for newcomers and other innocents who want to wrap their heads around privacy concepts before they encounter the sobering reality.

Watch the Google I/O 2022 keynote here at 12:40PM ET

Google I/O is one of the company’s most important events of the year, and it all kicks off with today’s keynote. It’s a safe bet that Google will reveal fresh details about Android 13, but the company will most likely have much more to discuss.

It’s not exactly a secret that Google has been beavering away on its own smartwatch — especially after a prototype was left at a restaurant recently. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the company officially showed off the Pixel Watch for the first time today. There are also rumblings of news on the smartphone front, particularly in the form of the rumored Pixel 6a. 

Google will also surely have announcements on other fronts. Key products like Search, Google Assistant and other hardware may be on the docket as well (I have my fingers crossed for some Stadia news, but I’m not holding my breath).

Before the keynote gets underway at 1PM ET, join us for our pre-show, which starts at 12:40PM. Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low and Senior Reporter Sam Rutherford will break down what we expect Google to announce and provide their expert analysis. Engadget will also have full coverage of all the biggest news from I/O.

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!