Google presented a renewal of its image search on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its launch. The update incorporates a personalized gallery and greater integration of artificial intelligencein search results.
According to the company, the new design of Google Images will show a gallery of images based on the user's interests, even before performing a search. The change will be rolled out gradually over the coming weeks.
Google unveiled a refresh of its image search
How Google’s image search was born
Google noted that the impetus to create image search arose from the famous green Versace dress worn by Jennifer Lopez at the 2000 Grammy Awards.
The company's engineers noticed that users searching for that dress did not want to read about it, but rather see it directly. Thus, in July 2001, the first version of the image search was launched.
How the new personalized gallery will work
The update will incorporate a gallery of images that will be continuously updated based on the user's interests. These interests are determined from the browsing and search history on Google.
In this way, what each user searches for and interacts with on the web will directly influence the content that Google suggests within this new interface.
The return of Google Images Collections feature
With this update, Google also aims to give greater visibility to Collections, a feature of image search that has been little used until now.
The Google Images Collections feature returns
While the user browses the suggested gallery or searches for new images, they will be able to add content to their Collections. These will appear in a menu located at the top of the main gallery for quicker access.
How artificial intelligence is added to the results
The other major change does not target existing images on the internet, but rather the generation of new images through artificial intelligence. The Nano Banana model from Google was already available in Gemini and in AI Mode, and will now also be added to the AI Overviews.
If a user wants to obtain an AI-generated image in their results, they only need to request it within their query. The system will generate the image and place it within the AI summary, which occupies an increasingly larger portion of the results page.
How artificial intelligence adds to the results
What impact does this feature have on organic results
The inclusion of images generated by AI within the AI Overviews pushes organic search results further down the page, given the larger space that this type of content occupies.
When will the update be available
Both the renewal of Google Images and the generation of images within the AI Overviews will be implemented gradually over the coming weeks. In the first stage, both features will be limited to accounts set to the English language.
