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Google announced several new features at its annual Search On event on September 28. The focus appeared to be on adding minor features instead of major updates, and Google continues to highlight mobile searches as it launches new features for the app version.

Here are some of the biggest updates from Google Search On 2022 that were announced.

Emphasizing Visual Searches: Multisearch

Google announced that its Multisearch feature will be expanding to multiple languages. The feature, powered by Google Lens, allows users on the Google app to search for an image and text simultaneously. Google also announced its plans for Local Multisearch, where the results from an image-driven search query are near the user. For example, this feature would allow a user to search an image of a dish and find search results for restaurants near them that provide something similar.

Beyond Google Lens and Multisearch, Google announced a general increased emphasis on visual information, incorporating more pictures and graphics into search results.

Search Refinements and Personalized Results

Google also announced several features targeting the effectiveness and content of search engine results. The Google app is providing new search refinements to autocomplete a search with recommended terms while also allowing users to refine the topics they want their search to include or ignore.

The “About this Result” feature now tells users whether a search result was personalized to their search history and allows users to configure specific brand and company preferences. The Google iOS app will also have new shortcuts on the main search page related to a user’s search history.

Finally, Google is adding “Discussion and Forums” to its U.S. English search results, pulling content directly from discussion platforms such as Reddit or Quora that may solve a user’s query.

Updated Translation Features

Another area of focus at this year’s Search On was translation. Updates to the Google Lens feature provide cleaner and clearer translations of text.

Google also announced a new feature launching in the near future that would provide users with translations of local and international news coverage to provide authoritative reporting directly from the impacted community. Affected search results will be marked as “Translated by Google” under their headline.

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