Finding people's opinions about a car, restaurant, or phone will soon become easier.
Google recently launched a new "Perspectives" search filter that helps people find information from people on forums and social media sites exclusively.
The search giant is still rolling out the feature; people wouldn't immediately have it for some time.
Google Perspectives Search Filter Details
Google mentioned in its announcement that its Prespectives search filter will help people find long- and short-form videos, images, and written posts others shared on discussion boards, Q&A sites, and social media platforms.
It will also show more details about the creators of the content featured through the filter, such as their name, profile, photo, or information about the popularity of their content.
Users who wish to try the filter for themselves can do so through search phrases like "How to make friends in a new city" or "the best restaurants in LA" and then selecting the Perspectives filter underneath the search bar. Doing so will show users a page of results with advice from others in the form of personal stories told through video or tips from commenters in a forum thread.
These include YouTube videos of all lengths and posts from popular social media platforms and Q&A sites like TikTok, Reddit, Quora, and others. According to 9to5Google, YouTube Shorts and longer videos have the benefit of opening within Search, while others open full pages as usual.
Users can also access these through a dedicated Perspectives section that may appear on the results page; tapping the "See More" link gives access to the same full page of perspectives content accessible by tapping the filter.
Google Perspectives Use, Availability
Google's Perspectives came at the right time - it offers an alternative to the common search trick of appending "Reddit" to the end of every search to find information from actual humans, per The Verge. However, the ongoing protest of subreddit moderators made that trick unreliable since many subreddits are inaccessible; many have now opened again and can be seen when users clock through them from Search.
Whether Google saw the ongoing protests as the opportunity it needed to launch such a feature is unclear, though its timing is impeccable, to say the least.
Unfortunately, Google's Perspectives filter seems to be exclusive to its mobile app as of press time; Google didn't give hints about the feature appearing on its web browser in its announcement since it used words like "tap."
Regardless, the filter will also feature improved rank results in Search - it now has a greater focus on content with "unique expertise and experience" through an update to its helpful content system Google launched in 2022.
The system focuses on providing users with content that provides helpful information to others, while those that don't or have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall are less likely to perform well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that's better to display.
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