Google Search is experimenting with audio overviews for specific search queries, the company announced Friday. This feature was first featured in Notebooklm, Google’s AI-based note-taking and research assistant.
Tech Giant says the audio overview uses the latest Gemini models to provide an alternative way for users to absorb and understand information.
“Audio overviews can provide a convenient, hands-free way to absorb information, whether you prefer an audio experience even in multitasking,” Google explained in a blog post.
This feature will be available from today on Labs, Google’s experimental program. The company says that if Google considers it useful based on a specific query, users will see the option to generate a short audio summary. Generating an audio summary will give you a simple audio player with play/pause controls, volume buttons, and options to adjust playback speed.
Google displays links on an audio player to show where it is getting information. If you want to learn more about topics after hearing an audio overview, you can click on the link to dig deeper into your search.
You can give a thumbs up or thumbs up for each audio overview and lab experiments.
NoteBookLM provides an audio overview that allows users to generate podcasts using AI virtual hosts based on shared documents, such as course measurements and legal briefs. Google also brought an audio overview to Gemini in March.
Search audio overview is built on an AI overview, a summary of Google’s supply for specific Google search queries. With an audio overview, Google is targeting people who are hearing learners or who want a more accessible way to retrieve information.
It’s worth noting that today’s announcement will arrive days after a report from the Wall Street Journal found out that Google’s AI overview and other AI-powered tools are killing news publishers’ traffic.