Search is evolving with each passing day. From looking for an update on an ongoing sporting event to finding the perfect case for a newly bought smartphone, we search for nearly everything on the internet. But what happens when you look for something, but just can’t get desired results from the search engine? Thankfully, Google’s multi-search is a feature that allows users to look for a particular item using multiple parameters and gives them the ability to combine text with visuals in their queries.
This is particularly useful for online shoppers, who might want to find products and only have a picture of the product with no description. Or it can help you find where a certain dish might be available. Google announced a multi-search feature back in April 2022. And during the 8th edition of Google for India, it announced that a multi-search feature will also be available in Hindi and other regional languages starting next year.
Currently, the multi-search feature is limited to the Google app and is available on both Android and iOS devices. Here’s how to use multi-search on Google.
How to use multi-search on Google an Android/iPhone?
Download the latest version of the Google app on your smartphone. Open the app and log in using your Google account. Click on the camera app icon in the top left and select the photo that is similar to the product that you are looking for from your phone gallery.
Google multi-search feature is available for Android and iOS devices (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express)
Google Lens with the Google app will now highlight your picture. Swipe up from the bottom to access additional search features.
Click on add to your search and input a text or a phrase that describes the product that you are looking for.
Final search results from Google multi-search on Google app (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express)
To show the relevant search results, Google will use the picture and the text phrase to get related results from the web. As this method of internet uses a picture and a text, it is called multi-search. With the support for Indian languages, people who don’t understand English will also be able to use Google’s latest innovations.
Search in video
At Google for India 2022 event, Elizabeth Reid, Google’s VP of Search confirmed that the search-in-video feature is also coming to the Google app. When you search for a video, say a review of a phone, you can also get the exact details like battery life, which will take you directly to that part of the video that talks about the battery life of that device.
Similarly, this feature is also useful for those who use Google/YouTube for educational purposes, where, a student can directly watch a specific part of a lecture, and this makes use of the transcription in the video. With features like multi-search, Google will be able to provide exact search results with the combination of more than one parameter while searching.
