What is multimodal search?
Multimodal search is a search experience that can understand and combine different types of input, such as text, images, voice, and video. It allows users to search more naturally, especially when a question is difficult to express through keywords alone.
Can Google search using text and images together?
Yes. Google can combine visual and text inputs to understand what a user is searching for. For example, a user can search with an image and add a question about a specific object, feature, or detail within it to receive more relevant results.
What types of content can multimodal search understand?
Multimodal search can process multiple content formats, including text, images, audio, and video. Advanced AI models can analyze these formats together, allowing search systems to understand objects, spoken language, visual context, and written information within the same search experience.
Can you search for something when you don't know what it's called?
Yes. Multimodal search makes it possible to search using an image, camera, voice, or other contextual input when you cannot describe something accurately with words. The search system can identify visual characteristics and context to determine what the user is trying to find.
How is multimodal search changing product discovery?
Multimodal search allows shoppers to discover products using images and natural-language questions instead of exact product names. Users can photograph an item, search for similar products, ask about specific features, and refine their search, creating a more visual and conversational product-discovery journey.
What role does visual content play in multimodal search?
Visual content provides AI search systems with additional context about products, places, processes, and concepts. Relevant, high-quality images and videos can complement textual information and make a webpage's subject easier to understand across visual and multimodal search experiences.
How should websites prepare for multimodal search?
Websites should combine useful written content with relevant, high-quality images and videos. Descriptive alt text, meaningful filenames, accessible media, clear surrounding context, structured information, and strong image and video SEO help search systems understand how visual content relates to the page.