The first day of Google’s ongoing virtual Google I/O event saw a raft of announcements, from a new Smart Canvas collaboration tool to the latest version of its mobile operating system, Android 12.
In the CX space, Google announced several new products and offerings aimed at improving the experience of customers shopping online.
The Shopping Graph
First up was the Shopping Graph, a real-time dataset linking products, inventory and merchants. The AI-enhanced feature is intended to leverage Google’s extensive data to help customers find exactly what they are looking for.
“The Shopping Graph is a dynamic, AI-enhanced model that understands a constantly-changing set of products, sellers, brands, reviews and most importantly, the product information and inventory data we receive from brands and retailers directly — as well as how those attributes relate to one another,” said Bill Ready, President of Commerce and Payments.
“With people shopping across Google more than a billion times a day, the Shopping Graph makes those sessions more helpful by connecting people with over 24 billion listings from millions of merchants across the web. It works in real-time so people can discover and shop for products that are available right now.”
Image Recognition with Google Lens
The tech giant also said it was expanding its Google Lens image recognition technology, which identifies objects via visual analysis and machine learning techniques. Via Google Photos, users are now able to search screenshots with Google Lens to shop for any items pictured.
“We know it’s easy to get inspired just by strolling your neighbourhood, browsing a magazine or taking note of something online,” said Bill Ready. “That’s why we’re building new, more integrated shopping experiences to meet you where you already are. For instance, one of the most popular ways people take note of things they like is by taking a screenshot — but it’s not always easy to take action on those screenshots afterward. Now, when you view any screenshot in Google Photos, there will be a suggestion to search the photo with Lens, allowing you to see search results that can help you find that pair of shoes or wallpaper pattern that caught your eye.”
