Reddit alternative? Google introduces Perspectives, a search feed with results from humans

Google has been trying to revamp its search engine for a while. At the Google I/O event, CEO Sundar Pichai announced an AI-powered search experience where users can see more relevant results with detailed information in a unified feed, assisted by an AI chatbot. Now, Google has announced yet another feature where users will get to see search results that entirely consist of human perspectives, created by everyday people and experts, somewhat like a Reddit thread. Interestingly, it comes at a time when Reddit is dealing with massive protests by its user base, moderators, and third-party apps over its new API pricing changes. Can Google Perspectives be a good alternative for Reddit? Let us take a look.

Today, June 24, Google announced in a tweet, “Last month at #GoogleIO we shared updates we’re making to Search to help you find and explore diverse perspectives from experts and everyday people. Today you'll be able to try it out”. While the feature has not been rolled out to the general public, if you want to check them out, you can sign up for Google Labs and join the waitlist for Search here.

Google Perspectives adds a human touch to search results

A new filter is added on top of the search results (the space where videos, images, news, books, and other labels exist to help you get a filtered search) called Perspectives. Once the filter is tapped, users will “exclusively see long- and short-form videos, images and written posts that people have shared on discussion boards, Q&A sites and social media platforms”, Google explained in a post.

It further added, “We’ll also show more details about the creators of this content, such as their name, profile photo or information about the popularity of their content”.

This particular filter will be helpful when you’re not looking for the most accurate information but rather relying on subjective experience. For example, you moved to a new city but do not know anyone. You can search “how to meet new people in this city” and turn on the Perspectives filter to see residents from the city itself sharing the answer to the question, which can be much more helpful than a blog post from a travel website.

Google has also said that it will be updating its ranking system to bring the right information that can be hidden in a comment of a forum or a little-known blog to the top of the results.

A Reddit alternative?

While the use case is pretty similar to how someone would look up threads on Reddit, Google does not really offer a space where people can come together to create communities or discussion threads. However, with the introduction of Perspectives, it may do so later.

But, it can be used more frequently by those who preferred using third-party apps and now instead of going through Reddit’s app or the website, they would prefer to ask their questions here and find instant relevant answers.