Google initially introduced its Bard AI tool as a knee-jerk reaction to ChatGPT’s popularity earlier this year, but the search giant has continued to improve Bard in the meantime, adding new features or expanding its reach.
Today is another day of “new features” in Bardland, with the launch of Bard Extensions. Google says this is “an entirely new way to interact and collaborate with Bard.” Using extensions, Bard can get relevant information from all the other Google products you probably use every day, such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Maps, YouTube, and even Google Flights & Hotels.
This information extraction works even when it is across multiple apps and services. For example, Google uses planning a trip with your friends: Bard can pull the dates that work for everyone from Gmail, search for hotel and flight information in real time, show you directions on Google Maps to the airport, and show you YouTube videos of things to do once you get where you’re going. All this can happen during a conversation with Bard.
Another example Google provides is applying for a new job and using the AI tool to find your resume from Drive and summarize it in a short personal statement paragraph, then continue collaborating on your cover letter.
If there are privacy concerns, Google notes that your Gmail, Docs, and Drive content accessed by Bard is not viewed by human reviewers, used by Bard itself to show you ads, or used to train the Bard model.
From today Bard also has the “Google it” button, which allows you to more easily check its answers. When you click the G icon, Bard will read the response and evaluate whether there is content on the web to substantiate it. When you can evaluate a claim, you can click on the highlighted sentences and learn more about the supporting or contradictory information found by Google search.
Plus, starting today, when someone shares a Bardo chat with you via a public link, you can continue the conversation with additional questions about that topic or use it as a starting point for something else.
Finally, features like uploading images with Lens, inserting search images into answers, and editing Bard answers, previously limited to English only, are now available in more than 40 languages.
Start a new Thread