Google rolls out 'Perspectives' tab in major search-engine revamp

Alphabet-owned Google rolled out its 'Perspectives' tab feature this week. The Perspective search feature displays various perspectives, including those from humans.

What is Perspectives search on Google?

In a blog post from May, Google had explained that upon selecting the filter, users will be presented exclusively with long- and short-form videos, images, and written posts shared on discussion boards, Q&A sites, and social media platforms.

Examples shown in Google's blog post include TikTok videos, YouTube videos, websites, tweets, Quora results, and Reddit posts.

"You’ll now see more pages that are based on first-hand experience, or are created by someone with deep knowledge in a given subject. And as we underscore the importance of “experience” as an element of helpful content, we continue our focus on information quality and critical attributes like authoritativeness, expertise and trustworthiness, so you can rely on the information you find," Google said in a blog post.

The Perspectives results have been reported by The Verge as Pinterest-like layout rather than the traditional Google search results.

Why Google needs 'Perspectives' search?

The introduction of the Perspectives feed, which initially appeared as a carousel for specific search results, seems to be an attempt by Google to discourage users from solely relying on appending "reddit" to their 
searches in order to find information from real people. 

This tactic had become less effective for a while due to Reddit communities going offline in protest of Reddit's planned API changes.

However, many subreddits have since reopened and can now be accessed directly through search.

Is Google encroaching on Reddit's territory?

Considering the ongoing conflict between subreddit moderators and Reddit, critics say that Google is seeing an opportunity to encroach on Reddit's territory with its Perspectives feed. But it is possible that the timing is merely coincidental.

During a Google conference in May, when the new Perspectives tab was announced, Google mentioned that the feature would be gradually rolled out in the following weeks.

The launch of Perspectives comes after several weeks have passed.