Google tests Audio Overviews for Search queries

Google Search is experimenting with Audio Overviews for certain Search queries, the company announced on Friday. The feature was first introduced to NotebookLM, Google’s AI-based note-taking and research assistant.

The tech giant says Audio Overviews will use its latest Gemini models to give users another way to absorb and understand information.

“An audio overview can help you get a lay of the land, offering a convenient, hands-free way to absorb information whether you’re multitasking or simply prefer an audio experience,” Google explained in a blog post.

The feature is available starting today in Labs, Google’s experimental program. The company says users will see the option to generate a short Audio Overview if Google thinks it would be useful based on their specific query. Once you generate an Audio Overview, you will see a simple audio player with play/pause controls, a volume button, and the option to adjust the playback speed.

Google will display links in the audio player to show where it’s getting the information from. If you want to learn more about a topic after listening to an Audio Overview, you can click on the links in order to dive deeper into your search.

You can give a thumbs up or thumbs down on each Audio Overview, and the experiment as a whole in Labs.

In NotebookLM, Audio Overviews give users the ability to generate a podcast with AI virtual hosts based on documents they have shared, such as course readings or legal briefs. Google also brought Audio Overviews to Gemini in March.

Audio Overviews in Search builds on AI Overviews, the AI-generated summaries Google supplies for certain Google Search queries. With Audio Overviews, Google is targeting people who are auditory learners or want more accessible ways to get information.

It’s worth noting that today’s announcement comes a few days after a Wall Street Journal report found that Google’s AI Overviews and other AI-powered tools are killing traffic for news publishers.