Google originally introduced its Bard AI tool as a quick response to ChatGPT’s overnight popularity earlier this year, but in the meantime, the search giant has continued to improve Bard — whether by adding new features or expanding its reach.
Today is another day of “new features” in Bardland as the Bard expansion launches. Google says it’s “a whole new way to interact and collaborate with Bard.” Using the extension, Bard can pull relevant information from all the other Google products you probably use every day — like Gmail, Docs, Drive, Maps, YouTube, and even Google Flights and Hotels.
This information retrieval works even if it can be found in multiple applications and services. Google uses planning a trip with your friends as an example – Bard can pull dates from Gmail to suit everyone, look up real-time hotel and flight information, show you directions to the airport on Google Maps, and show you YouTube videos of what to do once you arrive where you are going All of this can happen during one conversation with the Bard.
Another example Google cites is applying for a new job and using AI to find your resume on Drive and summarize it into a short personal statement, then continue to collaborate on a cover letter.
In case you’re concerned about privacy, Google notes that your content from Gmail, Docs, and Drive accessed by Bard isn’t visible to human reviewers, Bard itself doesn’t use it to serve ads or train Bard’s model.
Starting today, Bard also has a “Google it” button that lets you more easily check his answers. When you click the G icon, Bard reads the response and evaluates whether there is any content on the site to support it. When a statement can be evaluated, you can click on the highlighted phrases to learn more about the supporting or conflicting information found by the Google search.
Starting today, when someone shares a Bard chat with you via a public link, you can continue the conversation with more questions on that topic or use it as a starting point for something else.
Finally, features like uploading images with Lens, retrieving images from answer searches, and editing Bard answers that were previously limited to English are now available in over 40 languages.
