Google Introduces Multimodal Search Results for Website Owners

Google has introduced a new feature to its Search Console tool, which allows website owners to track how often their site appears in multimodal search results. This means that if someone searches for a product or image using Google Lens or Circle to Search on Android, the owner of the website hosting that product will be able to see how many times it was returned in those results.

The new feature is called 'multimodal' and is separate from traditional text-based search results. According to Google, this type of search 'tracks search results triggered by a query that uses an image, photo, or screenshot.'

Webmasters can now see which pages appeared in multimodal searches, how often they were returned, and on what device. However, the report does not provide information about the specific queries used to trigger these searches.

The change has been rolled out globally and is available in the Performance report of Google Search Console. It's worth noting that some users have reported seeing declines in impressions and clicks on their websites after the update, but it's unclear whether this is due to the new multimodal search results or other factors.