Google brings its AI search to India and Japan

For over two decades, using Google meant condensing your thoughts into awkward strings of keywords. Generative AI is finally changing that muscle memory into an actual conversation.

Google just expanded its generative AI search experiment, Search Generative Experience (SGE), outside the U.S. for the first time, rolling out to users in India and Japan via Search Labs.

Tailored for local habits

The rollout is not a simple copy-paste of the American experience. Users in Japan and India can now interact with search in their local languages through both text and voice input.

In India, Google added a dedicated toggle so multilingual users can easily flip between English and Hindi. Indian users can also listen to the AI-generated responses out loud, catering to local preferences.

To address ongoing concerns about publisher traffic, Google is also tweaking how it cites sources. A new arrow icon will appear next to snippets in the AI snapshot, letting searchers click directly to the supporting web pages. This citation feature lands in the U.S. first and rolls out to Japan and India soon after.

Search ads will continue to show up in designated slots above or below the AI snapshot.

Younger users are talking in full sentences

Google shared that 18-to-24-year-olds report the highest satisfaction scores with SGE so far. Instead of disjointed keywords, they are typing out long, conversational questions and leaning heavily on suggested follow-ups.

Users are turning to search for more complex questions that previously required opening a dozen different tabs, treating Google more like a research partner than a simple directory.

Right now, SGE remains an opt-in experiment inside Search Labs on the Chrome desktop browser and the Google app on iOS and Android.

Why it matters

For everyday users, search is evolving from a list of blue links into a collaborative research canvas. You get an immediate synthesis of a topic, plus clear paths to dive deeper when you need to verify facts.

For Google, taking SGE international is a necessary test in much tougher environments. Launching in multilingual India and culturally distinct Japan will push the limits of its models far beyond standard English queries.

We think this shows Google moving cautiously but deliberately. Adding source link arrows is a clear concession to publishers who fear becoming invisible in an AI-summarized web. Still, whether users will actually click those arrows once they have their answer remains the billion-dollar question for the open web.