Google Images adds browsing and AI generation at 25

Google Images is getting two new features as it hits its 25th anniversary: a more browsable homepage and direct image generation inside AI Overviews in Search.

CNET spoke with Google Lens co-founder Lou Wang, who outlined how Google’s visual search tools have shifted from simple text-based image lookups to more multimodal search experiences.

Google first launched Image Search in July 2001, after Jennifer Lopez’s green Versace dress at the 2000 Grammy Awards drove intense demand for related images. The product later expanded into reverse image search via uploaded images and URLs. In 2017, Google introduced Google Lens, first through Google Photos and Google Assistant, before moving it into the main search box.

Since then, Google has added Multisearch, which combines text and image inputs, and Circle to Search, which lets users search what’s on screen without switching apps. Over the last two years, Wang said, features such as AI Mode integrations, Search Live, Gemini-powered visual reasoning, Find the Look, and multi-image search have made visual search more natural.

New Google Images homepage and AI Overviews tools

The first new feature is a redesigned Google Images homepage with a real-time image gallery tailored to a user’s interests. It also adds tabbed collections for saving and organizing ideas, similar to boards on Pinterest or collections on TikTok. Google’s example: a user planning a trip to Malaysia could create a collection labeled “Malaysia” and save related inspiration there.

Recommended reading

Kodak’s $100 cameras keep outselling Sony and Canon

This homepage feature will roll out over the coming weeks on desktop in the US in English.

Google is also adding direct image generation to AI Overviews in Search. Using text prompts powered by the latest Nano Banana model, users will be able to generate custom visuals inside Search. One example Google gave is comparing paint colors for a bedroom by asking for an image showing the same room with yellow-gold walls versus sage green walls.

That feature will also arrive over the coming weeks in regions that already support image creation in AI Mode, and it will be available in English.

“Especially with these AI models, we have an ability to do way more to get towards more of this natural and intuitive expression of a question.” “I think that’s where we’re more and more anchored: How do you let people express these questions really intuitively and then obviously answer them to the best that we can?”