Google held its I/O 2022 keynote on 11 May, and if you run a website or a local business, you probably want one thing: a short list of what changed for search and what you should do about it. Here is my answer up front. The Google I/O 2022 search news is mostly about searching with your camera, finding things nearby, better image results, and more control over personal information.
None of it changes how rankings work tomorrow morning. But several features point to where search traffic is heading, and a few of them reward work you can start now.
Google I/O 2022 Search Announcements at a Glance
Google covered a lot of ground in one keynote. These are the items that touch search directly:
- Multisearch “near me”: take a photo or screenshot, add “near me”, and see local places that have what you are looking for. Google said this comes to English later this year, with more languages over time.
- Scene exploration: point your camera at a shelf or a scene and get information about many objects at once. Google showed it as a future feature with no date.
- Skin tone filters in Google Images: a new option to refine makeup searches by skin tone, built on the Monk Skin Tone Scale.
- Labels for skin tone, hair color and hair texture: a planned, standard way for creators and brands to label their images. Google said this is coming in the next few months.
- A new tool to remove personal contact details: a simpler way to ask Google to remove results that show your phone number, home address or email address. Google said it is coming soon.
- Immersive view in Google Maps: a rich 3D-style view of neighborhoods and places, built from Street View and aerial images.
- Google Translate: 24 new languages added, some using a method where the model learns a language without seeing direct translations.
Google also shared that people now use Google Lens more than 8 billion times a month. That one number explains why so much of this year’s keynote was about the camera.
Multisearch Gets “Near Me” Results
Multisearch launched in beta in the Google app only a month ago. It lets you search with an image and text together, for example a photo of a dress plus the word “green”. I covered how it works in my guide to searching with images and text together in Google multisearch.
At I/O, Google said multisearch will soon add a local layer. You will be able to snap a photo or take a screenshot of a dish, a piece of clothing or a household item, add “near me”, and see nearby restaurants or stores that have it.
How Google Says It Finds the Results
Google explained that it scans millions of images and reviews on the web, plus contributions from the Maps community, to match what is in the photo with local places. That detail matters more than the feature itself.
It tells us the raw material: photos, reviews and business information that already exist online. If your business is thin on those things, Google has little to match.
Why Local Businesses Should Care
Think about a restaurant. Someone sees a photo of a dish on social media, screenshots it, and adds “near me”. Google needs to know that your restaurant serves that dish, and it needs some visual or written proof.
In my experience, most small businesses have a profile with a logo, a few old photos and a short description. That was enough for a basic map listing. It will not be enough when people search with pictures of specific items.
What I Would Do Now
- Add real photos of your products or dishes to your Google Business Profile. Clear, well-lit shots of the actual items, not stock images.
- Name your items in plain words on your website and profile. If you sell “pistachio croissants”, write that, not just “pastries”.
- Keep your menu or product pages crawlable. A menu that only lives inside a PDF or an image is harder for Google to read. I prefer a simple HTML page.
- Ask happy customers for reviews and let them mention what they bought or ate. Never script the wording or offer rewards for reviews.
- Answer questions on your profile and keep hours, address and categories correct.
None of this is new advice. What is new is that it now feeds a visual way of searching, so the payoff is bigger.
Scene Exploration: Search the Whole Shelf
Scene exploration was the most eye-catching demo. You pan your phone camera across a scene, like a shop shelf full of chocolate bars, and Google overlays helpful details on each item. In the demo, it helped spot options such as nut-free or dark chocolate without picking up each bar.
Google called it a future feature for multisearch and gave no launch date. So please do not rush to “optimize for scene exploration”. There is nothing to optimize for yet.
The Signal Behind the Demo
What I take from it is the direction. Google wants to recognize products from what they look like and connect them to facts: ingredients, reviews, ratings, and where to buy.
For product brands and online stores, that means the basics matter even more:
- Clear product names that match the packaging.
- Product pages with full details, such as ingredients, materials, sizes and use cases.
- Product structured data (code that labels price, availability and reviews in a format Google reads easily).
- Good product images from more than one angle.
If your packaging says one name and your website says another, fix that first. I see this mismatch a lot when brands rename products and forget to update older pages.
Skin Tone Filters and Inclusive Image Labels
Google released the Monk Skin Tone Scale, a 10-shade scale built with Harvard sociologist Dr. Ellis Monk. Google is openly releasing it so others can use it for research and product work. You can read the full details in Google’s own post on improving skin tone representation across Google.
For search, Google announced three things.
- A skin tone filter in Google Images for makeup searches. Google’s examples were “everyday eyeshadow” and “bridal makeup looks”.
- A wider range of skin tones in image results for broad searches about people.
- A planned labeling standard so creators, brands and publishers can mark attributes like skin tone, hair color and hair texture in their content. Google said this is coming in the next few months.
Who This Affects Most
Beauty brands, fashion sites, hair care companies and stock photo sites should watch this closely. If your images only show a narrow range of models, your content may simply not appear when someone filters by a different skin tone.
My honest view: this is a content decision before it is an SEO decision. If you sell foundation in 30 shades, show it on 30 kinds of skin. That helps shoppers, and it gives Google more to work with.
Do Not Add Made-Up Markup
The labeling standard has not been published yet. Do not invent your own tags or add guesses to your code. When Google shares the format, it will explain how to use it. Until then, keep doing solid image SEO:
- Use original photos where you can.
- Write useful alt text (a short description of the image for screen readers and search engines).
- Use descriptive file names instead of “IMG_0042.jpg”.
- Place images near the text that describes them.
- Make sure Google can crawl your image files.
An Easier Way to Remove Personal Information
Just two weeks before I/O, on 27 April, Google expanded its removal policy. People can now ask Google to remove search results that show their personal contact information, such as a phone number, email address or home address. Google explains the rules in its post on new options for removing personally identifiable information from Search.
At I/O, Google said a new tool is coming soon to make these requests easier. You will be able to start a request from the Google app, and also from individual search results.
What Google Will and Will Not Remove
Google says it looks at the whole page before removing anything. It will not remove information that appears in the public record on government or official sites, and it aims to keep broadly useful content like news articles available.
Also keep in mind that removing a result from Google Search does not remove the page from the internet. The page still exists on the site that hosts it.
What This Means for Site Owners
For most business sites, nothing changes. Your own phone number on your contact page is not what this tool is for.
But if you run a directory, a people-search site, a forum or a site with user profiles, expect more removal requests. I would review which pages show personal contact details and ask whether they need to be public at all. Pages that exist only to list someone’s address and phone number are exactly what this policy targets.
If you manage a personal brand or a company founder’s name, this tool is also handy. It gives you a clean way to request removal of results that expose private contact details.
Immersive View and Other Maps Updates
Google showed immersive view for Google Maps. It combines billions of Street View and aerial images to create a rich, 3D-style view of a place. You can look at a neighborhood, a landmark or even a restaurant before you visit, and see how it looks at different times of day.
Google said it will start in a handful of major cities, including Los Angeles, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo, later this year.
For local businesses, I see this as one more reason to keep your Maps presence accurate. Your listing is part of a richer preview now. If your hours are wrong or your photos are years old, people notice before they even leave home.
AI and Language Updates Worth Knowing
A big part of the keynote was about Google’s language models. Google showed LaMDA 2, its conversational AI model, and an app called AI Test Kitchen that lets small groups of people try early demos of it.
These are not search features. Still, they show how hard Google is working on understanding natural, messy questions. Over time, that kind of understanding tends to show up in search, so I would expect search to keep getting better at long, conversational queries.
Google Translate added 24 new languages, including several spoken in India, Africa and the Americas. If your audience speaks one of them, this is a good moment to think about whether a translated version of your key pages would help real visitors. Machine translation is a helper, not a replacement for a native speaker’s review.
What the Google I/O 2022 Search News Means for Your SEO
When I read through announcements like these, I ask one question: what do they ask Google to understand that it could not understand before? This year, the answer is images and places.
Google wants to look at a photo and know the product, the dish, the skin tone, and the nearby store that sells it. That only works if websites and business profiles give Google clear, honest information to match.
My Priority List After I/O 2022
- Audit your Google Business Profile. Check categories, hours, photos, products or menu items, and reviews.
- Improve your product and service images. Real photos, good alt text and descriptive file names.
- Tighten product pages. Full details, consistent names, and valid product structured data.
- Review pages that show personal data if you run a directory, forum or profile-based site.
- Watch for the image labeling standard if you are in beauty, fashion or hair care.
If you already work through a yearly plan, most of these fit neatly into it. My SEO checklist for 2022 covers the technical and content basics that these new features build on.
What Not to Do
- Do not rebuild your site for features that have no launch date, like scene exploration.
- Do not add invented markup for skin tone or hair attributes before Google publishes a format.
- Do not stuff “near me” into your page titles. Google works out location from the searcher, not from your title tag. I’d skip this tactic completely.
- Do not use stock photos to fill your profile. They do not help Google match your real products.
Is This a Big Deal for Rankings?
Not directly. Google did not announce a ranking update at I/O 2022. Your positions for regular text searches will not move because of the keynote.
The bigger shift is in how people search. More searches start with a camera, a screenshot or a spoken question. Those searches still lead to websites and business listings, but the match is based on different signals: images, product details, reviews and location.
In my experience, sites that do the basics well tend to benefit when Google adds a new way to search. Sites that cut corners on images and business data tend to be invisible in those new spots.
Conclusion
The Google I/O 2022 search announcements were less about rankings and more about new ways to start a search: a photo plus “near me”, a camera pointed at a shelf, a filtered image search, and a simpler path to remove personal details. Most of these features are still rolling out or not yet live, so there is time to prepare.
Your best next step is simple. Open your Google Business Profile and your top product or service pages today, and check whether a stranger could tell exactly what you offer from your photos and text alone. If you want to understand the camera side better first, start with my explainer on how Google multisearch works.
