Google Lets Celebrities Answer Search Questions About Them

Users Googling information about their favorite celebrities have become commonplace in this era. Anyone who wants to know where certain movie stars came from, what their favorite food is, and what roles they were in can simply type the questions in the search box. Just to make this activity more interesting, Google is now running a test where the celebrities can answer questions about them.

As explained in the announcement post, the questions will be answered by the celebrities via clips in a selfie format, which is meant to add a certain level of authenticity to the answers. The idea is to simulate scenarios wherein the celebrities are actually speaking to the people who are asking them questions. The post also lists which celebrities are participating in this test.

“We’re piloting this feature on mobile with answers from Priyanka Chopra, Will Ferrell, Tracee Ellis Ross, Gina Rodriguez, Kenan Thompson, Allison Williams, Nick Jonas, Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Seth MacFarlane, Jonathan Yeo and Dominique Ansel,” the post reads.

If this new feature sounds familiar, it might have been inspired by WIRED’s own video series wherein celebrities answer questions generated by Google’s autocomplete, The Verge reports. In those clips, a pair of actors or actresses would sit down to unveil certain questions that users routinely type into Google search box, often following phrases such as “Does (celebrity name) know…”

What Google is trying to do with its experiment would have a much wider effect because it’s streamed directly into its search result page. This means that more people will be able to see the clips of celebrities answering questions.

On the other hand, this move could also be motivated by Google’s desire to create an actual social platform that people would like, Tech Crunch notes. The company’s previous attempts to enter the social media market have been failures. This experiment could result in more people spending more time on its search pages instead of simply using them as stepping stones to go somewhere else.