Multi-Modal Search
Multi-modal search is searching with more than one kind of input at once, like a photo plus typed words, instead of text alone. Google's multisearch, added to Lens in 2022, lets people take a photo or screenshot and add words to it, such as a picture of a houseplant with "care instructions" typed after it.
Source: Google, Go beyond the search box: Introducing multisearch (April 7, 2022), checked October 29, 2026
What Multi-Modal Search means for your business
You'll see it spelled multimodal search too. Later in 2022, Google added "near me" to multisearch, and said that finding a dish nearby from a photo draws on images and reviews from web pages and from Maps contributors. In May 2025, Google said people were bringing it more multimodal questions.
Your photos have a job here too. Someone snaps a cake, a car part or a pair of shoes and adds "near me." We'd make sure your site and Google Business Profile show real photos of what you sell, each with a plain caption nearby.
Google's image guide says it uses alt text, the page around an image and computer vision together to work out what a picture shows. So we'd write alt text the way a customer would describe the thing, like "chocolate birthday cake with fresh berries," and keep it free of keyword lists, which the same guide warns against.
If someone points their camera at what you sell and your own photos never come up, getting your photos and pages matched to what's in the picture is work we take on.
Sources: Google, Two new ways Google can help you plan your holiday meals (November 17, 2022); Google, Search your world, any way and anywhere (May 11, 2022); Google, AI Mode in Google Search: Updates from Google I/O 2025 (May 20, 2025), checked October 29, 2026
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview cited Wikipedia, HubSpot's glossary, Google Cloud's blog and search software companies, and leaned toward developers building search tools. ChatGPT explained it with a sneaker photo and a table of technical tools, and cited nothing.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
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