From this article Great technologyA newscast by Alex Kantrowitz.
For years, Google dominated search without much resistance. The layout has encountered some errors. There were always just a few blue links. The company’s multibillion-dollar deal with phone makers to keep Google Search as the default has also expanded its lead. But his comfortable seat is actually starting to fade. A lawsuit from the US Department of Justice It exposed its distribution practices, opening it up to competition with the conclusion of a high-profile federal antitrust case this week. Generative AI tools threaten to turn the research format on its head and shake up the competitive landscape.
Currently, Google is experimenting with bold new changes that could significantly change the search experience. In a test announced this week, it has begun allowing users to leave publicly visible feedback on search results. that’s it Option added To follow specific searches and send you new information instead of repeated searches. Generative AI results that continue to test answers to questions in natural language.
“This is the most exciting time of my entire career,” Kathy Edwards, Google’s vice president of search, told me in an Oct. 23 interview. The Big Tech Podcast This week.
Search is Google’s money supply. It generates the bulk of its revenue and funds the company’s large operations. All these Google-like things – experimental products, research, successful projects, shareholder returns – wouldn’t be possible without search margins. Changing the recipe is risky. However, the company seems willing (or compelled) to try it.
CommentWhat Google started this week as an experiment could be its boldest change yet. This effectively puts an online comment section at the top of the results page. For example, if you’re looking for a recipe that calls for meat, someone might leave a note suggesting a vegetarian option. Find a website that has up-to-date information and someone can add a note if it’s out of date. If one site is easy to navigate and another is a nightmare, you can add a note to help others decide which site to visit.
“Basically, people want to hear information from others,” Edwards said. Feedback aims to help them get the best information from each other.
Online comments can get out of hand, so Google takes some precautions to keep notes civil Edwards said the team investigated his fellow YouTubers and cleaned up the once-horrendous comments section. “We’re best friends now,” Edwards said of the corporate siblings. Expect similar filters in Notes, as well as “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” options so that the best user errors end up at the top.
In addition to the response, Google this week released the “Follow by Follow” option, which is rolling out globally. Following allows you to subscribe to specific questions and receive updates as new information arrives. For example, if you’re interested in fried vegetarian food, Google can alert you when a new recipe page goes live. And with many of the major social media outlets that users rely on to follow their interests declining — including X, the Facebook News Feed and Tumblr — there’s an opportunity for Google to step in and fill the void. Edwards said the company doesn’t want to build a social network. But even without it, it can provide a similar benefit.
Google Research on Obstetricians— which adds AI-generated answers to the top of the results page — seems to work well among lab functions. “Users really like this experience; Morale is higher,” Edwards said. “We’re seeing users asking more complex questions.” The statement suggests that SGE, as Google calls it, could offer some of the benefits of searching with an AI bot instead of turning Google search entirely into chat — the middle Google of familiarity. Search Interface and ChatGPT.
Google still has some problems it can solve with generative search. If a response resolves a question without scrolling down the page for a link, it can limit the number of ads that are clicked, putting the business at risk. “We maintain advertising and membership [search] “It’s very different at Google,” Edwards said. But Wall Street will still demand some answers.
Another issue is paying publishers whose information is included in AI-generated answers. Understanding and displaying publisher content on the web is different than simply inserting titles and blue links and can result in less traffic for publishers. However, until now it has been difficult to determine whether SGE is sending more or less traffic to publishers because the subscription nature of SGE limits Google’s ability to accurately measure it. “It drives us statisticians crazy,” Edwards said.
The ability to simply block crawling – as happens with search – does not appear to be sufficient to address publishers’ concerns about SGE. However, so far none seem to be good solutions outside of small licensing agreements like OpenAI Agreement with the Associated Press.
A potentially massive wave of changes — Notes, SGE and Follow — could be the most significant redesign of Google Search in a decade or more. Nothing in technology lasts forever, not even the most influential prospects. For Google, the hope is that these features — and whatever else is coming — will be enough to maintain its dominance for some time. lang