Google prioritizes AI summary ads over organic search

Speakers at the Google Marketing Live event explained how they will use user search and AI insights to deliver interactive shopping ads that move down organic search results, noting that Google “Focus on opening new opportunities for your business.“

Google: We’re not building a better search engine

The first speaker, Philip Schindler, Google’s senior vice president and chief business officer, echoed what Googlers usually don’t when he said search results are intended to serve ads.

He made this statement alongside a new AI-powered video tool that will help YouTube creators create more content.

After 18:19 minutes, Schindler boasted:

“We’ve worked with some really talented filmmakers, musicians and artists and the results are simply amazing. We’ll soon add video to short films, opening up a whole new world of creative possibilities for you and your brands. The power of AI is in every creator’s pocket.

What does all this mean for you? More creators creating quality content attract more visitors, which means more reach, engagement and ROI for you. We’re not just building a good search engine or a good YouTube website We’re focused on unlocking new opportunities for your business.”

Claims that Google is using AI overview and search to increase advertiser reach and ROI aren’t the only ones. The next two speakers expressed similar sentiments.

Search and Shopping Ads in AI Overview

The next speaker was Vidya Srinivasan, Vice President/General Manager of Advertising at Google. You start by describing how the search experience drives traffic to websites. Then quickly switch gears and show how interactive ads literally push organic search listings out of user search visibility.

At 30 minutes into the video, Srinivasan explains:

“AI summaries appear in search results when they are particularly useful beyond today’s search capabilities As we continue to test and develop the search experience, we will continue to focus heavily on sending valuable traffic to publishers and creators. Ways to search for users leads to more choice, and more choice leads to more choice for advertisers.

You may have noticed that we already display ads above and below AI overviews These ads are assigned to the user’s search query. We will now begin testing search and shopping ads on an AI-powered dashboard for users in the US

Also new is that we assign these ads not only to the context of the search query, but also to the information in the AI overview. As always, ads will be clearly labeled.

1. AI Overview – No Member Entry

2. Scroll down for shopping ads

He then recounts an example of clothes that wrinkle while traveling, and then turns to a Google search to find ways to prevent wrinkles. It shows search activity for travel hacks and shows how organic search results are pushed under the AI overview feature and new search and shopping ads that contain product images appear far more often than all search results.

He explained how the new AI Overview Shopping ad will work to convert searchers:

“Using AI Overview, I quickly found some popular travel hacks that looked promising, and as I browsed through the many options I found a really cool solution, a wrinkle-free spray I’d never heard of before. So perfect, I Wanted to try it.

With this feature, I can now click on the ad and buy it instantly.

As you can see, we are making it easier and faster for consumers to take immediate action. This is an example of how we use AI generation. There’s more and we’ll start with more applications in search advertising.”

3. Targeted advertising based on artificial intelligence overview

Google search is a bait

Google’s search engine engineers use the latest technology and data to create the most useful search results in Google’s history, and they’re the best ever. However, according to Google executives, the purpose of search is not to “organize the world’s information and make it widely accessible and useful,” but to generate more “reach, engagement and ROI” for advertisers. Sam Altman was right when he described what Google is doing as pathetic.

SEO is designed to be social

Social engineering involves manipulating people’s behavior to perform in a certain way. Google has acquired a large part of the web ecosystem with concepts like Core Web Vital to satisfy users with the experience, efficiency, credibility and trustworthiness that Google never wanted.

And it’s not the fault of the Googlers, who put their heart and soul into search optimization You are doing a good job. But it’s clear that Google’s mission is no longer to make information accessible and useful. What may seem like a dystopian horror is that Google has successfully designed the search and social publishing communities to focus on creating useful content so that those working on the advertising side can use it to achieve higher ROI for advertisers.

SEO and publishing are not only used for the benefit of advertisers.