Meet The New Google Search: AI-Generated Results Get Top Billing
Google has unveiled a major new overhaul of its search engine, introducing AI chatbot technology to the traditional search engine experience. The company provided a sneak peek of this “Search Generative Experience” at Google I/O, which places an AI-generated answer at the top of the screen, forcing the user to scroll down to see the usual “blue link” search results. This could put an end to old-school online search, much like Microsoft’s ChatGPT-powered Bing is already starting to do.
Google says the approach will give users the best of the web by essentially combing through the internet, analyzing the applicable info, and summing it up in easy-to-read snippets. The technology is smart enough to break down AI-generated results into categories. Users can also ask follow-up questions, which will cause Google search to expand into an AI-powered conversation mode.
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The new search engine could potentially reduce web traffic for third-party sites, such as news publishers, blogs, and product reviewers. In its demo at Google I/O, the user stayed on the Google results page during most of the search process, although links to third-party sites were sprinkled in. This could help the company better compete against ChatGPT and Bing. However, it could also threaten Google’s ad business and the overall web ecosystem.
In a blog post, the company noted that it still plans on serving ads through dedicated slots on the experimental search mode. Google added that the AI-generated results are trained to uphold Search’s high bar for quality, and will continue to make improvements over time. The company has opened access to the new search experience for users in the US through a waitlist, with other markets to get access in the coming weeks.
More on Google AI: Google AI News.