Google is expanding AI features in its flagship product, web search. Head of Google, Liz Reid, noted that people have already experienced AI overviews through the company’s experiments in search labs, and they like that along with the links, they can now also get a quick overview of the topic.
Reid said that they have noted that with AI summary, people use search more often and are more satisfied with the outcomes.
AI features are available in the US currently
AI Overviews have started to roll out but will be available only for use at the moment, and more countries will also be added soon. Reid said that this will make the service available to hundreds of millions of people, and the company is looking to bring these features to a billion people this year.
According to the company, users are visiting a diversified range of different websites with AI Overview for complex queries. The company analytics show more traffic is going to these links as compared to if they were presented in traditional search listings for the same query.
While Google lost a bit of share in the US search market during the last month, which fell by four percent and is the steepest loss since 2009, its new strategy seems like a bold step considering the changing sentiment.
AI-generated content is usually not trusted at large, as AI models are prone to hallucinations and erratic errors are common, so let’s see how Google handles it all. But at the same time, many users are using apps like ChatGPT as a search alternative for things that are not time-sensitive, as LLMs lack the ability to incorporate real-time information. But, yes, there is a market for such solutions.
It was a common concept among technology experts and market observers that Google avoided adding AI summaries to the search results because it makes money when people click on ads at the top of the results page, not when they spend more time on the Google interface page.
But Google shows an AI summary called the AI Overview below the ads and above the results, so it can still get advertisers to buy its ad.
How will the search game play out for publishers?
The websites that depend on referral traffic from Google may be in trouble, as it is still unknown how the links in AI overviews will perform when the search giant summarizes their content on its own page and how that will affect the traffic to the websites appearing in search results. We still cannot confirm how links in AI overviews are presented.
But the truth is that many websites play foul around search algorithms as they try to fool the system with click baits and SEO tactics without delivering actual value.
Now the question is, what will happen to SEO? While we know SEO practices have been changing over time and Google broke many standards it set previously, now there is a huge industry standing on this very practice and all the websites that spent numerous resources optimizing themselves according to Google practices.
However, Reid said that the company will expand this AI experience and will also continue to focus on sending traffic to creators and publishers. She also highlighted those ads will continue to show at different spots throughout the page, but it will be made sure that they have clear labeling to differentiate them from organic search listings.
