Google has been quite publicly freaking out since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, but things got more serious last fall, when OpenAI released ChatGPT Search, a direct competitor to Google Search.
This has become a real enough threat to Google that the number of Google searches in Safari fell for the first time ever in April.
Google also recently saw its share of the search market dip below 90 percent for the first time in a decade, as AI search takes off.
Instead of plugging keywords into the old Google search box, I’ve been entering complex queries and getting back detailed reports.
(It’s currently only available for people who subscribe to Google AI Plus or AI Ultra plans or for people running beta versions of Chrome.)
Between using Google’s new AI moviemaking tool to make cartoons of my 4-pound Chihuahua fighting crime and asking the company’s sophisticated AI to explain in detail how to become an expert birdwatcher in my neighborhood, I came to a realization. I’m having a midlife crisis, or Google is. It might be both. .
Following the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, Google has been publicly freaking out. However, last fall, OpenAI released ChatGPT Search, a direct competitor to Google Search, making matters more serious. Google announced 100 new initiatives at its I/O developer conferences last week, the majority of which focused on artificial intelligence. All of a sudden, a new narrative has emerged: “It’s glorious,” according to one industry expert, “that the search giant is definitely having a midlife crisis.”.
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I’ve been playing around with Google’s new AI tools for the past week, and I can say with confidence that the company is hovering between crisis and glory. Before we know which route prevails, it might take years.
With AI permeating every aspect of our digital lives, it’s unclear which business will rule the future or how we’ll engage with it.
However, the biggest threat to Google’s dominance may not come from the government. With more people using ChatGPT and Perplexity to find information online in recent years, artificial intelligence has been eroding the web’s foundation. After extracting data from websites, these AI chatbots provide you with a concise synopsis. This has grown to be a serious enough threat to Google that, in April, there were fewer Google searches in Safari than ever before. As AI search gains traction, Google’s market share of searches recently fell below 90% for the first time in ten years. TikTok is also not assisting.
Google has been working to reimagine itself in light of this reality since realizing it a few years ago. AI Overviews, which are summaries of search results produced by Google’s massive language model, Gemini, were introduced a few years ago. Google then developed that idea further earlier this year with AI Mode, a chatbot-powered search experience that is incredibly similar to ChatGPT and Perplexity and is also powered by Gemini. Just look for a glittery button that reads “AI Mode” on the right-hand side of the search field. The company said last week that AI Mode will be available to all Americans in the upcoming weeks. “.”.
I’ve been attempting to learn birding in AI Mode for the past week. I’ve been entering sophisticated queries and receiving comprehensive reports in place of entering keywords into the outdated Google search box. AI Mode produced almost 600 words from a single three-sentence prompt. Just nine links to sources were included, and since the chatbot had already summed up the information, I didn’t need to click on any of them. It was only after doing some research that I discovered that Allie Volpe, a colleague at Vox, wrote a beginner’s guide to birdwatching, which was one of the primary sources for this summary.
Like other AI chatbots, this search experience isn’t always fantastic. Large language models, which power the technology, are prone to hallucinations, which makes these new search tools generally unreliable. However, you are not always forced to verify the results because AI often produces very convincing copy. As more people turn to AI chatbots for information instead of the internet, publishers are witnessing sharp drops in Google traffic. It’s faster, as I discovered during my research on birds. Not everything you find by clicking on a blue link is 100% accurate, let’s face it.
This is likely how search will develop in the future, and no, a list of blue links is not likely to be a part of it.
The future of search is likely to look like this, and no, a list of blue links is not likely to be a part of it. Even though you will still be able to use the conventional search function for a while, the sheer number of recent announcements from Google indicates that artificial intelligence is the direction we are going. The seriousness of that news was reflected in the headlines. At Google’s developer conference, Casey Newton of Platformer reported that “everything is changing and normal and scary and chill.”. Thanks to Google, tech analyst Ben Thompson proclaimed “the death of the ad-supported web.”. John Herrman of New York magazine stated it more simply: “Google is burying the web alive.”. “”.
Google became well-known in the tumultuous early days of the internet by making it easier to find things online, as Geoffrey A. Fowler makes the point. There is much less certainty about its dominance in this new AI-powered future. Perhaps another startup will emerge and make things easier this time, allowing you to have an easy-to-use bot make movies, arrange travel, and explain things to you.
Meanwhile, I’ll be working on refining my AI-generated Chihuahua cartoon that fights crime, wondering when this will all start to feel like a dream come true.
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