At the Google I/O 2024 developer conference on Tuesday, Google announced that it plans to use generative AI to clean up the entire search results page for some search results. This is in addition to the existing AI Overview feature, which creates short snippets with aggregated information about the topic you were searching for. The AI Overview feature will be made publicly available on Tuesday following work in Google's AI Labs program.
Search results pages that use generative AI in their ranking mechanisms will have far-reaching implications for online publishers. Elizabeth Harmon-Reed, Google's head of search, said at a press conference ahead of the announcement that she “doesn't think the AI overview is the be-all and end-all of what exists.” She says, “There is an opportunity to bring generative AI across search, and one area I'm personally really excited about is building results pages that are curated by AI.”
For now, Google plans to show you these new search results pages when it detects that you're looking for inspiration. In our example, you'll be visiting Dallas for your anniversary trip. Soon, users will also see these results when they search for food options and recipes, with results for movies, books, hotels, shopping, and more coming soon.
“We use generative AI to actually organize the entire results page, think about the topic, understand what's interesting, and know we need recommendations. Seasonal, Rooftop Patio in Dallas is also known for its historical elegance, so you can dig deep to find something that really inspires you, and Google can help you brainstorm about it.”
In Reid's example, the results page displayed a carousel of “anniversary-worthy restaurants,” with not only the usual star ratings but also a summary of short GenAI-generated reviews. The list now includes discussions from Reddit (what else?), AI-generated places to listen to live music in an intimate setting, romantic steakhouses, and critic-picked lists. At the bottom of that page, there's also an option to view “More His Web Results” in what I can only assume is a more traditional search experience.
At this time, it's unclear where Google will place ads on these pages.
At a pre-I/O press conference, a reporter asked CEO Sundar Pichai whether traditional Google search would survive on Gemini. Unsurprisingly, Pichai didn't actually answer this question, instead insisting that Google wants to remain user-focused.
“As their needs evolve, we meet them,” he said. “Overall, when you do this, people respond and become more interested in your product. So we're excited to be able to expand the types of use cases that we can help our users with across search and Gemini. See examples of the kinds of complex questions we can solve, how we can further help them along their journey, and how we can integrate them with our products to help them more deeply. And I feel like, to me, this is a moment of growth and opportunity, not the other way around. So we're very excited about what's going on. .”
SEO may be over after all.
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