reported<\/a> Google is planning major changes to its search engine including more personalization, more AI, more ads and more ways to make financial transactions via search. Reportedly codenamed \u201cMagi,\u201d the project could be part of Google\u2019s strategy to stay ahead of Microsoft\u2019s Bing in what SEO experts say is the most exciting era of search in quite a while.<\/p>\nGoogle\u2019s plans for overhauling search by adding more AI are still in the realm of hypotheticals. However, marketing and AI experts see the opportunity as a chance for Google to take what has become a \u201ccluttered,\u201d \u201cdisjointed,\u201d and \u201cconfusing\u201d product and make it into something significantly more simplified.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a joke in the industry,\u201d said David Shapiro, svp of earned media at NP Digital. \u201cWhere\u2019s the best place to hide a body? On page two of Google Search.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked for comment about Google\u2019s AI efforts or any other plans to overhaul its search business, a spokesperson wouldn\u2019t provide any specifics but said Google has been adding AI to Search for years to improve results and introduce new features such as Lens and multi-search.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done so in a responsible and helpful way that maintains the high bar we set for delivering quality information,\u201d the spokesperson told Digiday in an emailed statement. \u201cNot every brainstorm deck or product idea leads to a launch, but as we\u2019ve said before, we\u2019re excited about bringing new AI-powered features to Search, and will share more details soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being seen as playing catch-up with Bing on the AI front, Google still dominates the search advertising market. According to WARC, Google has 50.4% of the search market in 2023 while Bing has just 5.2%. However, WARC\u2019s recent survey of marketers found that just 53% plan to increase spending with Google \u2014 down from 59% last year \u2014 while 11% plan to increase spending with Bing.<\/p>\n
Depending on what Google does, it could lead marketers to rethink SEO strategies by making brand-building more of a focus after years of prioritizing performance marketing. Max Gomez, chief marketing officer at the white-label SEO agency The Hoth, said advertisers don\u2019t currently like long-tail keywords since they don\u2019t pay off soon enough. However, a chat-based search platform could change that.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now we see people making tons of questions to Google and sometimes what they get isn\u2019t what they want,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cIt\u2019ll make it easier to match user needs with the brands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the potential, there are also still plenty of challenges. For example, Gomez said, some clients are worried about having their content plagiarized by AI. There are also still plenty of questions about how Google plans to monetize it, whether adding too many ads in chat-based answers might overly clutter conversations, as well as how Google will fix its problems around misinformation.<\/p>\n
Analysts and other experts have pointed out a number of concerns about Google and its AI ambitions. For example, Bard has been found to still generate a high percentage of false information when generating responses to users. In a recent research report from Gartner, consumers said they expect AI to generate misinformation, but they still expect companies to disclose whether AI was used in generating branded content. There\u2019s also a risk that brands might appear in AI-generated search results that consumers don\u2019t trust, noted Gartner, which found 85% of its survey respondents had either \u201cno trust\u201d or just \u201csome trust\u201d in AI-generated search results.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI should be viewed as an augment, not a supplement, for search,\u201d said Nicole Green, a senior direct analyst at Gartner. \u201cTools such as ChatGPT, Bing, etc., still lack veracity and citations and, therefore, truth and trust. The user behavior of engaging with AI chat is still different from search behaviors. AI chat features lack context and destination.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stakes are high for Google to get it right. Samsung has reportedly been considering switching out Google for Bing as the tech giant\u2019s native search engine. Meanwhile, analysts estimate Google\u2019s three-year contract with Apple is expected to expire sometime this year, which could give Bing an opening to potentially snag that business. <\/p>\n
Along with building trust and value into users\u2019 perception of its AI features, Google might also want to consider adding in more payment functionality, said James McDonald, director of data, Intelligence & Forecasting at WARC. That\u2019s especially important now that WARC estimates that retail media now makes up one-fourth of the search ad market.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoogle has the means of reaching a consumer close to a point of purchase; converting that sale (as Amazon does so efficiently) will put them back in the driving seat as the sector evolves further over the next decade,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n
Of course, Google and Microsoft aren\u2019t the only two companies building new generative AI tools. Earlier this month, GoDaddy released new AI tools for small businesses to generate content, and just last week Mailchimp released a new feature for AI-generated content for email marketing.<\/p>\n
The AI battle between Google and Microsoft could also ultimately benefit a number of other generative AI companies such as Jasper AI, which recently announced its own API. According to Jasper President Shane Orlick, the ongoing AI hype provides added exposure and competitors could push Jasper AI to improve. \u201cThe better the tech from other companies get, the better Jasper gets,\u201d Orlick said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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https:\/\/digiday.com\/?p=500281<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n Marty Swant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you ask Bard to list the challenges facing Google\u2019s search engine, Google\u2019s young chatbot can easily name a few. Along with the \u201cever-changing landscape of the internet,\u201d \u201cproviding users with relevant and accurate results\u201d and \u201cprotecting user\u2019 privacy.\u201d It also mentioned a fourth \u2014 \u201cmaintaining dominance of the search market\u201d \u2014 which could depend<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":633195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[161,818,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-633194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-googles","8":"category-rumored","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}