After all the rumours and hints, Google launched the new Google search experience which displays an AI generated answer above search results listings back in April.
Now that Search Generative Experience is getting better, bit by bit — and it’s very clearly the future of Google. As Google themselves said :
AI is the most profound technology we are working on today. Whether it’s helping doctors detect diseases earlier or enabling people to access information in their own language, AI helps people, businesses and communities unlock their potential. And it opens up new opportunities that could significantly improve billions of lives.
The Generative AI is able to seen if you’ve enabled the AI-based SGE feature in Search Labs.
All this is still experimental and labelled as such. The answer to search query is boxed in and Google cites the websites it used to generate the answer. To dig deeper you can click on any of those sites or ask an additional question or click the toggle button at the top right.
The color of the generative AI answer box will change to “reflect specific journey types and the query intent itself,” Google said.
And as reported yesterday you can now start to see more multimedia in the colorful summary box at the top of your search results. Because Google’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience got a big new feature: images and video.
Who is BARD?
Back in February Google announced that their new AI technology was called BARD.
“It’s a really exciting time to be working on these technologies as we translate deep research and breakthroughs into products that truly help people. That’s the journey we’ve been on with large language models. Two years ago we unveiled next-generation language and conversation capabilities powered by our Language Model for Dialogue Applications (or LaMDA for short).
We’ve been working on an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, that we’re calling Bard. And today, we’re taking another step forward by opening it up to trusted testers ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks.
What does it mean for search?
The Search Generative Experience (SGE) does raise some questions about the future of the web. And it will change the nature of search. Currently Google simply tries to find good links for you every time you search.
But in future it’s going to be trying to synthesize and generate itself relevant, true, helpful information. Video in particular could go a long way here.
Google has integrated YouTube more and more into search results over the years, linking to a specific chapter or moment inside a video that might help you with that “why is my dryer making that noise” query.
So maybe it’s time to get on that video marketing vehicle and start now….