digitalmktg.ca’s Post

Is Google losing its dominance to AI search engines like SearchGPT and Perplexity? Our CTO and cofounder, Paul Butterworth, was recently featured in an Observer article discussing how AI search engines like OpenAI's SearchGPT and Perplexity AI's Pro Search are challenging Google's dominance. Check out the article below: https://lnkd.in/gi3hnSmV

This is an interesting article. #google #ai

Artificial Intelligence 🤖 is not just an emerging technology—it's a catalyst for change across the entire tech landscape 🌐. We’re leading this transformation by developing AI solutions that enhance #customerexperience and operational efficiency. Through breakthroughs in machine learning, natural language processing, and advanced analytics, Google AI enables companies to innovate faster, optimize their processes, and deliver smarter products. This isn't just about staying ahead—it's about setting new industry standards and paving the way for the future of business. The impact is clear: driving the next wave of technological advancement. https://ow.ly/WchE50TcoAV #AI #BusinessTransformation #TechInnovation #GoogleAI #NLP

The future of Search isn’t keywords but prompts. Here's why that will matter a lot sooner than you think. Google I/O happened last week. That's Google's largest annual developer conference. It was all about one thing: The launch of AI Overviews (short: AIOs). You've likely heard me talk about Google's Search Gen Experience. Maybe you've tried gemini.google.com/app ... if not you should! Well AIOs are Gemini-powered direct answers as AI Snapshots from Google's public beta environment Search Generative Experience (SGE). AIOs massively improve the experience for longtail queries. (For those that don't know, a "longtail query" is a very long phrase or question you use to search via a search engine). They are very specific to the type of content you're looking for, and they typically have a higher conversion rate than something more broad. There's still a lot to learn, however, here's what is very interesting AIOs could be a massive opportunity to match searchers with the right site better and faster. According to Google's CEO, SGE led to longer queries. Assuming engagement with AIOs follows suit; longer queries reveal more about what users really want (intent), similar to how social networks measure behavior. As a result, AIOs likely shrink organic traffic BUT.. bring MORE organic conversions ! Here's why the type of content you produce matters a lot. According to Google's CEO, Pichai ... "With AI Overviews, people are visiting a greater diversity of websites for help with more complex questions. And we see that the links included in AI Overviews get more clicks than if the page had appeared as a traditional web listing for that query." Meaning... Google shows different sites in AIOs than in classic web search, which get more traffic since they don't rank well in classic search but now get featured in AIOs. As long as I've participated in Google's SGE beta program, I've witnessed lots of websites that show up in specific industries where I'm familiar with the major players, but Google shows those much smaller, lesser known brands instead of the well-known brands. If that holds, which sounds like it could, this is a great win! Again, still much more to learn as this rolls out to all. And, as with any other major change we've experienced in more than 20 years of living on the internet - we'll measure, test, learn and adapt.

Looks like AI Overviews is starting to pull more from top ranking content than it was before! That's a big shift, and signals the importance of ranking in those top positions so that you not only rank well organically, but get more exposure in the AIO as well. #seostrategy #aioverviews

Important reading for DMOs: If you are blocking crawlers to prevent AI companies from scraping your content, you also risk reducing your visibility in Google Search results. Proceed with caution! "Google uses a separate crawler for some AI products, such as its chatbot Gemini. But its main crawler, the Googlebot, serves both AI Overviews and Google search. A company spokesperson said Googlebot governs AI Overviews because AI and the company’s search engine are deeply entwined. The spokesperson added that its search results page shows information in a variety of formats, including images and graphics. Google also said publishers can block specific pages or parts of pages from appearing in AI Overviews in search results — but that would also likely bar those snippets from appearing across all of Google’s other search features, too, including web link listings." #destinationmarketing

🔻 Been saying this -- why do we even want this? Google spent 25 years developing a pretty good search engine and as soon as they started using AI to drive some ranking signals last year it started getting so bad its to where you literally cannot find things you search for at times. LLMs are not Information Retrieval. They make stuff up. Cost up to 100x-1000x more per query. And they will kill the thing that feeds them - websites. Websites with no traffic do not stay online. AND... It is a death spiral. Not to mention all the AI content going online, so the LLMs will train on their own content and anyone in that space will tell you that means they will get far worse. There is NOTHING about LLMs that make search better. So why are companies like OpenAI spending so much money to create one? Why is Microsoft still putting so much effort into it when they did not get a 1% increase in market share? And Google with their ever deteriorating search results? Maybe search is not where LLMs belongs? What do you think? "But the base logic of something like Arc’s AI search doesn’t even really make sense. As Engadget recently asked in their excellent teardown of Arc’s AI search pivot, “Who makes money when AI reads the internet for us?” But let’s take a step even further here. Why even bother making new websites if no one’s going to see them? At least with the Web3 hype cycle, there were vague platitudes about ownership and financial freedom for content creators. To even entertain the idea of building AI-powered search engines means, in some sense, that you are comfortable with eventually being the reason those creators no longer exist. It is an undeniably apocalyptic project, but not just for the web as we know it, but also your own product. Unless you plan on subsidizing an entire internet’s worth of constantly new content with the revenue from your AI chatbot, the information it’s spitting out will get worse as people stop contributing to the network. And making matters worse, if you’re hoping to prevent the eventual death of search, there won’t be a before and after moment where suddenly AI replaces our existing search engines. We’ve already seen how AI development works. It slowly optimizes itself in drips and drops, subtly worming its way into our various widgets and windows. Which means it’s likely we’re already living in the world of AI search and we just don’t fully grasp how pervasive it is yet. Which means it’s not about saving the web we had, but trying to steer our AI future in the direction we want. Unless, like the Web3 bust, we’re about to watch this entire industry go over a cliff this year. Possible, but unlikely. The only hope here is that consumers just don’t like these products. And even then, we have to hope that the companies rolling them out even care if we like them or not. Of course, once there’s an inescapable layer of hallucinating AI in between us and everyone else online, you have to wonder if anyone will even notice. "

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 The search world is changing fast, with new AI tools competing to give you real answers, not just lists of links. Two big players, Perplexity and OpenAI's SearchGPT, are dying for the top spot. But which one is actually worth using? Here's a breakdown to help you decide. 𝟭. 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻 Perplexity and SearchGPT both use advanced AI to provide direct answers instead of endless links. Perplexity offers more features like related search options, document attachment, and richer sources. SearchGPT, while simpler, is more visual—a clean, streamlined experience. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: Perplexity currently holds an edge for users seeking richer, multi-faceted answers. 𝟮. 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 When asking about basic topics like event results or definitions, both tools respond fast. Perplexity’s results are cleaner and more accurate, while SearchGPT sometimes includes unnecessary images. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: For quick, straightforward answers, Perplexity provides a cleaner experience. 𝟯. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Google still leads here, with a better ability to fetch real-time content. For the most up-to-date searches, Google still leads in speed and relevance. However, ChatGPT, which leverages Bing as its backend, provides another reliable option for current events and fresh content. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: Google’s advantage in real-time results shows AI still has ground to cover in recency. 𝟰. 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 For location-based or specific event queries, SearchGPT outperformed Perplexity by giving accurate local information. Perplexity sometimes struggled with location accuracy. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: For place-based answers, SearchGPT currently does better. 𝟱. 𝗙𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 & 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 Google’s flight and image searches still stand strong as AI search tools can’t yet match the depth of Google’s filters and sorting. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: AI search engines aren’t ready to handle complex, highly specific data like Google Flights or Google Images. Right now, Perplexity remains more reliable, but SearchGPT’s simplicity could appeal to users seeking straightforward answers. ChatGPT’s Bing integration offers versatility but may not match Perplexity’s specialized features just yet. Keep an eye on updates as all of them—it’s likely we’ll see some game-changing improvements soon. 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂—𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮, 𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘂𝘀𝗲? 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲! #ChatGPT #Perplexity #Analytics #ArtificialIntelligence #LinkedIn

Google's AI Overviews have shifted away from relying on Reddit for information, a move likely prompted by the bizarre suggestions that resulted from the previous approach. By reducing its dependence on Reddit, Google aims to improve the accuracy and trustworthiness of its AI search results. This development highlights the ongoing quest for reliable AI-powered search functionality. #GoogleAI #SearchInnovation #AIOverview #Reddit #SearchEngineOptimization https://lnkd.in/gK2guQHG