Google will start showing ads in AI Overviews, the AI-generated summaries it provides for specific Google search queries, and will also add links to related web pages for some of those summaries. . This week, the company is also rolling out search results pages curated by AI in the US.
The increased prominence of AI in Google's core search products comes as users do not migrate to alternatives such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Perplexity, which use AI to answer many of the questions traditionally asked of Google. This is an effort to make this happen. Perplexity announced in May that its user base worldwide has grown to more than 85 million web visitors. That's less than Google, but impressive considering Perplexity was launched just two years ago.
Since its release this spring, AI Overview has been the subject of much controversy, with its questionable statements and dubious advice (like adding glue to pizza) going viral. A recent report from SEO platform SE Rank found that AI Overviews cites websites that are “completely unreliable and not evidence-based,” including outdated research and paid product listings. .
The main problem is that AI Overviews can have difficulty telling whether a source is fact or fiction, satire or serious. Over the past few months, Google has been making changes to how AI Overview works, including limiting answers around current events and health topics. But the company doesn't claim it's perfect.
“We're investing in AI Overview to make it even more useful,” Rhiannon Bell, Google Search's vice president of user experience, said in a press conference. “We are working hard to provide relevant content to our users.”
Either way, Google says AI Overview has led to increased Google search engagement, especially among people ages 18 to 24, a key demographic for the company.
Google is currently taking steps to monetize this feature by adding advertising.
Image credit: Google
Mobile users in the U.S. will soon see ads in AI Overview for “relevant queries,” such as how to get grass stains out of jeans. Ads labeled “Sponsored” appear alongside other non-sponsored content in AI summaries and are pulled from an advertiser's existing Google Shopping and Google Search campaigns.
AI Overview ads have been available to some users for some time, and Google's internal data shows they've been well-received.
“Ads in AI Overview can quickly connect to relevant businesses, products, and services, allowing you to take the next step when you need it,” Shashi Thakur, vice president of Google Ads, said in a blog post. “I find it convenient because I can do it,” he said in a blog post. Shared with TechCrunch.
But ads can also clutter your AI overview. One form, a carousel of sponsored product results, is embedded directly in the AI overview, pushing non-sponsored content below the fold.
Image credit: Google
A new design for the AI Overview that comes with ads adds highlighted links to potentially relevant webpages. For example, if you search for “Do air filters protect your lungs?”, the AI summary might show a link to the American Lung Association's research on air filters.
The redesign has been in testing for several months and is currently being rolled out in regions where AI Overview has already been deployed, including India, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Finally, another product, an AI-powered search results page, is making its U.S. debut on mobile this week. Searches for recipe and meal inspiration — for example, “What are some great vegetarian appetizer or dinner ideas?” — may bring you pages of AI-aggregated content from around the web, including forums, articles, and YouTube videos. there is.
However, it does not include the AI Overviews ad format.
“Customized Gemini [model] It generates full-page experiences with relevant and organized results,” Bell explained, referring to Google’s Gemini family of AI models. “These AI-curated results pages display a greater variety of content formats from a more diverse set of content.”
Google says it plans to expand these pages to other search categories in the coming months.
Publishers may become collateral damage.
According to one study, AI summaries can negatively impact around 25% of a publisher's traffic by de-emphasizing web page links. On the revenue side, the AI-generated summaries could cost publishers more than $2 billion due to the resulting drop in ad views, according to experts cited by the New York Post. I'm guessing.
AI-generated search results from Google and its competitors don't seem to be driving traffic for big publishers yet. IAC, the parent company of Ziff Davis and DotDash Meredith, characterized the impact as minimal in its latest financial results.
But that could change as Google, which controls more than 81% of the global search market, expands its AI Overview and AI-powered pages to more users and queries. By some estimates, AI Overview only appeared in about 7% of searches in July as Google dialed it back to make adjustments.
Google says it continues to consider publishers' concerns during its AI Search Experience workshop.