Google updates Search with more generative AI features
The cloud and search giant now has ads in AI Overviews and updates for consumer products, such as the ability to ask questions and use video with Google Lens.
Google has updated AI search for consumers and advertisers.
The tech giant on Oct. 3 revealed that users can now ask Google to search for an answer by taking a video with Google Lens in the Google app. Google also introduced voice in Lens. Users can point the camera, hold the shutter button and ask a question.
Starting this week, consumers in the U.S. will also see organized search results with AI. This will begin with meals and recipes on mobile. For advertisers, Google AI Overviews will now have ads for relevant queries to help consumers find and connect with relevant businesses, products and services.
Google is also providing consumers with key information in reviews, with price comparisons and locations to buy. This is now available on Android and iOS devices in select countries.
Google said the new features enable advertisers to connect with motivated sellers quickly
An expected update
The generative AI updates come as many consumers have mixed views on generative AI search while advertisers and marketers have long expected changes to AI Overviews.
"This news was inevitable, and it continues the trend of Google developing conversational trends at the expense of classic search," Forrester Research analyst Nikhil Lai said. "Advertisers are shrugging and adapting to this form of monetizing search behaviors, but consumers haven't caught up nearly as fast."
He added that based on Forrester Research's research, many consumers have little faith in AI technology, think it is biased or haven't heard about AI Overviews.
Meanwhile, advertisers know that Google's core business is search and advertising. The most obvious way for Google to monetize AI Overviews is through sponsored links, he continued.
"What we're seeing is that overall query volume is increasing across Google, Reddit, TikTok, Bing, [and] Perplexity. But no engine is taking share from the other," Lai said.
Google trying to catch up
However, Google still is taking seriously competitors like Perplexity and OpenAI, which is testing a SearchGPT prototype.
"The fact that they're bothering to continue to release new features -- to add ads into the AI Overviews experience -- suggests that in the long term, they do still feel like maybe the biggest threat to their incumbent position as the search giant of the world … is generative AI," said Damian Rollison, director of market insights at SOCi, an AI marketing technology vendor.
Advertisers are shrugging and adapting to this form of monetizing search behaviors, but consumers haven't caught up nearly as fast.
Nikhil LaiAnalyst, Forrester Research
Google with its recent moves with Search also seems to be following what competitor Microsoft did with its Bing browser. Bing first had AI-enabled search and then Ads in AI in search, Rollison noted.
At the start of the mass market generative AI era with the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, it appeared Google might lose its search dominance. Many criticized the AI vendor for not moving as fast as Microsoft was in incorporating the technology into search.
Some expected ChatGPT to replace Google Search.
However, it has not worked out that way yet. Despite the efforts of OpenAI, with SearchGPT, and even Perplexity, to draw users away from Google, Google has maintained its leadership in search. But it has lost a small amount of ground. Even though social media giant TikTok's ads have gained popularity, all the Google competitors are still far from taking away a significant amount of Google's market share.
Esther Ajao is a TechTarget Editorial news writer and podcast host covering artificial intelligence software and systems.
