- Google is moving to AI-generated answers to search queries to keep users on the site.
- This change raises concerns about the reliability of AI answers and the impact on web traffic.
- The move risks disrupting Google's advertising revenue model and the broader internet ecosystem.
Google is the gatekeeper of the internet. When you ask a question, you are directed to a site on the Internet that can answer your question.
That's not really the case anymore. Google will often try to answer your question itself regarding properties it owns, so you don't need to go elsewhere. And now, the company is significantly expanding its efforts with his AI-generated answers, which are set to become the standard answer for all searches in the near future.
One problem with this plan is that the generative AI engine is just making things up. The other is a more existential question for both Google and the Internet. If Google answers all your queries on its own site, why go elsewhere?
People who make a living posting things on the Internet have been worried about this future for some time. But Google also has risks. If people don't post things on the internet, what will Google use to create answers?
The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel wonders about all of this, but he doesn't have the answers (though Charlie knows how to get people to click on his articles. Name your article “The Internet's Toilet Theory”). I don't think Google knows either, but that's partly because The company's answers to questions people have about this, including CEO Sundar Pichai, are: both vague and Difficult to take at face value.
There is one question that most of these articles don't address.Why not use Google? have How do you keep people coming to your website? Because selling sponsored links to your website is the economic engine that runs a $2 trillion company. So this is all going to be a hassle for Google, for web publishers, and for all of us.
On February 28, Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider, joined 31 other media groups in filing a $2.3 billion lawsuit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses caused by the company's advertising practices. I woke you up.
