Do Not Assume Googzilla Is Heading to the Monster Retirement Village
April 9, 2024
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Google is a ubiquitous tool. It’s used for than searching the Internet. Google and its associated tools have become an indispensable part of modern society. Some technology experts say that AI search engines and generative content tools will kill Google, but others disagree because of its Swiss army knife application. The Verge explores how Google will probably withstand an AI onslaught in: “Here’s Why AI Search Engines Really Can’t Kill Google.”
The article’s author David Pierce pitted Google and AI search against how each performed search’s three basic tasks. Navigation is the first task and it’s the most popular one. Users type in a Web site and want the search results to spit out the correct address. Google completes this task without a hitch, while AI search engines return information about the Web site and the desired address is buried within the top results.
The second task is an information query, like weather, sport scores, temperature, or the time. AI engines stink when it comes to returning real time information. Google probably already has the information about you, not to mention it is connected to real time news sources, weather services, and sports media. The AI engines were useful for evergreen information, such as how many weeks are in a year. However, the AI engines couldn’t confer about the precise number. One said 52.143 weeks, another said 52 and mentioned leap year, and a third said it was 52 plus a few days. Price had to conduct additional research to find the correct answer. Google won this task again because it had speed.
This was useful:
“There is one sub-genre of information queries in which the exact opposite is true, though. I call them Buried Information Queries. The best example I can offer is the very popular query, “how to screenshot on mac.” There are a million pages on the internet that contain the answer — it’s just Cmd-Shift-3 to take the whole screen or Cmd-Shift-4 to capture a selection, there, you’re welcome — but that information is usually buried under a lot of ads and SEO crap. All the AI tools I tried, including Google’s own Search Generative Experience, just snatch that information out and give it to you directly.”
The third task is exploration queries for more in-depth research. These range from researching history, tourist attractions, how to complete a specific task, medical information, and more. Google completed the tasks but AI search engines were better. AI search engines provided citations paired with images and useful information about the queries. It’s similar to reading a blurb in an encyclopedia or how-to manual.
Google is still the search champion but the AI search engines have useful abilities. The best idea would be to combine Google’s speed, real time, and consumable approach with AI engines’ information quality. It will happen one day but probably not in 2024.
Whitney Grace, April 9, 2024
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