Google made a major announcement today at the I/O event 2024, stating that its Search Generative Experience (SGE) labs feature will be rolled out to users in the US within this week. The rollout for other countries will be coming soon as well. From now on, Google will have SGE's "AI Overviews" as the default experience for Search.
Google’s AI-powered "Overviews" to start rolling out to users this week
After being tested and tweaked in the Labs for nearly a year, AI Overviews in Search is finally here and changing how the web works. The initial announcement of the Search Generative Experience was at the I/O event last year. The AI-paired new experience aims to provide answers to users' queries based on the live data from Search. Using AI to collect and integrate information from varied web sources, the addition will help improve the user experience by streamlining information and putting it ahead in a comprehensible format.
The company intends to make this feature available to more than a billion users by the end of the year. It further states that the AI Overviews would be an extension of Search, just like the Featured Snippet or the Knowledge Panel, and thus cannot be switched off completely. Google is looking for a workaround for this by adding a filter in Search that would help skip AI answers and only display the links instead.
As with any other major update, apprehensions and speculations regarding Google Search's AI transformation have already surfaced. One of the fears is the adverse impact on websites that generate major traffic through Search. According to a press release by Gartner, there would be a 25% drop in the traditional search engine volume by 2026 due to AI Chatbot and GenAI solutions. Given the prediction and the trend we have seen in the past with AI advancements, there is no denying that websites would be hurting at the hands of AI Overviews in Search.
Google has addressed these concerns by suggesting the AI Overviews links would get more clicks in comparison to the traditional Search. The company went on to express its focus on sending traffic to websites by expanding its user base.
Apart from the wider user base, the streamlined information, and the traffic-focused approach, Google is set to test new features such as tweaks in AI Overviews by choosing a simpler language, detailed reasoning for complex queries, and even using videos for search prompts. Google gave a disclaimer that it is just a teaser of the plans they have for transforming Google Search and the experience it offers.
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