Google Search has always been AI. It long ago got to the point where any phrase you throw at it will almost certainly return a page containing what you're looking for above the fold. It started surfacing answers in search results before ChatGPT was publicly available.
Kodak invented the first digital camera. Xerox invented the modern computer GUI. GM had an electric car on the market in the 1990s.
Google Search is now a legacy media company. It has a business model reliant on advertising. Unlike Fairfax's classifieds and Telstra's directories of 25 years ago, it doesn't need to move from paper to online. It has a smaller jump to make.
Most of it's advertisers are selling a product or service. It could fairly easily transition this advertising to paid results in a chatbot.
Thanks MC, good point about AI, but I think Google has fallen behind. I think they are threatened by OpenAI deeply. Also, I think years of dominance has weakened their customer service. Do you make the comparison to Kodak, Xerox etc to point out the difficulty in an incumbent disrupting itself?
Yes, I agree that Google Search is falling behind (though not for all search categories). And yes, that was why I mentioned Kodak and the others. They were all companies that took great steps forward early, and yet failed to benefit much from their innovation. While Google Search has certainly made a lot of hay over the last 25 years, it could yet fade into insignificance as other companies beat it at it's own game. I don't think it will though.
Another thread from your piece is the idea that Google will lose their social licence to index the web if people stop following Google Search links. ChatGPT and similar have never had this licence and seem to be continuing their consumption of data without recompense. There might well be a tipping point where a broad NOINDEX is enforced by many websites.
Google Search has always been AI. It long ago got to the point where any phrase you throw at it will almost certainly return a page containing what you're looking for above the fold. It started surfacing answers in search results before ChatGPT was publicly available.
Kodak invented the first digital camera. Xerox invented the modern computer GUI. GM had an electric car on the market in the 1990s.
Google Search is now a legacy media company. It has a business model reliant on advertising. Unlike Fairfax's classifieds and Telstra's directories of 25 years ago, it doesn't need to move from paper to online. It has a smaller jump to make.
Most of it's advertisers are selling a product or service. It could fairly easily transition this advertising to paid results in a chatbot.
Thanks MC, good point about AI, but I think Google has fallen behind. I think they are threatened by OpenAI deeply. Also, I think years of dominance has weakened their customer service. Do you make the comparison to Kodak, Xerox etc to point out the difficulty in an incumbent disrupting itself?
Yes, I agree that Google Search is falling behind (though not for all search categories). And yes, that was why I mentioned Kodak and the others. They were all companies that took great steps forward early, and yet failed to benefit much from their innovation. While Google Search has certainly made a lot of hay over the last 25 years, it could yet fade into insignificance as other companies beat it at it's own game. I don't think it will though.
Another thread from your piece is the idea that Google will lose their social licence to index the web if people stop following Google Search links. ChatGPT and similar have never had this licence and seem to be continuing their consumption of data without recompense. There might well be a tipping point where a broad NOINDEX is enforced by many websites.