I feel that Google providing top-of-page results which people look at and say “huh??” is a bigger threat to its monopoly than a rival AI answer system which can never match it for scale. When you debase your own brand it’s a far bigger problem than when someone external does so.
The Google AI illustration stuff was not a problem because it was only apparent to a tiny number of people. The AI Overview stuff is much worse - as evidenced by Google realising this and dialling back on it, as was announced on Friday.
There may be some "pundit extrapolation" problems here. New product launches can be full of glitches, and that often leads to immediate articles about a bug or oddity. And it's not clear if the types of issues which fascinate educated-professional writers (who are highly unrepresentative of the general population) matter too much for a general business case. Google knows very well that AI answers could be a threat to its search near-monopoly. This is true even if a rival AI answer system produces results that the chattering class finds to be absolute outrage-fodder (see the continued survival of Twitter/X, or for that matter, the ongoing political career of Donald Trump). This is obviously a rushed launch, but I suspect the reasons for that are internally valid for Google.
I feel that Google providing top-of-page results which people look at and say “huh??” is a bigger threat to its monopoly than a rival AI answer system which can never match it for scale. When you debase your own brand it’s a far bigger problem than when someone external does so.
The Google AI illustration stuff was not a problem because it was only apparent to a tiny number of people. The AI Overview stuff is much worse - as evidenced by Google realising this and dialling back on it, as was announced on Friday.
There may be some "pundit extrapolation" problems here. New product launches can be full of glitches, and that often leads to immediate articles about a bug or oddity. And it's not clear if the types of issues which fascinate educated-professional writers (who are highly unrepresentative of the general population) matter too much for a general business case. Google knows very well that AI answers could be a threat to its search near-monopoly. This is true even if a rival AI answer system produces results that the chattering class finds to be absolute outrage-fodder (see the continued survival of Twitter/X, or for that matter, the ongoing political career of Donald Trump). This is obviously a rushed launch, but I suspect the reasons for that are internally valid for Google.