Basically people who want to search, will now not be able to, they'll be forced into a UI they might have consciously avoided, otherwise they'd be using their chatbot in the first place. Seems like a strange UX decision, rather than recommending "Hey maybe you want to try our chatbot", they just force the user into a chat straight up.
That's the whole shape of AI for consumer-facing functions like this. It's not superior to the previous experience, but huge sunk costs and a misguided belief it's the "next thing" is leading companies to try to force the issue. It's the Apple removing the headphone jack of the modern Internet. A change for the worse that we'll all have to find ways to work around.
Google famously dragged on development of Glass for more than a decade stubbornly failing to admit that nobody wants to look like a cyborg the entire time only to be swept aside by Meta when they built a device that was glasses first with some recording and interactions built in.
If their leadership has an itch they'll scratch it until it's raw.
Was this a difference in strategy or more random luck having to do with fashion trends in different time periods?
Did Meta patiently wait until exaggerated glass frames were viable in the market? Or did they get lucky?
Or did they have some Machiavellian plot to steer this fashion for years and pave the way for their product..? ;-)
Google glass released in February 2013 and "I, glasshole" was written in December of 2013 which was a good formulation of ideas that had been floating in the tech sphere for a while. That's less than 1 year into their run that "Making myself look like a cyborg obviously makes people around me uncomfortable" was a plainly accepted fact.
I think wearable tech is awesome and was interested in this (I was much more interested in the earlier pendant projectors though) but the fact that you're constantly reminding people they're being recorded without their consent is just a big issue. The meta glasses themselves might suffer a similar fate if hacks to disable the LED become commonplace. Much like Sony's (I think?) nightvision cameras if stuff like this gets abused by creeps it will isolate you to use it yourself even for perfectly reasonable intentions.
There's a measure of game theory here too. If Google didn't hop on the AI train, people would use ChatGPT or Claude to fill the Internet with slop and 10-blue-links Google would cease working anyway (which it kinda has already). So their only option is to hop on the AI train and disrupt themselves, lest they be disrupted by others.
It's very much a Prisoner's Dilemma. Legacy search and the open Internet was an equilibrium that only existed while the majority of people co-operated. Once you allow an individual actor the ability to create large chunks of the Internet, it dies. Your only option is to be that individual actor.
Beyond the AI expenses, prompting captures more information from the consumer that keyword search. I assume they can take a lot of advantage from this and a new generation of ad engines is near the corner.
This all feels a bit hyperbolic.
It doesn’t really say in the article search is going away.
A lot of Google search is in the format of “company X”, then clicking the third link down (after two paid ads) to open company X’s website. (I have no idea how much this is, but it’s gotta be a lot)
That’s like free money. It doesn’t look like they’re getting rid of search, but expanding the AI/conversational features.
According to Kagi I search 11-50 times a day, about 600 searches per month. I do about 10-20 AI/assistant conversations per week, so maybe 2-3 a day, and usually when search fails or I can’t get the right query words in. I do this over my AI apps because the Kagi index is faster/better.
I can’t imagine Google would give up the bulk queries that pull in easy ad revenue. But if Google can push/upsell you into a really high value referral where they can start pulling a claim in your purchase, I could see them pushing to get into that.
Given how Google has managed their core products I expect them to monetize AI searches as aggressively as possible over the long term. At best we'll get highly tailored paid suggestions inserted into chats. But I think it's more likely they get baked right into the model in ways that users and ad blockers have no chance of detecting or blocking.
Are we looking at different screenshots? How is adding an AI button next to the regular old search button "being forced into a UI"?
I read some of the article and skimmed the rest, and didn't see anything about old-fashioned search no longer being an option.
Is the idea that by making the new AI chat UX the default, that's how they're forcing people into it and making them not able to search? Or is there something I'm missing?
Second paragraph:
> Instead of returning a simple list of links, Google Search will drop users into AI-powered interactive experiences at times.
So basically you'd get redirect into a chatbot interface, rather than letting you browse search results as normal, "AI-powered interactive experience" tends to be euphemism for chatbot UIs, is my experience at least.
>at times
Yes, that is what every user ever wanted! A UI that just randomly changes!
Makes sense to me. A chat UI has more avenues for subtle advertising & sentiment manipulation than plain links do.
Yeah just giving you the information/solution doesn't pay the bills. It's why supermarkets frequently change the layout of their aisles.
Never give the customers what they want give them what makes you money.
It is weird that they're putting all their eggs in one basket though. Wouldn't a more sensible business move be to launch that platform (and advertise it heavily) but maintain the old search UX to fend off competition?
Going all in like this carries a very real risk of burning users onto other platforms and the continued evolution of integrated search bars are already slicing off significant user segments.
I assume they internally see the traffic they are losing to ChatGPT and see this as the best path forward. Or it's even more simple, and much like stacking sponsored links at the top of the results, they see that no one interacts with content below the AI response anyway.
There are other search engines. Vote with your clicks people.
Kagi all the way
5 years later...
People who wanted to ask a specific question now won't have that option. Instead, they'll simply be shown whatever Google thinks is most relevant to them at that moment. The "Chat" UI we've grown so accustomed to is on its way out.