If you want smarter searching with Google, then you might have to pay for it – or at least if you want AI-assisted search queries, anyway (which you’d hope would prove smarter).
This is according to a report from the Financial Times, which contends that Google is mulling over the idea of a ‘premium’ search that leverages generative AI.
Demanding payment for search queries would be a major step for Google to take, of course, and indeed the FT describes the concept as the biggest potential shake-up of Google’s search business ever witnessed.
How might this work in practice, though? According to the FT, three sources who have inside knowledge of Google’s plans say it’s looking at options that include adding “certain AI-powered search features” to the firm’s premium subscription services, products that already offer access to the Gemini AI assistant in Gmail and Docs.
The latter mention seems to refer to the Gemini Advanced AI in Workspace, but that advanced chatbot is also available for Google One subscribers (on the AI Premium plan).
So, that could indicate that AI-assisted search might be part of the Google One service, and also Workspace, but all this is very much up in the air at the moment.
The report doesn’t give us any further concrete details on Google’s plans at this stage, and the only comments drawn from Google by the FT just underline its existing AI offerings, and the company’s current generative AI experiments in the search engine.
That AI-boosted Search Generative Experience (or SGE) was made available to Google users on a limited basis – for those who signed up and wanted to try it – almost a year ago. More recently, it has been rolling out to the public and more users, though it’s still only being tested with a very small niche audience.
Regarding possible new developments for search and AI, Google stuck to the predictable boilerplate statement: “We don’t have anything to announce right now.”
It should be underlined that the report makes it clear that normal Google search will remain as it is now, a free service with no charge (and supported by ads – which wouldn’t be removed even for subscribers to any AI search service, we’re told).
Analysis: Searching for the right balance between AI and ads
The reason Google is being tentative with AI is that it presents a tricky conundrum for the search giant. The problem is that AI chatbots can take all the heavy lifting out of searching – why manually trawl through a page (or pages) of search results, when you can ask an AI, and it’ll do all the hunting and filtering for you, presenting a curated answer?
What Google must be careful of is that, while there’s a need to use AI – and not fall behind with the benefits of this tech – the company needs to ensure users are still engaged with perusing search results, and crucially, the ads and sponsored messages between them, which generate a massive amount of revenue for Google. Indeed, search and ads raked in $175 billion in revenue for Google last year.
So, whatever Google does with AI in search can’t mess with that revenue stream too much, for obvious reasons. And the danger is that AI-powered summaries or snapshots could mean fewer clicks on adverts. Furthermore, on top of that, the cost of running the search engine is increased for Google – it has to pay for powering the AI and the necessary processing therein.
That’s kind of a lose-lose situation for Google, then, but one way to limit the damage would be to go the subscription route – meaning a more limited use of AI search that requires fewer processing centers, and it’d be something that users are paying for, as part of a package, to boot. The net effect on the coffers would be better balanced in this scenario.
Presumably that’s the theory, anyway – but ultimately, this is just hearsay, albeit from a relatively reliable source. And even if Google is looking at going this route, with engineers apparently actively developing the tech required for the service right now, the ultimate decision that the firm’s execs make might be to explore other options.
If paying for AI-powered search does become a reality – or rather, an option – for Google users, the likelihood is that it’ll be tied into a Google One subscription. And normal Google search will remain the same as mentioned – free and ad-supported, and without AI (or maybe with limited AI functionality – a small amount of daily queries with supplementary AI snapshots, perhaps).
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