At its Google I/O, the search giant made significant announcements. Once such an announcement is the roll-out of AI Overview in Google search. After testing this feature in “labs” for over a year, the company has finally decided to launch the feature for the general public. The roll-out starts for the users in the United States this week, while for other countries, the roll-out of this feature will start soon.
Google initially announced the Search Generative Experience “AI Overview” at its Google I/O 2023 last year and since then it has been in the testing phase. The new experience combines generative AI with Google search to provide AI summaries and user queries based on live information from Google search. Over the past year, many users have tested this feature, and the company thinks that it is time to officially launch this feature. This feature will change how the web works.
The search giant will now use AI to collect and integrate information for different search results. This will help the company to improve the user experience by providing the most accurate information comprehensively.
The company plans to roll out this feature to more than a billion users by the end of this year. Google is making the Search Generative Experience “AI Overview” the default experience in search. This feature is an extension of search like the feature snippets or the knowledge panel and thus it cannot be disabled completely. However, the company is looking for ways to add a filter in the search that allows users to skip AI answers and provide links related to search queries.
The AI overview will improve the user experience if implemented well but some speculations are surfacing online after the announcement. The inclusion of an AI overview will adversely impact websites that generate major traffic through searches. As per the report from Gartner, the search traffic will drop by 25 percent by 2026 due to AI chatbots and GenAI solutions. Considering the trend over the past year, there is no denying that websites impacted the most at the hands of AI in search.
Google on the other hand has addressed some of these issues. The company said that AI overview links would get more clicks in comparison to the traditional search. Additionally, the company is working to bring new features to AI overviews such as tweaks in AI Overviews by choosing a simpler language, detailed reasoning for complex queries, and even using videos for search prompts.
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