It’s as though Google took the index cards for the screenplay it’s been writing for the past 25 years and tossed them into the air to see where the cards might fall. Also: The screenplay was written by AI.
These changes to Google Search have been long in the making. Last year the company carved out a section of its Search Labs, which lets users try experimental new features, for something called Search Generative Experience. The big question since has been whether, or when, those features would become a permanent part of Google Search. The answer is, well, now.
Google’s search overhaul comes at a time when critics are becoming increasingly vocal about what feels to some like a degraded search experience, and for the first time in a long time, the company is feeling the heat of competition, from the massive mashup between Microsoft and OpenAI. Smaller startups like Perplexity, You.com, and Brave have also been riding the generative AI wave and getting attention, if not significant mindshare yet, for the way they’ve rejiggered the whole concept of search.
Automatic Answers
Google says it has made a customized version of its Gemini AI model for these new Search features, though it declined to share any information about the size of this model, its speeds, or the guardrails it has put in place around the technology.
This search-specific spin on Gemini will power at least a few different elements of the new Google Search. AI Overviews, which Google has already been experimenting with in its labs, is likely the most significant. AI-generated summaries will now appear at the top of search results.
One example from WIRED’s testing: In response to the query “Where is the best place for me to see the northern lights?” Google will, instead of listing web pages, tell you in authoritative text that the best places to see the northern lights, aka the aurora borealis, are in the Arctic Circle in places with minimal light pollution. It will also offer a link to NordicVisitor.com. But then the AI continues yapping on below that, saying “Other places to see the northern lights include Russia and Canada’s northwest territories.”
Reid says that AI Overviews like this won’t show up for every search result, even if the feature is now becoming more prevalent. It’s reserved for more complex questions. Every time a person searches, Google is attempting to make an algorithmic value judgment behind the scenes as to whether it should serve up AI-generated answers or a conventional blue link to click. “If you search for Walmart.com, you really just want to go to Walmart.com,” Reid says. “But if you have an extremely customized question, that’s where we’re going to bring this.”
AI Overviews are rolling out this week to all Google search users in the US. The feature will come to more countries by the end of the year, Reid said, which means more than a billion people will see AI Overviews in their search results. They will appear across all platforms—the web, mobile, and as part of the search engine experience in browsers, such as when people search through Google on Safari.
