Google's AI Search is Getting More Video and Better Links (theverge.com) 13
Google's AI-powered Search Generative Experience is getting a big new feature: images and video. From a report: If you've enabled the AI-based SGE feature in Search Labs, you'll now start to see more multimedia in the colorful summary box at the top of your search results. Google's also working on making that summary box appear faster and adding more context to the links it puts in the box. SGE may still be in the "experiment" phase, but it's very clearly the future of Google Search.
"It really gives us a chance to, now, not always be constrained in the way search was working before," CEO Sundar Pichai said on Alphabet's most recent earnings call. "It allows us to think outside the box." He then said that "over time, this will just be how search works." The SGE takeover raises huge, thorny questions about the very future of the web, but it's also just a tricky product to get right. Google is no longer simply trying to find good links for you every time you search -- it's trying to synthesize and generate relevant, true, helpful information. Video in particular could go a long way here: Google has integrated YouTube more and more into search results over the years, linking to a specific chapter or moment inside a video that might help you with that "why is my dryer making that noise" query.
"It really gives us a chance to, now, not always be constrained in the way search was working before," CEO Sundar Pichai said on Alphabet's most recent earnings call. "It allows us to think outside the box." He then said that "over time, this will just be how search works." The SGE takeover raises huge, thorny questions about the very future of the web, but it's also just a tricky product to get right. Google is no longer simply trying to find good links for you every time you search -- it's trying to synthesize and generate relevant, true, helpful information. Video in particular could go a long way here: Google has integrated YouTube more and more into search results over the years, linking to a specific chapter or moment inside a video that might help you with that "why is my dryer making that noise" query.
Awesome. (Score:4, Insightful)
No, really. That's spectacular. Because search isn't useless enough with several images / videos in the results that are literally just morons babbling about the topic you searched. Give us more useless garbage.
Can somebody press the rewind button on Google. I think they lost themselves somewhere a decade and some change ago. A search engine that worked as good as theirs did back then would be awe-inspiring now in comparison to what they're doing.
Re: (Score:2)
Like it for not, videos are a popular source of information now. The main problem is that they are not very searchable. Google has been addressing that with speech recognition and AI scene detection.
What you really want is for people to stop making videos and instead post the information as text. Personally I like videos for some things, such as reviews and certain instructional works.
Re: (Score:3)
Like it for not, videos are a popular source of information now. The main problem is that they are not very searchable. Google has been addressing that with speech recognition and AI scene detection.
What you really want is for people to stop making videos and instead post the information as text. Personally I like videos for some things, such as reviews and certain instructional works.
What I've found over the last few years is that even if I watch a video about something, it's twenty minutes of nothing at all, and I still have to go hunt down a text version to get the actual information I need. Why those SEO feeding bullshit babble videos are always the top-ranked is beyond me, but I suppose a complete lack of informative media is admired by enough of the younger generation that the idea of having real information available probably seems like a massive headache to them.
Note, at no point
Re: (Score:2)
The trick is to use the bookmarks feature that YouTube used to help you skip to the relevant part, and also install Sponsor Block. The latter, despite its name, also lets you auto skip over filler like recaps and intros, as well as sponsor sections and self promotion.
Re: (Score:2)
videos are a popular source of information now. The main problem is that they are not very searchable
The main problem is that they are currently rated by the popularity and charisma of their presenter, and not the quality of their content. AI trained to recognize correct and usable content could solve this problem - assuming that's how google chooses to train its AI.
as if (Score:4, Insightful)
as if we don't already get enough useless youtube videos in a search.
We've already moved on Google (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I don't know...I may be a sucker, but I still find Google's search results to be second-to-none in quality. Bard isn't so great yet compared to ChatGPT, but I'm glad they are making an attempt!
Re: (Score:2)
Most people, myself included, would disagree. Google is the largest web-crawler, so if the answer is anywhere, it's inside Google Search, if one can find it.
I have to search the very thing that is supposed to search for me. Over the years, it's gotten more difficult as Google Search became brand-aware: Converting 90% of searches into product-placements, filling its results with Google-owned Youtube videos: That's another reason Google is losing popularity, by turning the answer into a talking nobody,
Re: (Score:3)
You are right! Google is losing popularity! Since the beginning of this year, they went down from 93.3% of market share, to only 92.1% in July. https://gs.statcounter.com/sea... [statcounter.com] The next most popular is Bing, with 3.0% market share. Google should really be careful!
Yeah, they do show ad results. Who doesn't? And how else would they fund their operations? Perhaps they could charge users per search? Good luck with that approach.
It's a money-driven world, I'm sorry to say. Personally, I'm willing to put up with
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
When you "think outside the box"... (Score:4, Insightful)
Sometimes you NEED a box. Bumping up against the walls reminds you that you may be on the verge of going far outside the scope of solving your original problem or performing your original task.
As far as I'm concerned Google is WAY beyond the box which defines the boundaries of useful search. And the rate at which its suckage increases seems to be growing at an exponential rate. Get back into the fucking box, Sundar!