Google's AI Search Summaries Officially Have Ads

Google is rolling out ads in AI Overviews, which means you'll now start seeing products in some of the search engine's AI-generated summaries. From a report: Let's say you're searching for ways to get a grass stain out of your pants. If you ask Google, its AI-generated response will offer some tips, along with suggestions for products to purchase that could help you remove the stain. The products will appear beneath a "sponsored" header, and Google spokesperson Craig Ewer told The Verge they'll only show up if a question has a "commercial angle."

Glue for your pizza

[LuniticusTheSane]

Now Google will happily sell you the glue it recommends you put on your pizza.

People read those?

[ugen]

I just scroll right through those (and the rest of the header crud, including the imbecilic "other people ask") towards the bottom of the page where the "real" search results (still?) are. Doesn't everyone?

Re:

[Joe Jordan]

Yeah but once upon a time it was one or two color-distinguished links, now I have to scroll sometimes multiple pages before I get to the "organic" serps. Enshittification has been at work at Google for a long while now.

Re:

[Smidge204]

I take a moment to thumbs-down every time. Sometimes I'll give feedback asking (with wildly varying degrees of politeness) that they stop stealing content from others and regurgitating it as LLM vomit.

Fight Big Data; Poison the well.
=Smidge=

Re:

[Tony Isaac]

Nope, not me, but it depends on what kind of search I'm doing.

If I want something quick and easy, I'll definitely look at the AI summary. For example, "What's the difference between a PPO and POS health insurance plan?" I don't want to click through to a bunch of FAQ sites trying the find the answer, I like that AI serves up a concise answer right at thetop.

If I'm looking for something more deeply, where I want more detail, yes, I'll skip the summary and go to the search results.

Re:

[taustin]

I don't want to click through to a bunch of FAQ sites trying the find the answer, I like that AI serves up a concise answer right at thetop.

Concise, yes. It is that. But the important question is whether it is correct , or just some random word salad (now attached to an ad for something that may or may not be relevant to the question).

Re:

[Tony Isaac]

When I need a quick-and-dirty answer, I'm not usually too interested in "exactly correct," "in the ballpark" is usually good enough. It did a good job of explaining the difference between PPO and POS. If I needed precision, I'd go to the source documents.

Re:

[taustin]

Every AI that's been tested has, on occasion, erred far beyond "in the ballpark," the the point of outright hallucination. Telling you to put glue on your pizza is not "in the ballpark." At least one lawyer was nearly disbarred because making up case law whole cloth isn't In the ballpark."

No AI can be trusted without verification, so the AI overview is, literally, completely without value because you have to go the the sources anyway.

(And Google knows it. This isn't intended to be of any benefit to the aver

My first search ... (sigh)

[fahrbot-bot]

"How do I disable AI-generated summaries?"

Re:

[taustin]

Google has instructions on how to do so [google.com].

These did not show up in an AI overview, but it was the top link.

Re:

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Result: duckduckgo

udm=14

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

is what you want [arstechnica.com]

There's also a kajillion Firefox addons that exploit this trick.

Until Google gets tired of tolerating people who don't want their shitty AI garbage forced down their throat of course. But for the time being, it works.

Re:

[fahrbot-bot]

Also saw this [reddit.com] as UBO filter:

! 2024-05-18 https://www.google.com/ [google.com] Block A.I Search Results
www.google.com##.M8OgIe > div:nth-of-type(2) > div

So glad..

[LVSlushdat]

I don't use Google search, rather DuckDuckGo...

Google is no longer "search"

[sinij]

I don't think Google qualifies as a search provider, as it does not do that well anymore. Just like Yellow Pages are not a phone book. It is more accurately described a sponsored directory formally known to provide search.

So much for useful AI

[ddtmm]

And there we go, the end of useful AI. Won't be long before ads for useless products flood AI and make it the paid biased crap that review sites have become.

Why do people still trust Google anymore?

[EvilStein]

Google has become one of the worst companies on the internet, and the worst *for* the internet and I'm worried about how much farther they will sink.

They're an advertising company that wants to *be* the internet, via Android & Chrome/etc.