The Empire Shoves Back
Google AI Search looks pretty good vs ChatGPT Plus and Bing Chat
At Google’s Developer conference a couple of weeks ago (Google I/O 2023), CEO Sundar Pichai and team turned the external sentiment around on the company’s ability to go on the offensive on AI against OpenAI and Microsoft.
As I noted in our piece then titled “The Empire Nudges Back”, the company impressed Developers and Wall Street.
In particular, they highlighted integrating Google Search with Generative AI (Search Generative Experience, SGE), and made it available via a waitlist before wider availability.
Now, SGE is available to some and the reviews are positive. This one by the Decoder is representative of the early conclusions:
“Compared to ChatGPT with Bing, Google offers a more intuitive and faster interface, the integration of multimedia and a better connection between traditional web search and complementary AI content.
Although the new AI search will continue to display traditional search results, they will take a distinct backseat compared to today's search. Publishers and SEOs are likely to face many new challenges.”
The last bit on publisher and SEO challenges I’ll tackle in a future post.
Overall, the review is pretty detailed with solid examples.
I had a chance to use it extensively for a week now, and I agree. Would summarize my takeaways as follows:
HEADLINE: Liking it OVER ChatGPT Plus and Bing Chat for quick Generative AI summaries.
Still like and use ChatGPT Plus for detailed prompts and queries. But Google’s SGE scratches the AI itch in ordinary searches.
Two Key reasons why I like it so far:
The other two have better LLM AI models for now, with @OpenAI’s GPT4, but the Google SGE results are GOOD ENOUGH.
AI results are right there. Don’t have to think about going anywhere else. Old habits are hard-wired.
Good Enough generally wins. In the 1990s, Gates drove Microsoft Windows to beat Apple Mac. And Microsoft Internet Explorer beat the Netscape browser (1990s), despite the latter’s spectacular debut in 1995 (deja vu). In the 2010s, Google Android smartphones did the same in global units vs iOS iPhones (though not in profits).
The user interface and experience (UI/UX) IS much more convenient than ChatGPT for now. And simpler.
Presumably, it only gets better from this early point.
Google hasn’t yet rolled it out to everyone yet. It’s being tested via their Google’s Search Labs group and they’re also likely GPU gated in capacity like OpenAI, Microsoft and others, as I noted in a previous piece a few days ago.
Besides the GPU capacity issue, there’s also of course the cost of these Chat queries, relative to traditional Searches. At the time of this writing, they can be up to a 1,000 times of a regular search query.
However, these costs come down fast and furious with tech innovation, evolution, and scale. Important to focus on where the hockey puck is going, not where it is right now. And Google is the definition of computing scale.
Longer term, it’s also important to remember that Google has over 90% of search market share worldwide (less than 3% for Bing) with over 9 billion searches a day. That’s a fair bit of tailwind for their Generative AI Search vs the new kids on the block.
The Empire is shoving back. Softly for now, but it’s a Shove.
Popcorn time.