Two sentences from a Google blog post seem to have convinced more than a few people in the search community that Google’s generative search experience is “not going to happen.”
Specifically, SGE will not launch. It will never be more than an “experiment” in Labs or part of the default search experience for all (or the vast majority) of users.
I just don’t buy it. Here’s why.
what is in question When Google announced Circle to Search, Elizabeth Reid, Google’s vice president, Search, wrote in one blog entry:
“This week’s launch of AI-powered insights for multisearch is the result of testing we started last year to see how gene AI can make search radically more useful, with SGE in Search Labs. We’ve received a lot of helpful feedback from people who have chosen to join this experiment, and we’ll continue to offer SGE in Labs as a test bed for bold new ideas.”
These two sentences led to a rather elaborate process interpretation shared by Ross Hudgens, CEO of Siege Media, (in the same post, he even states that he may be reading too much into it). It says, in part:
“This language makes SGE sound like it’s a breeding ground for a lot of different SERP features, rather than the one we covered when it was first announced.” “But we know that these words are chosen carefully, and we also know that Google is unlikely to announce things one way or the other.”
fish Yes, it’s debatable whether SGE, in its current form, will graduate and become the default search experience. We don’t know Google’s product roadmap or if SGE is even “backwards”.
However, the idea that SGE will not be published in part or in whole, soon or perhaps never, took hold on social media.
To me, however, this seems like the equivalent of putting a cup in the ocean, finding no fish in the cup, and claiming that there are no fish in the ocean.
Let it be clear. Google has no Announced SGE may not launch.
Google has also never announced when or if SGE will be released. SGE up to this point has consistently been referred to as an experiment.
SGE had an “end date” at one point, December 2023, but it was withdrawn in December. This “end date” also had zero meaning.
Hopefully, it’s now clear that the above interpretation (and the resulting rampant social media speculation) is entirely based on something Google didn’t say. That’s a sentence I can’t believe I just wrote.
What we really know is that Google will “continue to offer SGE in labs.”
SGE experimentation. Meanwhile, we’ve reported from two separate analyzes (from BrightEdge and Authoritas) that SGE is shown for more than 80% of queries from users who have opted for SGE. Additionally, SGE experimentation is ongoing, according to a separate analysis of one billion queries by BrightEdge.
All this data and ongoing experimentation should be proof enough that SGE is not dead. All we know for sure is that Google hasn’t released SGE (everything else is baseless speculation at this point), again based on two sentences in a blog post.
That said, Google’s earnings call is tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if SGE is mentioned.
What Google has actually said about SGE. Google has not stated that SGE is “not going to happen”. Let’s review:
during the Call for Alphabet Q3 2023 resultsOctober 24, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet/Google, said:
“I’m very pleased with how user feedback has been on SGE. We’re rolling it out to more users. Through it all, we’re making sure that the product works well and that we’re creating value for our ecosystem and that ads are doing well transition”. I think I see this as, with AI, the opportunity to evolve Search and the Assistant over the next decade. And I think, as we’ve always seen, when you continue to invest and build great experiences, you can get value on the other side.
Interpretation: Google is thinking about the next 10 years. So maybe stop trying to extract the meaning of two sentences from a blog post. Also, Google is doing everything it can to figure out how to make more money here, or at least not lose more money. And they still don’t seem to get it.
“It’s still very early days in terms of how much we’ve rolled it out. But we’ve definitely gotten it to enough people, both geographically, across user segments, to know that the product works well. It improves the experience.” “But there are areas to improve, which we are fine-tuning. Our real north here is to get the right user experience that we want, and I’m pretty comfortable seeing the trajectory. And we’ve always worked on those transitions, whether it’s from desktop to mobile or now from mobile to an AI-enhanced experience.”
Interpretation: Google believes that SGE improves the search experience, as imperfect as it was at the time. Also, Google definitely went mobile first, that happened. Pichai seemed pretty serious about making Search an AI-enhanced experience.
during the Call for Alphabet Q2 2023 resultsJuly 25, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet/Google, said:
“This quarter saw our next major evolution with the launch of Search Generative Experience, or SGE…”
Interpretation: Pichai positioned SGE as an evolution of Search back then and I doubt that has changed.
In an interview with platformOn Dec. 6, on the newly released Gemini model, Pichai brought up SGE several times, including this:
“Our fundamental vision is that people come looking to experience the richness and diversity of the web and the content ecosystem. So while with the generative search experience we can expand what we do, we’re actually designing the product in a. way for people to go explore. And I think that’s what users want. I see that as a core value proposition of search, so that would be part of our focus as we evolve the product.”
Interpretation: Google seems to think of SGE as part of the “core search value proposition.” All I’m not 100% sure about is whether the product Pichai is referring to in the quote above is Search, SGE, or both.
Dig deeper. Google CEO on SGE and the evolution of search: “We’re going to do it right”
false If Search Engine Land were fully Politifact, we’d probably rate this story as “Fake” if not “Pants on Fire.” While many in search marketing may want the delay or even death of Google SGE to be true, there is no evidence to support this “interpretation” at this time.
Spreading the idea that SGE is not launching and that Google said so is harmful because misinformation is so easy to spread in our industry. You better prepare for generative search experiences, which aren’t going anywhere.
[ad_2]
Source link
