Google's Downard Spiral as a Search Engine continues...now forcing "AI Overviews" as the top search result

[Lady Bow]

This may be one of those rollout things where not everybody has been updated to the latest Google Search build but Google is now forcing generative AI answers as the top result on the search page. To my knowledge, there doesn't seem to be anyway to turn it off without resorting to a third party extension to remove it. Should we switch back to Dogpile or Ask Jeeves?

Remove Google AI Extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/hide-google-ai-overviews/neibhohkbmfjninidnaoacabkjonbahn

Alternative Search Engines:

DuckDuckGo — Privacy, simplified.

The Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.

duckduckgo.com

Kagi Search - A Premium Search Engine

Better search results with no ads. Welcome to Kagi (pronounced kah-gee), a paid search engine that gives power back to the user.

kagi.com

Qwant

Fast, reliable answers and still in trust: Qwant does not store your search data, does not sell your personal data and is hosted in Europe.

www.qwant.com

Brave Search

Search the web privately…

search.brave.com

 

[fragamemnon]

I mean, getting good results from web search is like playing a 80s Infocom text adventure game, so stuff like this is just an additional hard mode for people to adapt to.

What these experiences need is a way to de-emphasize content clearly written by generative AI so that at some point there's more confidence that someone with an actual spark of life fed the AI vs. AIs telling other AIs information in a lifeless, dead exchange of empty words.

 

[fracas]

As a marketer, I can only tell yall to get ready for AI taking over the SERPs. This shit is e v e r y w h e r e and it's only gonna get worse.

Google's been pretty transparent with their intent to have web searching become basically a conversation where you don't even have to click a link. Instead of optimizing for specific keywords, the new way to rank higher is to format all your site content as questions with clear, easy to understand answers that AI can parse and feed back to the searcher. I've been working with vendors on re-writing most of my entire site over the last few months and we're climbing the rankings.

It's better than keyword stuffing but I still don't love it.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I've seen this in the last few weeks. Note that Meta has defaulted to Meta AI as the search engine for FB and instagram.

 

[cabelhigh]

Isnt this gonna completely tank whatever's left of the web ad industry if AI is gonna stop more people from clicking through a link?

 

[Fatoy]

As a marketer, I can only tell yall to get ready for AI taking over the SERPs. This shit is e v e r y w h e r e and it's only gonna get worse.

Google's been pretty transparent with their intent to have web searching become basically a conversation where you don't even have to click a link. Instead of optimizing for specific keywords, the new way to rank higher is to format all your site content as questions with clear, easy to understand answers that AI can parse and feed back to the searcher. I've been working with vendors on re-writing most of my entire site over the last few months and we're climbing the rankings.

It's better than keyword stuffing but I still don't love it.

Click to shrink...

This honestly makes sense for a lot of web content. If I want answers, or instructions, or recipes, wading through someone's keyword-heavy blog post is a bad experience.

Where this is going to hit hard is long form editorial, features, and analysis. There's a reason the FT and other outlets are opting to license their content to OpenAI: they know that features are very poorly suited to quick discovery.

 

[blue_whale]

Honestly, with the way things are this isn't terrible. Almost all of the top actual webpages for my recent searches have been filled with either human or ai generated text garbage. Although this is also useless, maybe google should focus on trying to get actual results when you search rather than adding another layer of generated drivel

 

[NetMapel]

How much worse is this going to ruin sites like Serebii where AI summarization botched the details completely? Also, does this completely disrupt the entire current digital marketing platform?

 

[scottbeowulf]

I've been using this on purpose through beta/labs for a bit and I've found it pretty great for what I usually search for. I rarely have to actually click a link. Just the info I wanted right at the top. I see plenty of weaknesses and issues but for me it's been great.

 

[The Albatross]

I actually prefer the generative results over the horrible experience of publishers, in most circumstances. But I understand the crisis this is for ad driven publishers.

I find myself trying to interact with Google search conversationally on my phone and then forget the apple baked in Google search doesn't use the conversational AI style yet.

Hate to say it but the results are much better for the searcher. For ad based publishers I'm not sure what happens to them. Compare what you get with "how long to microwave precooked bacon" that you get from the top 5 search results versus those from the AI generated results. You actually get the answer at the top for the generative results, you have to slog through 40 take over ads and 30 paragraphs about how cooking bacon in the microwave in Minnesota growing up was such a transformative experience before finally finding "15 seconds on a paper towel, both sides"

Isnt this gonna completely tank whatever's left of the web ad industry if AI is gonna stop more people from clicking through a link?

Click to shrink...

For ad based publishers, yes I don't know how any survive short of the NYT winning their law suit against Google and expanding it to a massive class, but the big ad networks, Google and Amazon, want the captive audience. They don't want to push visitors to links where they have to pay out ad revenue, they want to keep traffic on Google where they can advertise directly and eventually show ads in generative AI responses.

 

[Bear]

Just use Perplexity instead. It's so much better.

 

[SilkySm00th]

Had to sit through 4 hours of co-pilot info dumps over the last month and yah - this shit is gonna be everywhere.

If i have to hear the term "Prompt Engineer" come out of someone sounding all excited i'm gonna crumble. The dudes opening slide about how strong the learning was now was to say "AI art is winning contests and AI writing is almost indistinguishable."

Just... fuck off man.

 

[Imran]

I wonder if we'll ever get a lawsuit from a publisher on Google essentially saying "No, don't go to their website, all the info from their website is right here."

 

[TheMerv]

I've been immediately scrolling past it every time. Like why the fuck would I trust that shit? It also acts utterly baffled once you scroll past with an up arrow constantly on screen trying to point you back to the garbage.

 

[Fatoy]

I wonder if we'll ever get a lawsuit from a publisher on Google essentially saying "No, don't go to their website, all the info from their website is right here."

Click to shrink...

This is precisely what the NY Times is suing OpenAI for.

 

[cabelhigh]

For ad based publishers, yes I don't know how any survive short of the NYT winning their law suit against Google and expanding it to a massive class, but the big ad networks, Google and Amazon, want the captive audience. They don't want to push visitors to links where they have to pay out ad revenue, they want to keep traffic on Google where they can advertise directly and eventually show ads in generative AI responses.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, while this is an obvious win for user readability, it does worry me in terms of industry consolidation/centralization. Google's ad business already does gangbusters -- imagine if you now need to pay Google in order to get your link displayed at all.

 

[KingFrost92]

I work in Google Ads pretty extensively for my job (I manage something like 30-40 clients' portfolios), and these changes are really throwing our teams and performance for a loop already. Search ads have always been a guaranteed sure thing so long as you kind of know what you're doing as a manager. Most of our search ads for smaller businesses return something like 10:1 without much upkeep, sometimes more. Since May 1, results for our top clients are dropping substantially - like 60% dropping with no changes made. Google's response has just been "throw us more money and maybe performance numbers will return".

They've gotta have some weird bullshit up their sleeve - like paying X dollars per month for preferential treatment in the AI algorithm in addition to paying for ad placements. Meta's already talking about doing something similar - touting plans for $350-per-page monthly subscriptions for brands to have preferential treatment in search results and discover pages.

I'm all for burning down the digital ad industry. It's been bullshit for years on every platform at some level unless you really know what you're doing - otherwise it's a money pit with very deceptive promises where only the huge corps can truly play. In my time, search ads are the only thing that have driven actual results for small businesses with smaller budgets, and it sucks that it seems like Google is now electing to completely throw that out of the equation.

But I guess that tracks :/ time to get out of advertising and start my woodworking career haha

 

[AzureSky]

i dont mind trying it out, but the way its pushed in most cases disregards any rules for good UI.
Look at Bing for example, the search page is a monstrosity of clobbed together elements which all scream for you attention. I dare everyone to try using it at default settings, while logged into the microsoft account and active copilot. Heads must roll for allowing something like this.

 

[Quiet Storm]

I know Google said their metrics show people have liked AI Overviews, but I don't know a single person IRL who has said the same. It is conent that is largely just in the way of getting to the sources it's stealing data from, and it's not clear how much it can be trusted.

Goog search results and their relevance have never felt as in peril as they do right now. And I'm old enough to remember when Yahoo! was the gold standard and nobody saw them falling. We know how that went. Best of luck to Google, but it doesn't feel like they're making good decisions right now around their cash cow.

And on that subject, I'm shocked that the execs would approve of pushing ads below the fold. That's just INSANE to me. I really thought that it wouldn't roll out to the masses at the top of the page. Boy was I wrnog.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

Bing search became unusable because of this garbage. I'm glad that alternatives like duckduckgo exist because this shit would drive me up the wall.

 

[OrvilleGateau]

So what's the best search engine alternative nowadays without any sort of AI crap? Cuz I honestly can't stand seeing the stuff being shoehorned into everything and I have no use for it either (and it's been hell searching up drawing references too, with so many AI images showing up instead of actual art).

 

[Dyle]

I look forward to the day when people like Nadella and Pichai stop giving their AI teams a blank check and are forced to actually consider how expensive these ineffective products are to run

 

[The Teachinator]

I switched over to Kagi. So far so good.

 

[ErichWK]

I actually installed a chrome extension to block googles ai from popping up. Getting closer to just getting Kagi. 😌

 

[AwShucks]

Been getting this for a few weeks, I just immediately scroll down

 

[fracas]

I wonder if we'll ever get a lawsuit from a publisher on Google essentially saying "No, don't go to their website, all the info from their website is right here."

Click to shrink...

I'd be shocked if someone didn't test the waters within the next couple years. Sites that rely on ad revenue are gonna suffer.

 

[AgeEighty]

Google's been pretty transparent with their intent to have web searching become basically a conversation where you don't even have to click a link. Instead of optimizing for specific keywords, the new way to rank higher is to format all your site content as questions with clear, easy to understand answers that AI can parse and feed back to the searcher. I've been working with vendors on re-writing most of my entire site over the last few months and we're climbing the rankings.

Click to shrink...

Doesn't this rob the sites—the very information sources Google is using to generate its answers—of the traffic and monetization opportunities that keep them afloat? That doesn't seem sustainable at all and makes Google more of a thief than a guide. After all, that content is not free for those sites to generate.

 

[Serebii]

I've been using this on purpose through beta/labs for a bit and I've found it pretty great for what I usually search for. I rarely have to actually click a link. Just the info I wanted right at the top. I see plenty of weaknesses and issues but for me it's been great.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, let's take from the sites and not give them the traffic so they have to shut down

Doesn't this rob the sites—the very information sources Google is using to generate its answers—of the traffic and monetization opportunities that keep them afloat? That doesn't seem sustainable at all and makes Google more of a thief than a guide. After all, that content is not free for those sites to generate.

Click to shrink...

Yep, that's why most website owners are pissed

How much worse is this going to ruin sites like Serebii where AI summarization botched the details completely? Also, does this completely disrupt the entire current digital marketing platform?

Click to shrink...

It's going to ruin things a lot

Luckily, unlike most of my peers, I have a very high direct traffic percentage so I should be alright, though it'll be heavily dented. Other sites have traffic at like 70-80% and this will destroy them

This is theft on their part.

 

[bloopland33]

I've had it be obviously wrong twice now in my short time using it. Last week, I googled "did the founder of Panera Bread die?" and it said "Yes, Mr. Smith died as a result of [heart something?] after consuming the chain's Supercharged Lemonade drink earlier that day," with a link to a Wikipedia article.

But this confused me based on another fact I knew, so I click into the Wiki page, and "Mr. Smith" is just one of four people listed under the "Controversy" section. (Four families have sued Panera for the death of their loved ones because of the caffeine content in the Supercharged Lemonade, iirc. They finally changed the drink...in December 2023). So not the founder at all, nowhere close.

Seemed like a hell of an error, it wasn't complicated information to parse.

 

[davepoobond]

even more point to not run a web site that is purely based on information.

 

[flyinj]

Yeah I actually love this.

Whenever I'm searching for a game hint or solution its top 30 results are those awful sites where they have 5-10 pages of AI generated time wasting bullshit describing the game and the problem it is about to give me the solution to force you to scroll through like 100 ads to get the answer

The Google AI at the top just gives me the answer immediately like 90% of the time

 

[Serebii]

The irony of all this is that Google's recent Core Update on search targeted down AI written articles.

Yeah I actually love this.

Whenever I'm searching for a game hint or solution its top 30 results are those awful sites where they have 5-10 pages of AI generated time wasting bullshit describing the game and the problem it is about to give me the solution to force you to scroll through like 100 ads to get the answer

The Google AI at the top just gives me the answer immediately like 90% of the time

Click to shrink...

Yeah, what does it matter that this'll kill off the sites that actually research the information you need

 

[AgeEighty]

Yep, that's why most website owners are pissed

Click to shrink...

If they had some kind of revenue sharing program that split the money with the sources of the data—a similar split to what they already take with programs like Google Ads—it could help, but even then there are other ways sites raise money than just with ads and they'll be denied those eyeballs.

And there's another problem: Users can't be judicious about the sources of their information. You can ask the AI a question and it'll likely compile an answer using data culled from multiple sites, some of which may be more truthful and trustworthy than others. And that's on top of the hallucinations AI already suffers from. How can you know which answers to trust? This will encourage people to get even worse than they already are at sourcing.

 

[Droopy_McCool]

Yeah Bing has been doing this for a while and it sucks

 

[TaxiDriver]

Can be useful for factual information, but sometimes it can be annoying. Wish there was a way to turn it on/off.

 

[Serebii]

If this was an option alongside News etc., then this would be tolerable

It's the fact it's mandatory, it pushes all actual sources down. It's so bad. It's going to damage the Internet so much

 

[flyinj]

The irony of all this is that Google's recent Core Update on search targeted down AI written articles.


Yeah, what does it matter that this'll kill off the sites that actually research the information you need

Click to shrink...

90% of these sites in the first three search result pages are already AI generated crap that steal their info from actual sites then game the algorithm to come up first and bury the sites that do the work they stole.

That is what I think needs to be fixed through actual regulation. Once that happens these AIs will not be required to navigate through the cynical garbage pile that the internet has become.

 

[Serebii]

90% of these sites in the first three search result psges are already AI generated crap that steal their info from actual sites then game the algorithm to come up first and bury the sites that do the work they stole.

That is what I think needs to be fixed through actual regulation. Once that happens these AIs will not be required to navigate through the cynical garbage pile that the internet has become.

Click to shrink...

As someone who is frequently in the top 2 or 3 results for Pokémon related searches, this isn't necessarily true

Google cutting out the middleman and stealing content themselves isn't the way

 

[m_shortpants]

I've been using it for a while through Labs. it's been...pretty good? usually has what I'm looking for, but shows you sources if you need to drill in.

 

[echoshifting]

What really concerns me is that these things are still learning way too much from chuds. It creeps up in all kinds of insidious ways. I landed on an AI summary about a gay fictional character that was pretty chud-contaminated a couple weeks ago, complained about it, now the AI summary is just gone from that search (at least for me). But I'm sure there are still other instances like that. It is disturbing to see stuff like that presented as a definitive summary endorsed by Google.

 

[Bobson Dugnutt]

any search engine that pushes this as a main feature can fuck right off. if they all start to do it then I guess I'm going back to the library or using encyclopaedia britannica or some shit.

 

[Serebii]

If you want an AI tool to answer questions, separate it from the actual search function that is basically used by 90+% of users on the Internet.

I am struggling to see how people don't see how monumentally catastrophic this is

 

[LawfulEnder]

The thing is that I'm not going to Google for an AI summary, I'm going to Google for a search engine.

I guess maybe I'm unusual in that sense, but it really feels like front loading your search engine with AI summarizing technology is basically taking a very useful feature that has had tremendous success (and around which much of the internet is constructed, which is a huge win for Google) and turning it into something else that's far less proven or established.

 

[WhiteRabbitEXE]

It's funny how the dead Internet conspiracy is literally just the fucking goal now, and we're straight up speed running it.

 

[julia crawford]

Are people finding this? I've seen people post about this but i haven't found it myself. I'd like to know how it's being rolled out, if it's A/B tested etc.

Regardless, if you haven't done it already this is the time to switch search engines.

 

[Serebii]

Are people finding this? I've seen people post about this but i haven't found it myself. I'd like to know how it's being rolled out, if it's A/B tested etc.

Regardless, if you haven't done it already this is the time to switch search engines.

Click to shrink...

Being rolled out, primarily in the US for the time being

 

[No Depth]

I miss it!!

 

[Ambient80]

Amusingly, their own demonstration had a pretty egregious error in it when showing AI search results (again. This happened at last I/O, as well, I believe). When asking how to fix a feed issue with film in a film camera, it suggested opening the back of the camera and removing the film, which would, you know, destroy the film inside the camera.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/14/24156729/googles-gemini-video-search-makes-factual-error-in-demo

 

[carlsojo]

couldn't turn this shit off fast enough

 

[Lady Bow]

Updated OP with the remove Google AI extension and also alternative search engines.