Google officially announced the launch of AI-powered search features for all users after a full year of testing, as stated by the company at the Google I/O 2024 developers conference.
Google first announced the SGE generative search experience a year ago, combining generative AI and search results to provide summaries and answers to search queries based on available information in search results.
Starting today, Google will offer the “AI Overview” feature as a default search option in the search engine.
Using the Gemini assistant, Google will display a summary of search results, with the possibility of including some links used in creating the summary, followed by showing other traditional search results.
Google plans to launch the feature in the United States today, then make it available in other countries soon.
The company expects the AI review feature to be available to over a billion users by the end of 2024.
Users cannot completely disable smart search features, but Google will provide options to bypass AI-generated answers and show links only.
These features are expected to enhance the search experience in ways users have not experienced before in the internet era. However, one of the concerns surrounding them raises doubts about their impact on websites that heavily rely on search engine traffic.
Estimates indicate a potential loss of around 25% of website visits converted from search engines over the next two years due to possible changes.
Google says that the links appearing in the AI-generated search summary receive more clicks compared to traditional search, while emphasizing their continued guidance of visits to publishers and creators.
Google also announced some new features being tested in the search engine, such as simplifying the language used in summaries, organizing search results, using video in searches, and more.
