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The most popular search engine on the Internet could be headed for rough sailings over the next year or two, according to the creator of Gmail.

During that time frame, artificial intelligence will eliminate the need for search engine results pages, where Google makes most of its money, and even if the search giant deploys AI to catch up, it won’t do it without destroying the most valuable. part of its business, predicted Paul Bukhit in a thread on Twitter.

“The one thing very few people remember is the pre-Internet business that Google killed: the Yellow Pages!” they wrote. “The Yellow Pages used to be a great business, but then Google got so good that everyone stopped using the Yellow Pages.”

“AI will do the same thing for web search,” he said.

As Buchte sees it, a browser’s URL/search bar will be replaced with an AI that autocompletes a thought or question as it’s typed, as well as providing the best answer, based on what a user can find. May contain a link to a website or product.

The AI ​​will use the old search engine backend to gather relevant information and links, which will then be summarized for the user, he continued.

“It’s like asking a professional human researcher to do a job, except the AI ​​will instantly do what would take several minutes for a human,” he wrote.

changeover time

Ben Kobren, head of communications and public policy at Neeva, an AI-based search engine based in Washington, DC, said online search is long overdue for an overhaul.

“If you look at search over the past 20 years, with a few exceptions, it’s been relatively stable,” he told TechNewsWorld.

“We have become accustomed to the world of 10 Blue Lynx,” he explained. “You put in a question, and on a good day, you get 10 or so relatively useful links to websites that you need to explore further to find the answer to your search or question. On a bad day, you get ads. You get two pages of ads trying not to answer your question until you click and buy something and scroll through the ads.

“In any case,” he continued, “you are not going to get fluid answers that are simple, efficient, and do what you are looking for in one stop. The power of large language models and AI is about to make a transformative leap in that.” How do we interact with search engines and how do we expect information to be returned to us?

“We haven’t seen that kind of change in search in two decades,” he said.

How much disturbance?

Artificial intelligence disrupts the current search model by providing an easier way to find consumers, explained Noam Doros, a director analyst at Gartner, a research and advisory firm based in Stamford, Conn.

Doros told TechNewsWorld, “Instead of spending time reviewing different search results for the same answer on search engine results pages, AI aggregates information relevant to the consumer, summarizing it in a detailed yet concise manner.” “

He added, “Consumers have short attention spans given the endless amount of information now accessible through various platforms, so any advancement in technology to satiate the thirst for knowledge in a concise manner is clearly a game changer.” Could be a changer.”


Rowan Curran, an analyst at Forrester Research, a national market research company, pointed to some challenges for AI-guided search.

“Large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT are not a brand new introduction to the online search market,” Karan told TechNewsworld. “While LLMs are great for some tasks in search, there are many situations where getting a single answer isn’t the goal of an online search. For example, when looking for a local restaurant, you can go straight to where to eat.” Would like to see a list with ratings rather than get answers.

“Because of the cost of re-training, keeping LLM up to date on all the data scraped from the Internet would be prohibitively expensive,” he said. “With further research and work on the distillation of the model, this cost is likely to come down, but whether it is high enough to support live online search is an open question.”

advantages of market dominance

Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near Media, a news, comment and analysis website, said AI will certainly transform search, but how disruptive it will be remains to be seen.

“AI responses are already being integrated into Niva,” he told TechNewsworld. “There are also Perplexity.ai and others promoting AI as a search alternative. Bing will launch AI-generated content. But if everyone did it, including Google, it might not be as disruptive. Right now, AI results live at the top of the results as a sort of large snippet.

“Google is potentially vulnerable, but it would be unwise to bet against them,” Sterling said. “They have massive AI assets; They’ve been slow to roll them out. AI content can affect ad clicks and Google revenue. This is the real concern for the company.

Niva AI Search

Niva AI Search | Image courtesy of Neeva


Google has a leg up on competitors on several levels, said Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City.

Where searches happen is where Google has an advantage over its competitors, he explained. It is the default search app for market leader Chrome, in the browser market, and Android, the mobile phone market, and it has a deal with Apple as the default search engine on those platforms.

Rubin told TechNewsWorld, “Even if AI search engines create a better way to find information or meet consumer needs than Google, Google will still have a dominant presence, through which it can maintain its leadership.” Is.”

platform-shifting moment

Kobren acknowledged that disrupting a highly successful business like Google in two years would be a huge challenge.

“What is clear is that this is a platform-shifting moment,” he said. “For the first time, you are going to see a real change in users adopting alternatives to Google. You’re about to see real competition in space for the first time. There is going to be some kind of movement. How big is it going to be in two years? We can’t predict it.”


Liz Miller, vice president and a principal analyst at Constellation Research, a technology research and advisory firm in Cupertino, California, said it would be difficult to find an industry, segment or company that isn’t going to be disrupted by AI. in the next two to five years.

“The reality here is that AI is seeing a quick path out of the experiment lab and into really meaningful automation and intelligence applications that are delivering business and personal value,” Miller told TechNewsWorld.

“I hope AI makes search again about relevancy and real-time user context, rather than a three-horse race between user needs, publisher inventory and Google’s business model,” she said. “It has that potential.”

A new search engine powered by artificial intelligence and natural language processing is offering an alternative to the list of web pages that make up the results of a typical online search.

Called Andy, the search engine combines the use of large language models – think OpenAI’s GPY-3 – and live web data to formulate answers to questions posed by searchers.

“We use AI and natural language processing to understand the intent of a question,” explained co-founder Angela Hoover.

“Andy will look at the top 10 to 20 results for any question,” she explained to TechNewsWorld. “Then, using the larger language model, it would produce a direct answer to the question.”

andy search engine

Andy’s Search Query Screen (Image Credit: Andy)


Does the Internet need another search engine? Hoover thinks so. “Google is broken,” she said. “Google is built 20 years ago for the way the web worked. The cognitive overload of ads and links overloads the user with a lot of distraction and time wasted.”

“People want direct answers to questions. They don’t want a list of links,” she said.

Gen Z Appeal

Andy is designed for a younger demographic.

“It felt like my search results were being found in social media feeds. It appealed to younger users,” said Will Duffield, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a Washington, DC think tank.

“The clean reading that Andy is showing seems like a pushback against adding more widgets to Search,” he told TechNewsWorld.

Hoover acknowledged that Andy aims to appeal to the younger set, particularly Generation Z. “Gen Z lives in visual feeds and chat apps. My generation spends all their time in conversational interfaces,” she said.

“The key to taking on Google is a conversational interface,” she insisted. “Everyone who has tried to take down Google has been a weak copy with the same amount of massive information, spam, and clutter in the results.”

andy search results

Andy search results (Image credit: Andy)


A search engine that provides answers could also appeal to older people, noted Mark N. Venna, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research in San Jose, Calif.

“In general, users are getting tired of Google’s search algorithms being biased, deterministic and selective,” he told TechNewsWorld.

“Whether that assumption is correct or not,” he continued, “a new search engine that uses common sense language and provides specific answers rather than links could be particularly interesting to older users who have Don’t want to bother reviewing the link. To get an answer to a question or query.”

search option required

However, making people switch search engines is a daunting task. “Google has set the bar really high for web search,” said Danny Goodwin, managing editor of Search Engine Land and SMX, a digital marketing and advertising technology publication.

“The only reason we would need another search engine is if you can provide something better than Google,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Better search results. Better user experience. Better answers. Better whatever.”

Greg Sterling, co-founder of the news, commentary and analysis website Near Media, said there is a lot of information online right now, much of it of low quality.

“Google is trying to respond to growing complaints about the decline in the quality and usability of its search results,” he told TechNewsWorld. “I believe there is an opportunity to deliver a new or better search experience. But this is a big problem and many new search engines copy the look and feel of Google.”

“Google’s partial abandonment in favor of TikTok by some young users,” he said, “is an example of the hunger for something different.”

“It’s hard to get just one answer now,” said Liz Miller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, a technology research and advisory firm in Cupertino, Calif.

“Which one do you see fighting for first in query results is extremely costly for brands and increasingly unpleasant for users,” she told TechNewsWorld. “The reality for many users is that they only want answers to the question they asked. They don’t want easter egg hunts that provide sponsored and level-headed results.”

finding a niche

Kerstin Recker, chief strategy and development officer at Seeker Search Engines, said there are several reasons why alternative search engines exist. “When a search engine controls the majority of the market, it has control over the information most people receive,” she told TechNewsWorld.

“Top search engines all factor engagement in their rankings,” she continued. “The more clicks a result gets, the higher the rank of the result. Most search engines do not take into account the quality of the content.

“Alternative search engines are needed to balance bias and give people more choice and clarity when it comes to information discovery and privacy,” he said.

Chasing the biggest search player to an alternative search engine can be challenging, but not frustrating.

“If you’re going to compete with a major product like Google, you find a niche that Google doesn’t want to cater to — in this case, answering questions — and you come up with a service that does a better job.” does,” explained Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst at Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore.

“It’s usually a successful strategy called sub-targeting,” he told TechNewsWorld.

Andy’s target demographic should also help it gain some traction in the market, Enderle said. “It’s targeting a demographic in which the demographic feels it’s not getting from the primary search engine,” he said.

“One thing about going after the younger demographic is that they are very active on social media,” he continued. “So if a few influencers get excited about it, it can drive a lot of people into it.”

show me money

Providing answers, not lists, isn’t the only way Andy differs from some of its competitors. It does not charge any fees for its service and does not record personally identifiable information about its users.

Hoover explained that the service is looking at several ways to generate revenue, including creating a premium tier of service, offering API services, and partnering with publications. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to partner with tools like Amazon Alexa and other types of voice-powered search,” she said.

However, Duffield said that becoming profitable through organic link referrals and add-on services can be difficult. “Current searches are bundled with advertising for a reason. That’s the way to make money,” he said.