The Search for Generative Experience and Content Concerns
Google’s new use of generative AI in its search engine, known as Search Generative Experience (SGE), has raised a significant concern: the future of content. The pressing question is whether people will stop creating web content because SGE automatically generates answers from existing content. In this article, I explore how SGE utilizes content and present three reasons why human-created content will not disappear from the web.
How SGE Uses Content
SGE is integrated into Google’s search engine (currently only in the U.S.) as an explanatory section below the search bar. SGE provides its answers by extracting content from various websites, allowing it to respond to extensive and detailed queries.
As a result, users can stay on Google to read the explanation generated by SGE, located just below the search bar and above the usual search results. This might discourage users from visiting the listed websites, as the information they seek is directly available on Google. This convenience raises the question:
Will creators stop producing web content because of SGE?
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has addressed this issue in an interview with Nilay Patel on The Decoder. Pichai maintains that web content creation will continue. It is reasonable to believe he is correct. Here, I present my analysis of why users will continue creating web content, supporting Pichai’s assumptions. Three factors are at play:
- The Inflated Value Proposition of GenAI
Generative AI was promoted as a “new dawn for search” by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in February 2023, when Microsoft partnered with OpenAI. However, 17 months later, it is clear that Bing has not gained a significant market share from Google. The anticipated radical change in search has not occurred. SGE is a more moderate expression of conversational search, integrated into the search bar rather than as a separate chatbot. This indicates a less significant impact on global search behavior and suggests that SGE will not substantially exploit web content, implying that content creation will continue.
- Information-Seeking Behavior
Although users might stay on Google reading SGE-generated explanations, it is unlikely that this will completely replace navigating to original sources. Studies on information-seeking behavior show that people look for quality information and can be drawn to well-crafted content on external websites, rather than being satisfied with an SGE-generated answer, which may lack depth and accuracy.
- The General Decline of the Web
Many companies are using generative AI to create content on their websites, aiming to improve their ranking in traditional search engines. This content, often irrelevant, is intended to manipulate search algorithms. However, this has led to a decline in the quality of search results. The introduction of SGE could be seen as Google’s attempt to manage this overload of low-quality content. Despite this, human-created content remains valuable and necessary to maintain the quality and relevance of information on the web.
Conclusion
It is unlikely that SGE will make high-quality human-created content disappear from the web for three main reasons:
- SGE reflects an inflated value proposition of GenAI. The promise of a “new dawn for search” has not materialized.
- Studies on information-seeking behavior suggest that users will continue to seek out high-quality sources beyond SGE-generated answers.
- SGE is only a part of a broader GenAI ecosystem, whose commercial value will diminish without the ongoing contribution of human-created content.
What’s Next?
Stay tuned for my upcoming article on the Search Generative Experience, where I will analyze what SGE might mean for data catalogs and enterprise search engines.
By: Nestor Castillo, ForAllTechNews Director