Google Search Experiments With AI-Merged Threads  ## Metadata - Author: [[Hard Fork AI]] - Full Title: Google Search Experiments With AI-Merged Threads - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/71db3529-e71e-4da6-9e51-8fe658d2077b ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Search Becomes Conversational** - Google is testing merging AI overviews with conversational AI mode directly in Search. - This could shift billions of users toward in-search AI interactions instead of separate chat apps. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Google is currently testing, merging their AI overviews with AI mode. Now, this is something very interesting because this could be a massive pivot for the billions of people that use Google every single month. And this is all happening at the same time that OpenAI is going into a quote unquote code red, basically because Gemini is catching up to ChatGPT. They're gaining a ton of ground and the growth of ChatGPT seems to have slowed. I think if google really fully integrates and merges ai overviews with ai mode this is only going to exacerbate the problem for open ai the usage is going to increase and i think this could Be a bad look as open ai is trying to plan for an ipo in the near future so on podcast today we're going to be diving into all of that and talking about the implications not just for open aiAI And their IPO and kind of the market, but also for where we see Google moving into the future and how we see this impacting people's search activity, which is a massive part of the entire Internet that we see today. If you want to try all of the models that we talk about on the show. So today we're talking about a lot of the AI models powered by Gemini. You can go try Gemini and over 40 other different AI models on my platform called AIbox.ai. It's $20 a month and you get access to over 40 models, including audio, image, text. You can compare them all side by side. And instead of having to pay $20 subscriptions to a ton of different platforms, you can just be on one platform and get access to everything and it makes your life a lot easier. So I'll leave a link in the description to AIbox.ai. So I guess like the biggest thing here is that OpenAI recently said, you know, hey, we're in this code red. Sam Altman sent an email or a memo that got leaked, but it went to all of the employees and they're saying that Google has gained ground on them. Now, this is not something that is shocking for a lot of people. We've all been kind of keeping up to date, I think, on the usage metrics of a lot of these different platforms. And it does appear that Gemini is becoming increasingly more popular. And it does appear that OpenAI is kind of slowing down in it. So I think that with this new feature, Google is going to start testing, merging their AI overview. So that's when you do a search on Google and it kind of gives you this AI snippet at the top. And they're going to actually mix it with AI mode in search. That means that users who are going to be searching are going to get the now common AI generated snapshot of key information on a topic or question above their search results. ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f145231f-b230-46a6-b0a9-2b3040cd2099)) - **Use Follow-Ups In Search** - Try asking follow-up questions in Google Search when AI overviews appear to get deeper context. - Use the integrated AI mode to continue conversations instead of switching to a separate chat app. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer And they can actually choose whether they want to go deeper by asking followup questions in a conversational interface. Google calls this kind of conversational feature AI mode. It's launched for US users in May, and it's going to go to global users in August, but essentially allows kind of a back and forth chat to happen using obviously Google's Gemini AI. And it's a very similar experience to ChatGPT, but it's going to happen straight in the search results. It's not just going to be, you know, kind of this summary at the top of your Google results, but it's actually going to let you have an AI conversation. I think getting access to that so far, you've just been required to kind of think ahead of time about what type of questions you were thinking about. And if it was, you know, a more traditional search query, or if one where you could kind of expect to get a quick answer, and then you decide, okay, maybe I should go over to Gemini and ask It if I want to have a conversation or if it's just a quick question, I'll go and stick it into the search box like usual. So now that, you know, now that they're kind of merging these two, you're not going to have to think about going over to Gemini. You'll be able to do all of that directly from Google. So if you're trying to ask these kind of more detailed conversations, we're trying to explore a topic and get more information about it. So more like a learning experience, it's all going to be possible inside of Google, like, you know, we're kind of used to doing on Gemini. Google now wants to test whether or not it makes sense to differentiate the two experiences is kind of the next test that they're doing. I would say just because of the process of getting information, it can lead to like, there's different ways that you might do that. And you might go about that. I think you might have thought, you know, you're starting a simple question a lot of times, then you find yourself like, Oh, man, I actually got to go a lot deeper in that. So it's kind of tricky to know ahead of time, just because sometimes you don't know what you don't know, you ask a question, there's like a hint in there to something further that you need More information on. And so you want to go into a deep conversation about that. So instead of having to do multiple Google searches back to back, you can just have these conversations right inside of there. Robbie Stein, who is working on this project over at Google, recently posted on X and said, today, we're starting to test a new way to seamlessly go deeper on AI mode directly from the Search results page. And then this is going to go out globally as well. He said, this brings us closer to our vision for search. Just ask what's on your mind, no matter how complex or long and find exactly what you need. You shouldn't have to think about where or how to ask your questions. He also said, this means you'll continue to get an AI overview as a helpful starting point. And now you can also ask conversational follow up questions in AI mode right from where you are. ([Time 0:02:21](https://share.snipd.com/snip/03c08f96-cc86-4e26-ab8b-f7909a404010)) - **Hybrid Snapshots And Deep Dives** - The merged experience offers quick snapshots or deeper conversations depending on user needs. - This hybrid approach preserves traditional search tasks while enabling extended exploration. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer It's one seamless experience, a quick snapshot when you need it, and deeper conversations when you want it. I actually love this because I think a lot of people have kind of talked about the fact that, oh man, like so many people are using chat GPT, Google's going to need to completely convert Over to be just basically a ChatGPT response where you just get these kind of these AI results. But I think a lot of ways I use Google today, I'm like trying to remember the name of a company and I'm like a company that does these like things and then the website will pop up and I'm like, Perfect, I click on it. Like I just wanna get to the website because I'm doing something on the website. I don't need information about the company really. And so there's like a lot of those types of use cases where Chat GPT just doesn't make a lot of sense. And I will still go to Google for them. But there's also a lot of cases where I just want to chat GPT response. So I think this really merges the best of both worlds on there. ([Time 0:04:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1caee73e-6383-48df-a001-3a26b09c5439)) - **Scale Meets Conversation** - Google already has massive scale with AI overviews reaching billions of monthly users. - Combining that scale with Gemini's chat capabilities creates a strong competitive edge vs. OpenAI. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer This rollout is now coming at the same time that there's a huge push inside of OpenAI, right? Because they're delaying a bunch of their products for this code red that they have. OpenAI was gonna put out ads. They had like an ads for their free tier, which is gonna generate more revenue. They've put that on hold. They're just trying to make their models better. And it feels like Google really is moving ahead and getting a ton more adoption on their Gemini model in a way that has OpenAI concerned. I think a lot of this is, you know, Gemini's nano banana image model and a lot of other Gemini improvements because of that Gemini has grown to over 650 million monthly users as of this Month or as of last month, I believe. And I think with all of that, I'm putting these two together, right? AI Overviews has 2 billion monthly users. I mean, that's basically just everyone on Google. But I think that's going to give Gemini a really big edge for consumer adoption. If people get used to, like right now, it's kind of like, oh yeah, I see these AI overviews and they're sort of useful. But if it goes from that to like, oh, let me ask it a question, all of a sudden, you're not going to ChatGPT to have these long conversations. You're doing them all there. ([Time 0:05:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a158de12-e875-472f-ad34-b2202993b9a7)) - **Gemini Gains From Search Reach** - Integrating Gemini into Search could accelerate consumer adoption of Google's AI. - Familiar in-search AI prompts may reduce users' need to visit standalone chat platforms like ChatGPT. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer This rollout is now coming at the same time that there's a huge push inside of OpenAI, right? Because they're delaying a bunch of their products for this code red that they have. OpenAI was gonna put out ads. They had like an ads for their free tier, which is gonna generate more revenue. They've put that on hold. They're just trying to make their models better. And it feels like Google really is moving ahead and getting a ton more adoption on their Gemini model in a way that has OpenAI concerned. I think a lot of this is, you know, Gemini's nano banana image model and a lot of other Gemini improvements because of that Gemini has grown to over 650 million monthly users as of this Month or as of last month, I believe. And I think with all of that, I'm putting these two together, right? AI Overviews has 2 billion monthly users. I mean, that's basically just everyone on Google. But I think that's going to give Gemini a really big edge for consumer adoption. ([Time 0:05:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/18d8c640-a41b-4e4c-9b0c-dd69ab87735a)) - **OpenAI's Code Red Moment** - Jaeden recounts OpenAI's 'code red' memo due to Gemini catching up to ChatGPT. - He links this internal push to delays in OpenAI's planned product launches and ads. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Because they're delaying a bunch of their products for this code red that they have. OpenAI was gonna put out ads. They had like an ads for their free tier, which is gonna generate more revenue. They've put that on hold. They're just trying to make their models better. And it feels like Google really is moving ahead and getting a ton more adoption on their Gemini model in a way that has OpenAI concerned. ([Time 0:05:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3db758b0-e9fc-4140-b36d-be357a70d8eb)) - **Search Quality Could Decide Winners** - If Google delivers better task completion inside Search, users will prefer it over ChatGPT for many use cases. - OpenAI risks losing usage unless it improves search-like capabilities or differentiates strongly. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer I think it's gonna have a lot of implications for how people use search. I think we're gonna start moving more towards this hybrid approach. Sometimes you'll want a conversation with a chat model and other times you're looking for a website or a specific service or software that you're going to go and move off, you know, out Away from the AI model and onto a different service as soon as possible. So this really gives you the best, the best user experience. And if this gives you better user experience, then then chat GPT, right? Because it's not very often that on chat GPT, I'm like, hey, what's the website that does like this and this and then it like pops it up and I click on it and move on, right? Usually ChatGPT is like asking questions and chatting. And so if Google does a better job of that, I think this is a place where more users, if they can get the best of both worlds on Gemini, they're going to use Google and Gemini to complete their Tasks. And OpenAI will suffer unless OpenAI can get a little bit better with the search that Google is so famous for and that is currently dominating it. ([Time 0:06:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5550f9dc-4b87-47b9-9de6-6f1fb7dba5e2))