Google AI Overviews Reaches UK One Month After SearchGPT Pilot – Updates Similar To OpenAI Model
AI search is transforming the way people access information online. Photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash.
Key Takeaways
- Google has expanded AI Overviews to users in the UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil.
- The extended rollout comes a month after OpenAI launched a pilot of SearchGPT.
- Both platforms compete in the emerging market for AI search products.
Google’s AI Overviews feature, has officially launched in six new countries, including the UK, just one month after OpenaI started piloting SearchGPT.
Two years after ChatGPT changed the way people access information online forever, the two new platforms make the competition between OpenAI and Google explicit.
AI-Powered Search
First unveiled in May, Google’s AI Overviews enhances search results with AI-generated summaries of web content, compiling information from multiple sources to make it easier to retrieve information.
The feature got off to a rocky start after users reported a host of bizarre and sometimes dangerous responses. But Google has stuck to its guns and continues to expand its offering.
As of Thursday, Aug. 15, AI Overviews is available to users in the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil – along with local language support in each country.
AI Overviews vs. SearchGPT
The competition for AI Search dominance ramped up a gear when OpenAI started piloting SearchGPT in July.
At heart, both products offer a similar service, deploying the two companies’ respective foundation models to make search more intelligent. But they approach the technology from different angles.
For Google, AI overviews in embedded as a new widget within the existing search engine results page.
On the other hand, with SearchGPT, OpenAI has branched out from ChatGPT’s characteristic text outputs, incorporating images, links, and alternative ways of displaying information in the new search product.
As far as capturing web traffic goes, Google has a distinct advantage. Google Search is installed by default on some of the most popular browsers and operating systems in the world and many people use it as their go-to search engine out of habit.
If SearchGPT is ever to become as popular, it will require changing search patterns that have been established for decades.
Future Updates
As part of Thursday’s updates, Google has started rolling out a feature that provides an expanded view of website content directly in the search feed.
The firm is also testing in-text links to provide a more intuitive way of accessing information sources. The planned update will bring AI Overviews in line with SearchGPT, which provides links as citations embedded within the relevant part of the answer.
As the two products continue to evolve, Google and OpenAI’s design choices and how they are received by users could inform how AI search is delivered going forward.
