AI – The end of the era ‘type keyword’ of google

Modern technology users understand what “Google” is something. They enter a few keywords in the search box and get a list of blue links that lead to the most appropriate results, which can be accompanied by a few quick explanations above, maps or videos. Basically, this process is only collecting information available on the Internet and displaying neatly.

But society is at a new point. Right now, the biggest change in the way search engines that provide information to people since the 1990s are taking place. Users do not need to type keywords or consider links to click anymore.

Instead, people are entering the era of conversation. This means, instead of keywords, users enter practical questions, express in natural language. And instead of the link list, users will receive an answer by artificial intelligence (AI) written based on direct information from all sources on the internet.

Development history of search engines

Archie is the first real Internet search engine. It glides through the previous files hidden in remote servers. Archie said the names of these files, but did not indicate the content and images inside, and did not have the results of the results.

After that, Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web, and all kinds of websites sprouted up. The number of websites gradually becomes so big that users are confused and need better to find the necessary things. Therefore, in 1994, Jerry Yang created Yahoo – a list of websites and quickly became the homepage of millions.

But the website continues to grow and expand, bringing more online information every day. Instead of listing websites according to items, users need a tool that really looks at content and statistics. In the late 1990s, many search engines were born to serve this such as Altavista, Alltheweb, Webcrawler and Hotbot.

Along with the development of search engines is the first efforts to exploit their ability to provide traffic. Website publishers rely on valuable traffic to sell ads, while retailers use traffic to draw attention to their goods. Sometimes they crammed the meaningless keywords or text just to push the website higher in search results, making users feel uncomfortable.

When launched in 1998, Google created a revolution. Instead of just scanning, it also considers sources of link to a website, helping to assess the level of relevance and appropriate. This breakthrough helps Google surpass all the previous tools in retrieving related results.

During 25 years, Google dominated search segment on the Internet. For most users, Google is the definition of “search”.

Who changes the way people are looking for on the internet

Google has “evolved” over time. For a long time, this tool not only provides a series of blue links but also has images, videos, excerpts, sports results and other information.

But now, who brings a big change and Google is making an effort to apply AI to search on the Internet. In May 2023, the company tested the answers to the search queries. They use their large language model (LLM) to provide the answer that users can expect from a source of expert or a reliable friend.

Google calls these answers overview. Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, considering this as one of the most positive changes they have made with searching for a long time.

Ai Overviews basically changes the query types that Google can handle. Now users can ask questions such as: “I will stay in Japan for a week next month. I am in Tokyo but want to take a few trips of the day. Is there a festival that takes place nearby? What will Kamakura be like? Is there any quality band to perform? “

And they will receive feedback, not a link, but a full answer. The answer is not like a database query, but like asking a smart, knowledgeable friend.

Users can try to search for almost impossible things before, and get the correct answer. They do not need to express exactly what they want to search. For example, users can describe the bird in the yard, the problem with the refrigerator, or the strange noise that the car emits, and receives a synthetic explanation from previously isolated sources on the Internet. Once you try to search that way, users may be “addicted”.

Not only Google, Openai’s chatgpt also has access to the website, allowing to find more updated answers for user questions. Microsoft launched AI search results for Bing in September 2024. Meta also has its own version. Startup Perplexity is doing the same thing with the motto “advance quickly, break everything”. Companies are betting trillions of dollars in the race to become the next dominant information search – the next Google.

AI’s future development

Not everyone is excited about the change that AI brings. Website publishers are worried about losing traffic from clicking the link that Google introduces. The content that has been paid to reach, can now appear in AI’s public answer.

Users are also worried about the authenticity of the answer that AI provides. Large linguistic models (LLM) may be confused, fabricated, or imagined nonsense. Whoever creates can provide a completely new answer for the same question with each time, or provide different answers for each person based on understanding that person.

Another risk is that users can ask strange, sometimes illegal things, such as how to make bombs. Therefore, AI must be extremely careful to avoid giving harmful answers.

The developers are still trying to overcome these issues, including increasing authentication in whose answers. Regarding access, Pichai said that there is no need to worry because even in Ai Overviews’s era, many people will still want to click the link to find out more deeply. According to Liz Reid, expert at Google, Ai Overviews allows people to ask more complicated and deeper questions on what they want. Therefore, this tool is even useful for some publishers and small businesses, helping them reach new customers.

The way the search engine provides answers is also changing rapidly. For example, today Google not only helps find text, images, videos, but can even create them. Users can request: “Let me see what a Townsend’s Warbler bird looks like on the top of the tree.”

AI’s ability is increasingly expanding. Last summer, Google performed the new Project Astra tool, allowing the camera, microphone in the phone and smart glass to understand the context around the user, capable of recalling and feedback in many ways. For example, Astra can look at the rough drawings of a F1 racing car, identify it, explain the parts and usage.

In the future, with the ability to get data from the Internet in real time, who can do more things for humans. When the user is about to take a trip that lasts a few days, it will collect existing data, book flights, hotel rooms, dinner reservations … based on users’ knowledge and the upcoming trip Come without this person to guide. Anyone can monitor the family wastewater to detect pathogens, order tests and treatments, even rely on the strange noise that cars emit to schedule repair.