SearchGPT Prototype

OpenAI has launched a prototype called SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine with real-time access to information across the internet. This prototype aims to enhance the search experience by combining conversational AI capabilities with up-to-date online data, ensuring users get relevant results with clear source attributions.

For now, SearchGPT is just a prototype, OpenAI plans to integrate the best features of it into ChatGPT. If you're eager to try SearchGPT, you can sign up for the waitlist. But according to OpenAI this is what the new thing will be about:

• Real-Time Answers: Get fast, accurate responses directly from the web.
• Clear Sources: Each answer includes links to relevant sources.
• User Interaction: Engage in a conversational manner, asking follow-up questions for more detailed information.
• Publisher Partnerships: Collaborating with publishers to highlight high-quality content and provide more choices.

OpenAI's SearchGPT would potentially be challenging Google's dominance. Google has rapidly integrated AI into its search engine to prevent users from switching to competitors that adopt these tools first. For example, a feature called "AI Overviews" that generates concise summaries of search topics at the top of results pages.

Plus, SearchGPT would be fighting direct competition with Perplexity, a startup positioning itself as an AI "answer" engine (which I personally am using daily). Perplexity recently faced criticism for its AI summaries feature, with publishers accusing it of plagiarizing their content. 

OpenAI seemed to have taken note of this, other AI-related lawsuits and the fact that many publishers are seeking AI bot crawling blockers, and says it is developing a responsible and publisher-friendly search tool. Publishers would be able to manage how their content appears and choose not to have their data used for AI training, while still being featured in search results.

For more details, visit OpenAI’s announcement.

Adapting to the Changes of Search Engines and SEO

This all sounds exciting and a bit scary for anyone involved in publishing and SEO. It is clearly changing in front of our eyes and any change is a bit painful and frightening. But ... as they say, it's 'adapt or die'. We'll keep our finger on the pulse and stay curious as we try to stay afloat in these stormy times.

Thing is, I myself am using mobile ChatGPT sometimes as a search engine, quickly asking it some questions. It's even good as image search, even better than Google Lens which failed to idenify this weed that was growing in my yard, which ChatGPT recognized and gave me information on it straight away and was ready to ask any follow-up questions. Whether we—as publishers or SEO specialists—like it or not, human laziness and convenience win every single time.

Back in the day, Google was adopted in part because it was a rather clean, white page with a damn search bar in the middle, a bold and straightforward approach in the days when the average search engine looked like a cluttered mess, with small text and images and annoying flashing ads crammed everywhere. Suddenly something so much more simple and easy to use. Google became the winner. Of course, later on it brought ads back into the game and now the top results you see in Google are paid searches. Oh well, such is life, human nature, business practices - whatever it is, chances are this scenario will repeat in one way or another. We'll have to live and see...

If you're keen to learn how search engines evolved over time, look at the goofy website layouts, I recommend checking this article (The Complete History of Search Engines).

meanwhile...

Bing Launches New Generative Search

Bing has introduced a new search feature that uses generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to create dynamic responses. This combines AI-generated content with traditional search results, giving detailed and easy-to-understand answers with source links.

For example, a search for "spaghetti westerns" will provide a full overview of the genre. The goal is to improve search accuracy while keeping website traffic and user engagement high. Bing is gradually rolling out this feature and is asking for user feedback to make it better before a wider release.