Google and Microsoft have embarked on a race for artificial intelligence to reinvent the way we search the web. This could have a huge impact on the content published on the web.
The Web is currently experiencing one of its major turning points. After the arrival of the participative Web (or Web 2.0) and Web 3 supposed to decentralize Internet, it is today artificial intelligence which invites itself with forced march in our digital daily life. Unlike NFTs or the blockchain, these are concrete and visible uses for ordinary mortals, aimed at simplifying uses.
These characteristics are essential to the mass adoption of a new standard; if only insiders understand the interest of a novelty, it will be difficult to have it adopted by the greatest number. By greatly simplifying our way of searching on the Web, artificial intelligence speaks to everyone and therefore has all the weapons in hand to impose itself.
Microsoft and Google seek the web revolution
For 20 years, the search engine has not evolved. With its robots that roam the web and its algorithms, Google buried its competition at the time (Yahoo, Lycos, Altavista, etc.). Today, the other search engines share a small market share and try to stand out above all through their ethics. We think for example of Ecosia which puts ecology forward, or Brave which promises greater respect for privacy.
The year 2023 is nevertheless full of surprises and now both Microsoft and Google are looking to reinvent search. The first with its new Bing, integrating ChatGPT, and the second with Bard, a conversational robot designed to improve Google’s search engine.
Behind these two technologies, the same idea: to use artificial intelligence to offer a response directly to the user, rather than links to sites containing information, like ChatGPT.
Google Bard // Source: Google
Microsoft Bing // Source: Microsoft
As we have seen, the AI is far from infallible at the moment and it will take some time before the answers of these two tools are reliable enough to be taken seriously. It seems obvious, however, that in the long term, this model will prevail for the most common uses.
A change of business model
Such a radical change will require reviewing the economic model of certain activities. In the screenshot of Bard presented by Google, it is clear that the page is uncluttered and devoid of advertisements and third-party results. A point that Microsoft has also raised in its own conference by recalling that its economic model is not based today on this.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, Google Search represents $42.6 billion turnover out of the company’s 76 billion. The answer visible above will therefore certainly be found under advertising inserts, or punctuated by them, if Google does not wish to radically divide its income.
The other possible possibility is the integration of sponsored content in the responses of these algorithms. However, such manipulation would totally lose the credibility of these conversational robots.
Remember also that the power required for this kind of tool is much more expensive than for simple link directories. If Microsoft and Google can afford to maintain a loss-making service (YouTube took years to be profitable), surely a return on investment will be sought.
Expensive intellectual property
Beyond that, what raises questions is the question of intellectual property. The information regurgitated by these conversational tools does not come from Google or Microsoft, but from third-party sites. Media, encyclopedias, blogs… several sources are thus skimmed over to bring out an organized summary.
Google and Facebook already use information from certain sites on their pages. Users then no longer need to visit the site in question. One less click means one less ad display, and therefore less revenue for the source.
The question of copyright and intellectual property has thus been raised on several occasions, this is called the neighboring right. On small elements, this only represents a few clicks, the complete information being always to be found on the source site, but with the arrival of these robots, this effect is likely to be felt even more.
The example of Frandroid
To illustrate the problem, we are going to take a very concrete case that we can talk about perfectly well: that of Frandroid. During the presentation of its new Bing, Microsoft gave the example of a person looking for a gaming TV. Bing then makes it possible to obtain an answer without going to a site. From the user’s point of view, it’s a revolution. From the perspective of Forbes or of Tom’s Guide, serving as main sources, this is one less income. Cooking recipe sites are obviously in the same situation.
However, this content was created by the sites in question, and it represents a cost to produce. For example, on Frandroid, we have several full-time people dedicated to product recommendations. And other formats are obviously concerned, like our tutorials which can be used by these algorithms, whether we like it or not.
Tests, shopping guides, tutorials… these are called ” cold contents“, decorrelated from the news called “hotand a large part of the traffic comes from… Google. In the case ofFrandroidthe majority of our audience comes directly from Google and the implementation of these tools could well cause our traffic to drop, and therefore our income, without compensation from these Silicon Valley giants.
For our part, we are looking to the future with these tools and we want to offer ever more qualitative content to our readership, so we are already starting to reinvent our place on the Web to adapt. How many, on the other hand, will be surprised?
A difficult transformation
Let’s take out our crystal ball to consider what’s next. Google and Bing launch their solutions on a large scale, traffic from search engines drastically reduced for many sites whose survival depends on the display of advertisements. They will then be forced to react urgently to find this lost audience.
In addition to search engines, there are other sources of traffic, including social networks or news aggregators such as Google Discover, Google News or Apple News. On these platforms, algorithms are often (but not always) kings and define who will be promoted or not.
To be promoted, as on TikTok, a large number of people must have seen the article, stopped on it and interacted with it, by clicking on it for example. This therefore risks pushing inelegant practices to gain visibility (the third will surprise you).
As was the case with other major developments in the sector, we will certainly see new economic models emerge (or old ones, such as subscription), types of content more suited to this new paradigm and a transformation of the Web such as that we know him. This change will certainly not be smooth and the less agile players risk disappearing or at least having to reduce their size.
Of course, the Web will always need journalists and content creators, AI will not replace these professions, but it will undoubtedly reinvent them.
Do you use Google News (News in France)? You can follow your favorite media. Follow Frandroid on Google News (And Numerama).
