Out of all the announcements we have seen at the 2024 Google I/O event, the AI Overview announcement has been the one that will have the most impact on Google search and SEO in the coming months.
This is a continuation of the path marked by the launch of SGE that we already reviewed in this blog at the time. Of course, SGE and Ai Overview are not the same and this has been explained by Hema Budaraju herself, one of those in charge of SGE.
Apart from the announcement at the event, they have released an official publication at this link.
What is Ai Overview
Ai Overview is a technology with AI from the Google search engine that will make the search easier for the user since it uses Artificial Intelligence to speed up the presentation of the answer to a query.
This is a functionality to respond directly to the user in the search engine, preventing them from having to navigate between the classic blue links.
It is a step forward compared to everything we have been able to experience in recent months with SGE. The model promises to solve very long tail queries. Really long as you can see in this image.
Other features that have been announced are the following:
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Helps when planning tasks or actions. In the example they have shared, you can see how from the search engine they plan a series of easy-to-prepare meals.
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Get inspired through search results organized ad hoc and classified with AI-generated headlines to organize information
Google Search via Video with Ai Overviews
This has been a really big thing. In the example they have used, they have asked directly with a video through Google Lens in the search engine how to fix a record player and the AI has generated an answer directly in the search engine. Of course, adding some links.
The response of some SEOs to everything that Google has just published
The impact on the SEO community and the general marketing world has been notorious.
Some SEOs such as Juan González Villa have highlighted the fact that trying to answer such precise questions directly from the search engine by Google will lead the search engine to invent a lot of information.
Others like Barry Schwartz have spoken out in reputable media such as Search Engine Land with somewhat worrying messages. In fact, the main problem is what we are going to see below.
It will be very difficult to measure the impact of Google Ai Overview results on the websites
Google itself has assured that it will begin to include information on impressions and clicks in Google Search Console soon but that it will not be possible to distinguish between the responses generated by the traditional search engine and Ai Overview.
When it comes to measuring the impact on the websites, this is going to be problematic.
Of course, Google itself has also ensured that the CTR on the links in the Ai Overview results is higher than that of the “normal” results. In a similar way to what happens with rich snippets.
What is clear is that the AI engine in Google search is not going to stop. We are facing an evolution of the search engine whether we like it or not.
