Searching with AI: Can Google lose the new battle over search?
OpenAI has recently launched ChatGPT Search, a proprietary online search engine that will provide quick and relevant answers with links to sources - something that previously required a visit to a search engine such as Google or Bing. Access to the new service will be available to all users of the free tariff within a few months.
The search model is based on the revised GPT-4o, supplemented by synthetic data methods. The search itself uses data from the Bing search engine and direct content from partners. ChatGPT will automatically detect when a user needs a web search based on their queries. The function can also be launched manually by clicking on the web search icon.
As you know, OpenAI has a long-standing partnership with Microsoft, which owns the Bing search engine. For many years, the corporation has been dreaming of seizing leadership in the search industry. In 2023, the media reported that the battle for the AI-based search engine championship between two giants - Google and Microsoft - had begun. "After six years of dormancy, the two tech giants are back on track to fight for the future of artificial intelligence. Microsoft is about to face Google in a battle for the future of search," The Verge wrote at the time.
It seems that ChatGPT Search will increase competition, but will it affect Google's "search monopoly"? There are even posts on social media that ChatGPT Search could become Google's killer. We asked Google itself and AI experts about this and tried to figure out what will happen to Internet search in the future. We also collected 15+ new/old search engines for those who like alternatives.
Lawsuits, scandals and criticism of Google
Google currently offers almost all major Internet services: search, email, maps, analytics, cloud storage, online documents, a popular browser, video hosting, and smartphone OS. Many people are accustomed to these services, and they are used by millions of users.
At the same time, there are many critics of Google's activities. They talk about: misuse and manipulation of search results; market monopoly and violation of relevant laws of different countries; possible tax evasion; use of other people's intellectual property and patent infringement; excessive collection of user data that may violate their privacy; cooperation with the US military, in particular within Google Earth, to spy on users; censorship of search results, etc. Wikipedia even has a whole section on Criticism of Google.
In August 2024, the U.S. District Court found Google guilty of violating antitrust laws in its search business, which is the company's oldest and most important. This decision is perhaps the most important case in the tech sector in the last 20 years. According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Department of Justice is considering breaking up Google after a court ruled that the company monopolized online search and advertising.
The D.C. court's ruling states that the company has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to ensure its search engine's dominant position on smartphones and web browsers around the world. These contracts gave Google the ability to block potential competitors such as Microsoft Bing and DuckDuckGo. In addition, it was noted that Google also charges high prices for search advertising. This reflects its monopoly power in this area.
On September 10, 2024, the American tech giant Google lost a $2.67 billion antitrust case in the EU. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg upheld the antitrust fine imposed seven years ago on Google's parent company (Alphabet) for using its own price comparison service. The court found that such an advantage over smaller European competitors was unfair. This court decision set a precedent. This fine is one of three fines imposed by the European Commission on Google over 10 years for various violations of antitrust laws, which have cost the company $9.2 billion in total.
A few days later, Google won an appeal against another fine of $1.67 billion imposed by the European Commission for violating competition rules. On September 18, 2024, it was reported that the EU's general court had canceled the fine. The European Commission, which is likely to appeal, said it had taken the court's decision into account, would carefully study it, and would consider possible next steps. Brussels still has a case against Google related to its dominance in the advertising technology market. Last year, the EU also threatened to split the company to address competition concerns. Google may have to sell part of its lucrative advertising business to avoid accusations of anti-competitive behavior.
We can also mention the scandalous lawsuit against Google that was filed in 2020. Back then, the company was accused of tracking users' actions even when using incognito mode. Already in 2024, the tech giant agreed to settle the lawsuit. According to The Wall Street Journal, in order to avoid paying $5 billion in damages, Google agreed to destroy "billions of data points," update information about data collection, and maintain settings that block third-party cookies in incognito mode for the next five years.
In December 2023, the American computer game manufacturer Epic Games won a lawsuit against Google. The company was accused of suppressing competitors and charging unreasonably high fees of up to 30% from app developers. If the appeal is rejected, it could have far-reaching consequences. Prior to this, Android app developers had no choice but to agree to Google's terms.
As we can see, the tech giant has a lot of serious challenges, but this does not prevent Google from maintaining its "search leadership" in the world. Search remains Google's most important product, accounting for 57% of the company's $80 billion in revenues in Q1 2024.
In recent years, it has become increasingly common to hear the opinion that Google search has become worse. Users complain that it is increasingly difficult for them to find the information they need, and the search results often do not match their queries. According to Mashable, in 2023, researchers from several German universities conducted a study that examined the quality of Google search results. They tracked 7392 requests for product reviews over the course of a year.
The study showed that a significant number of results in Google search results were low-quality content created to promote goods and services. This content was often poorly written, contained a lot of spam and advertising, and was irrelevant. The researchers concluded that Google searches have indeed become worse, and this is due to the spread of SEO spam. This is content that is specially created to increase the ranking of websites in search engines. Often, such content has no value for users, but it can be effective in promoting websites.
There is also concern that Google's AI could kill search and publishers' businesses. This feature of the company, originally called Search Generative Experience, directly answers queries with comprehensive, multi-paragraph answers, pushing links to external sites further down the page and reducing their visibility. This development could significantly disrupt the web system. Millions of publishers who depend on Google traffic could be at risk of losing their business.
According to a study by the American company SparkToro, in 2024, almost 60% of Google searches are completed without clicking. At the same time, about 30% of clicks worldwide are directed to Google resources. A clickless search occurs when a user ends a session or enters a new query without clicking on any results.
During the Google I/0 conference in May 2024, the company announced the launch of AI Overviews, formerly known as Search Generative Experience. These are blocks of information generated by artificial intelligence that are displayed at the top of the screen and immediately provide the user with an answer to his or her query. The new search engine is based on the Gemini model, an artificial intelligence developed specifically for Google search. Gemini combines features such as multi-step reasoning, planning, and multimodal capabilities.
Later, the tech giant announced its intention to display ads in AI Overviews. Advertising inserts will be labeled as "sponsored" and displayed based on the user's search query and information in the AI review.
However, complaints about the AI Overviews search soon appeared online. According to users, the company's product advised to put glue on a pizza or eat stones. Such "hallucinatory" effects became a cause for memes, so the company tried to remove some of the new search results. After that, Google began to customize AI Overviews more carefully and impose more restrictions on AI Overviews.
Meanwhile, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes that artificial intelligence will "kill" Google Search and Amazon. He emphasizes the potential of AI to change the economy and human behavior. According to the businessman and billionaire, the day is not far off when there will be no need to visit search engines or online markets.
"People started writing about ChatGPT becoming a Google killer right after the tool was released. Microsoft (based on Bing) and Perplexity have also launched answer generation based on search results. Google's Gemini also implements search engines. However, despite the huge number of users of third-party services, the end of Google's monopoly is not in sight," Oleksandr Krakovetskyi, CEO at DevRain, CTO at DonorUA, and author of a book on how generative AI is changing the world, told us.
According to him, there are several reasons for this: inertia in terms of user behavior - a small number of them are ready to experiment and quickly change the usual tools; many queries are simple and the answer can be found in Google search even without going to certain sites - it works quickly and reliably; people write many queries directly in third-party services such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Wikipedia, etc.; the effect of "hallucinating" large language models is still a problem.
"Oddly enough, search based on generative artificial intelligence tools is still poor. Only Perplexity (subjectively) stands out. ChatGPT, even with the update, is still (again, subjectively) not up to par and does not look like a game changer. And we shouldn't forget that Google is also not sitting still and is gradually improving its generative artificial intelligence technologies, although it remains in the role of a catch-up player. However, if a few years ago Google was a monopolist, now the competition is definitely starting to intensify and other companies have a chance to shake the hegemon," said Oleksandr Krakovetskyi.
However, Alexey Minakov, a Consultant & Educator in Generative AI, told us that Google has actually already announced a so-called "code red" to mobilize in response to OpenAI's actions. "They perceive it as a potential threat themselves. This doesn't mean that tomorrow everyone will be 'chatting' instead of 'Googling'. There is a certain inertia of behavior and habits. But this creates risks for the company in the long run. The seriousness of these risks can be evidenced by the dynamics of Perplexity service popularity (a cross between Google and ChatGPT), which increased 7 times in the first part of the year. Therefore, only time will tell whether ChatGPT or another AI service will become a Google killer," the expert noted and added that the tech giant is not standing still and is still trying to respond to these challenges.
However, according to the expert, Google's response has not been very successful so far: for example, AI Overview has not been very successful, and Gemini lags behind ChatGPT in terms of both popularity and functionality. "Historically, Google has its own strong foundation, especially in terms of website indexing, and ChatGPT Search still uses third-party solutions and data from partners to provide up-to-date information. There is an obvious trend to change the traditional search, when we write something and get a list of websites - it is much more convenient to get an answer to a question immediately and go to the source if necessary," explained Olexiy Minakov.
According to Tetyana Lukinyuk, Director of Google Ukraine, search has always been and remains a competitive space. "With every technological shift and the emergence of new search engines, we've continued to expand the capabilities of Search. We've been using AI for more than a decade to continually expand the ways we can help people find information, from more natural query understanding to forms like voice search and visual search through Google Lens, and most recently, generative AI. People want quick access to information and the ability to dive deeper into the web - and Google Search delivers all of that while continuing to drive traffic to a variety of sites. Over the past 25 years, we've also realized that search is not as easy as it seems," Tetyana Lukinyuk told us.
She also noted that the company continues to focus on making Google even more useful for people, while maintaining a high bar for a reliable, high-quality experience.
Commenting on SparkToro's research on the low number of clicks for Google searches (above), Olexandr Krakovetsky attributed this to the fact that many queries are simple, so the answer can be obtained without going to a particular site.
"Answers are displayed in snippets, including queries such as time conversion from one time zone to another, explanations of terms or phenomena, questions about the weather, dates, facts, etc., which is the lion's share of queries. You can often get the answer by analyzing the first page of search results. It should be remembered that website developers have been optimizing their sites for Google for decades, so the company has a lot of exclusive data that no one else has. Is Google getting worse? I can't agree with that. Of course, there are certain nuances, for example, the problem with the Russian language, which Google pushes even when the settings are turned off, but globally, Google remains a top product, both from a technical and economic point of view," the expert concluded.
Google also commented on this study. According to the tech giant, it is based on a flawed methodology. "Google Search generates billions of visits to websites every day. We place a high value on the open web and are continuously improving Search to help businesses, publishers, and content creators grow. This study is based on flawed methodology that misinterprets how people search for information online. For example, this study does not take into account the numerous cases when people refine their search queries because they do not find what they are looking for on the first try," explained the head of Google Ukraine.
Artificial intelligence and new/old search engines
According to the research company Gartner, by 2026, web traffic from search engines will decrease by 25% due to artificial intelligence-based chatbots and other virtual agents. Ross Hudgens, CEO of SEO consulting company Siege Media, predicts a 10-20% drop in traffic for many publishers, and some will face an even bigger drop. "Some businesses will be killed," he said.
What are these chatbots and new AI-powered search engines that are going to intensify competition in this area in the near future? Below is a list of the most interesting ones.
ChatGPT Search
OpenAI's search engine, which works directly in the chatbot, is available on chatgpt.com, as well as in ChatGPT desktop and mobile applications. This solution will allow users to obtain information directly during a dialog with the AI without leaving the platform. The feature is currently available to users of ChatGPT Plus and Team paid subscriptions and those on the SearchGPT waiting list. Over the next few weeks, it will be available to Enterprise and Education users, and over the next few months to all free users. ChatGPT answers include links to sources, such as news articles and blogs, making it easy to research further. Users can click the Sources button to view a sidebar with links.
Bing
Microsoft's search engine. Currently, Bing is the second most popular search engine in the world in terms of traffic. In 2023, a new version of the Bing search engine was introduced, which was expanded with the help of AI: it is now powered by technologies from Microsoft and OpenAI, including GPT-4, the most advanced large-scale Logic Learning Machine language model, and DALL-E, a deep learning model for creating digital images from language descriptions. Thus, the basic search indexing performance was improved by applying the AI model to the main search algorithm. Artificial intelligence also supplements search results with written annotations. Users can also ask questions to the search engine using images, see the history of the chat, export answers to Word, and personalize the style and tone of the Microsoft Copilot AI chatbot's responses.
Perplexity
A search engine based on generative artificial intelligence that delivers results using a chatbot-style interface. A feature of Perplexity AI search engine is the ability to process large amounts of data using different language models. It is about the integration of solutions from OpenAI and Meta. This allows Perplexity to provide users with accurate and substantiated answers to queries with mandatory links to sources. According to Perplexity AI, the web search engine is used by just over 10 million people every month. So far, the service is free of charge, but you can expand the functionality for $20 per month.
Yahoo! Search
The Yahoo! search engine is one of the oldest in the industry, having been launched back in 1995. Its main feature is that it has never performed page crawling and indexing operations on its own. At first, it used an index from Inktomi, then from Google, and since 2009, Yahoo! has been powered by Bing.
According to various estimates, Yahoo! Search is the third or fourth most popular website of its kind in the world. In 2024, Yahoo acquired the AI-based news platform Artifact from the co-founders of Instagram and is going to implement its technology on news and other websites. As it is known, Yahoo owns the news brands TechCrunch, Engadget, and Yahoo Finance. The corporation said that Artifact's recommendation engine and other features will be able to scale news activities and provide personalized content to the audience.
Baidu
The leader among Chinese search engines. In 2023, Baidu presented an updated version of ERNIE Bot - Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration. It is an analog of ChatGPT designed exclusively for the Chinese audience. This chatbot first appeared in 2019. The latest version of ERNIE Bot has capabilities close to GPT-4. The service operates with 550 billion facts, but they are focused on China.
In April 2024, the Chinese company announced that the chatbot already has more than 200 million users. It is based on the Ernie large language model. Smartphone manufacturers Samsung and Honor have integrated Ernie AI capabilities with certain mobile devices. According to various sources, the Baidu search site ranks third in the world in terms of the number of queries. There is information that with the launch of the Japanese version, Baidu has confidently overtaken Bing in this indicator.
DuckDuckGo
An open source search engine that uses information from many sources to provide accurate and diverse results. The company declares that it does not use private information about its users accumulated through search history and purchase history, and monetizes its activities through contextual ads based on search results. The search engine positions itself as an alternative to Google and other similar web search engines. DuckDuckGo is also gradually introducing generative AI into its search functions.
In the summer of 2024, the search engine launched a new AI Chat feature, a free and anonymous way to access popular AI chatbots such as OpenAI's GPT 3.5 Turbo and Anthropic's Claude 3 Haiku. DuckDuckGo's AI Chat puts users' privacy first by anonymizing chats and ensuring that they are not used to train AI models. AI Chat can be accessed through various channels, including duck.ai, duckduckgo.com/chat, and the Chat tab on search results pages.
Brave Search
Search engine by Brave Software. Like the Brave browser, the search engine attaches great importance to user privacy, so it filters out tracking and advertising. Brave Search uses a proprietary index to display search results. In 2022, a new feature called Goggles was added to the search engine, allowing users to apply their own rules and filters to search queries.
The search engine also has the Summarizer function, which is a summarization based on Brave artificial intelligence. In 2024, the Brave search engine launched a new Answer with AI option. Like other AI-powered search engines, Brave's option combines information from different sources into a single, generalized answer to make it easier for users to digest. Answer with AI uses large language models (LLMs), primarily Mixtral 8x7B and Mistral 7B, data from search results, and RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) to generate answers almost instantly.
Startpage
A Dutch search engine that positions itself as a confidential search tool. Startpage.com provides the results of Google queries, protecting the user's privacy by not storing personal or search data. The search engine has an anonymous browsing feature that provides results through a proxy server to increase anonymity.
Ecosia
A search engine created by German specialists with the aim of supporting the environment in the world. When launched, the search engine initially provided search results from Yahoo!, Bing, and Wikipedia. Currently, the results are provided by Bing and improved by the company's own algorithms. Search queries are encrypted, not permanently stored, and data is not sold to third-party advertisers. The main mission of the Ecosia search engine is to plant trees to provide the planet with "green lungs" and prevent global warming. Ecosia has its own chatbot based on ChatGPT. The system also has another AI model, Green Answers, designed to answer environmental questions.
Recently, it became known that Ecosia and Qwant, a French startup that aims to protect personal data, want to create their own online index. They have established a joint venture in Paris called the European Search Perspective. Companies that choose to join the initiative will be able to reduce their dependence on Google and Bing and provide results that better align with their company's missions.
Million Short
An experimental search engine that allows you to filter and refine a set of search results. The idea is that a standard Internet search provides only the most popular sites. And Million Short allows you to find sites that for whatever reason are not included in the search engine results. The search engine technology allows users to browse sites outside the TOP 100 and even the TOP 1000. Search results are available after registration. Website owners can add their resource to the search engine database by filling out a special form.
SearXNG
An independent metasearch engine, a privacy-oriented search engine aggregator. The project is free and supported by the Open Source community, which anyone can join. SearXNG supports OpenSearch standards, POST and GET queries, as well as dozens of third-party search engine engines. All of them are divided into different categories in the Preferences -> Engines section and can be enabled or disabled accordingly. You can search by the following modules: images, videos, music, news, maps, repositories, social networks, etc. The official documentation is available here. In fact, it is a combiner-aggregator that can be used for OSINT tasks as well.
MetaGer
Metasearch aggregator founded in 1996 by the German non-profit organization SUMA-EV (Association for Free Access to Knowledge and Information). There is no advertising and censorship. The aggregator combines the results of various search engines. MetaGer can be searched by web, images, products, and news. There is also a search by association. There are good instructions on fact-checking.Andi Search
A free search engine with artificial intelligence that emphasizes privacy and the absence of advertising. It is a combination of a chatbot and a search engine. You can talk to Andi like a chatbot, but it will display information like a search engine. Andi Search uses advanced AI and semantic search technologies to transform online search. In addition, the search engine uses LLMs combined with real-world data to answer questions and summarize information based on the most popular sources.
Komo
An AI-driven search engine that uses advanced machine learning algorithms to quickly provide accurate answers. The main focus of this search engine is the speed and privacy of user searches. Komo has no ads, but has personalized search results based on learning and previous searches.
You.com
An AI-powered search engine that summarizes web results by categorizing websites, as opposed to a traditional search engine that displays a list of links. The project was founded by former Salesforce employees. It is essentially a conversational artificial intelligence platform that helps users conduct research, solve complex problems, and create personalized content. For web results, the search engine uses the results of the Bing search engine. You.com does not store users' IP addresses and does not collect information about users for targeted advertising. The service offers two modes: personal and private, which is more confidential.
Other search engines: Webmii (meta-search engine for OSINT), Qwant, Swisscows, Dogpile, Biznar (uses Deep Web technology), Phind, Exa, SearchEncrypt, All in One, Fagan Finder, Waldo Search, Bagoodex.
So, what about Google? The tech giant is gradually introducing AI-based solutions into its search. But how will it change the situation in this area? Expert Oleksandr Krakovetskyi, for example, does not really understand why Google took so long to implement generative search.
"Yes, Google is implementing AI, and it's a big mystery to me why it hasn't been done yet. The company has its own large language models, a cloud platform, exclusive data, top specialists (probably the best on the market), but there is no generative search yet. Either there are technical problems (the same hallucinations), or the company does not yet understand how to sell advertising when the space for it becomes much smaller. I think this is a complex of reasons. Although intuitively, it is simple: the answer to the query "what tools for project management can you recommend" may look like "I recommend service1 [1], service2 [2], service3 [3, Ad], service4 [4]." This is in context and looks more natural," the author of a book on generative AI told us.
In the Forbes article of 2023, experts said that there were several reasons that influenced the tech giant's special caution in the AI issue. For example, in 2018, internal protests erupted at Google after the company signed an agreement with the Pentagon to provide technology for Project Maven. This is a project of the US Department of Defense that uses AI to improve the accuracy of attack drones. After the employee revolt, Google refused to extend the contract and issued the AI Principles as ethical guidelines for technology development. But in 2019, a new dubious headline appeared: contractors trained Google's facial recognition program on homeless people with "dark" skin.
"It is clear that Google finds it difficult to release many advanced models to the public. They have their reasons, which are probably quite reasonable, but for me, it's important to democratize these models," said David Ha, a former Google researcher who now heads the Stability AI strategy.
I wonder how the updated Google Search will work in Ukraine? Tatiana Lukinyuk told us about the company's recent launch of the Extensions feature in Ukrainian:
"With the help of Extensions, Gemini can save you time by pulling relevant information from Google apps and services. If you and your friends are planning a trip, you can ask Gemini to select dates from Gmail that work for everyone, find flight and hotel information based on those dates and locations, find YouTube videos on what to bring, and summarize your packing list - all in one conversation. Right now, you can access Gemini through the Search bar by typing @gemini and writing a request. In addition, we recently introduced Gemini Live. With this feature, you can communicate with Gemini in natural language," said the director of Google Ukraine.
According to her, access to Gemini Live in different languages will be expanded gradually, so Ukrainians will soon have this opportunity as well.
Olexiy Minakov, a consultant in Generative AI, told us that Google's introduction of artificial intelligence will, in his opinion, significantly change the situation with search. "In a few years, there will come a time when most people will use search engines in this way, when a generated answer will be enough, without the need to surf different sites. Because it's convenient. Ukrainian users will be no different from European or American users in this regard. This is a global trend," the expert summarized.
It seems that the competition among search services will only intensify, and artificial intelligence will have a significant impact on the future of Internet search. But will the new search engines manage to dethrone Google? Most likely not, as the company still has a large margin of safety and high user loyalty to add features to its search engine that give its competitors an advantage at any time.
Bonus: If anyone is interested in what kind of information about the war in Ukraine Google will tell, for example, residents of Riga, Berlin, or Houston, we recommend reading a large study by our colleagues from the Ukrainian edition of Kunsht.