Google is set to start mixing ads into its new AI-generated search answers. It’s a test of how the company’s biggest revenue stream can adapt to the age of generative AI.
Google doesn’t have a choice. Consider how few in the younger audience actually use proper search engines. Heaven forbid, they ask their questions on TikTok. It’s a mighty gamble but without a doubt hesitation is failure now that AI is yet another competitor eating up the search space.
This is one thing I would love to actually see some data about, because I have never seen people not using search engines, no matter the age, but I see a lot of people on the internet claiming that younger people don’t use search engines anymore.
Never used TikTok. I guess one searches “How to do X?” and shows tutorial videos each a mintue or so? Or “the Best birthday gifts” then a bunch of video trys to sell you the “best” gift? I have no idea.
Badly. You search for videos that match the form of a question. It’s not effective at all, but wildly popular according to my aunt who is a high school teacher.
The accessibility of technology has produced a generation of people who don’t understand how to use it in basic ways, but that’s another discussion.
I have given it a try a few times, to see if it makes sense to search on tiktok. I tried things like “[generic topic I’d like to know more about]”, “history of [topic]”, “[topic] lecture/course”, “how to replace screen of [phone model]”, “how to fix [device model]”, “how to make [recipe]”, [product] review, [software] tutorial, and a few others, both in english and in my mother language, and in all cases, the results were poor, barely related to my search or nonexistent.
It makes me wonder if: 1- people don’t actually search on tiktok as much as people make it look like 2 - there’s some different way to write the search terms that I’m unaware of, or perhaps, the results would be different if I was logged in 3 - people are simply getting poor results and that’s it 4 - my search interests differ too much from what people search on tiktok
Why is Google determined to kill one of its cash cows? Cramming AI into search results feels like “New Coke”.
There’s been ads in Google for over a decade now.
Google started introducing advertisements into its search engine in the year 2000. This was through the launch of the Google AdWords program.
Google doesn’t have a choice. Consider how few in the younger audience actually use proper search engines. Heaven forbid, they ask their questions on TikTok. It’s a mighty gamble but without a doubt hesitation is failure now that AI is yet another competitor eating up the search space.
This is one thing I would love to actually see some data about, because I have never seen people not using search engines, no matter the age, but I see a lot of people on the internet claiming that younger people don’t use search engines anymore.
Sadly I don’t have such data. The best I have is anecdotal from teachers that I know.
I’ve seen this mentioned a few times before but never get how it works. How do you even use TikTok as a search engine?
Never used TikTok. I guess one searches “How to do X?” and shows tutorial videos each a mintue or so? Or “the Best birthday gifts” then a bunch of video trys to sell you the “best” gift? I have no idea.
Badly. You search for videos that match the form of a question. It’s not effective at all, but wildly popular according to my aunt who is a high school teacher.
The accessibility of technology has produced a generation of people who don’t understand how to use it in basic ways, but that’s another discussion.
I have given it a try a few times, to see if it makes sense to search on tiktok. I tried things like “[generic topic I’d like to know more about]”, “history of [topic]”, “[topic] lecture/course”, “how to replace screen of [phone model]”, “how to fix [device model]”, “how to make [recipe]”, [product] review, [software] tutorial, and a few others, both in english and in my mother language, and in all cases, the results were poor, barely related to my search or nonexistent.
It makes me wonder if: 1- people don’t actually search on tiktok as much as people make it look like 2 - there’s some different way to write the search terms that I’m unaware of, or perhaps, the results would be different if I was logged in 3 - people are simply getting poor results and that’s it 4 - my search interests differ too much from what people search on tiktok