Google Uses AI Search Summaries to Boost Ad Revenue and Investor Gains

Google’s AI-generated search summaries are fueling ad growth by converting expensive technology into revenue for investors.

Along with its AI-generated search summaries, Google is starting to show more and more ads. Investors are now aware that this costly and resource-intensive technology can generate revenue. This is part of Google’s plan to go up against companies like ChatGPT that use generative AI. Google released the summaries in May. They were called AI Overviews.

Generative AI technology writes real-time overviews based on a user’s search query. This technology needs cutting-edge back-end infrastructure. People who own stocks in Google are worried that the company’s big investments in AI infrastructure could make it lose money.

Some people don’t like the technology because the summaries at first showed wrong information, but it has also made it easier for individuals to get information without having to click through to the sources. Along with the ads, Google said it would start putting more links to sources on the right side of the summary.

An early test showed that these links brought more people to the website than the old design with links at the bottom. Rhiannon Bell, Google’s vice president of user experience, revealed this to reporters during a presentation.

There will be “sponsored” panels above, below, and inside the summaries that have the ads. It will tell you about products that match your search query. When someone asked how to get grass stains out of jeans, ads for Tide and OxiClean laundry products appeared.

The ads for business-related queries will only show up on phones in the US for now. Google stated that it will not distribute any of its ad revenue to the publishers whose content appears in the summaries.

Additionally, it announced that it would begin organizing search results into scrollable lists based on both recent and historical searches. These outcomes are what the business calls “AI-organized.” At first, they will only work for US cell phone users who want recipe ideas.

Google Lens now offers voice and video search

The Google Lens app now lets you search for things with voice and video. The search and advertising giant is striving to maintain a competitive edge over OpenAI, a Microsoft-backed start-up, and other generative AI start-ups and large companies. Two new antitrust lawsuits in the US target the company’s market dominance in search and advertising.

In August, a judge declared that Google violated the law to maintain its dominant position as the only search engine. A separate case concerning its advertising technology concluded last month.