That Google cares about AI and the launch of ChatGPT should not have gone unnoticed by anyone. Is Google falling behind, and will Bing now become bigger? Hardly.
Today, Google announced in its webmaster guidelines that it doesn’t matter whether the content on your site was created by a human or a bot. If it’s good, then it’s good, and they want to show it. This is really no different from before—the algorithm does what the algorithm does. For a while, Google talked a lot about author credibility, wanting everyone to create a profile on Google+, but more recently that credibility has shifted into something else. Something that can be measured directly on the site, since Google+ crashed. We’ll return to how Google actually measures trust today, because it’s highly relevant.
Bing + ChatGPT
When Bing announced that they would start using ChatGPT in their search results, it didn’t take long before Google responded that they would use their own Bard. But what’s the real news here? The news isn’t that AI will be used in search results—the news is that they will start showing it.
Google are no beginners when it comes to AI; I’ve written about this countless times. For example, in 2017 when I asked whether AI would take the jobs of SEO specialists. The fact is, Google has had AI crawling around their search results for more than a decade. In 2011, they launched Panda, which filters out poor (thin) content with the help of AI. Since then, there have been a number of updates along the same model. For example, they measure credibility, as mentioned earlier, using AI. What they haven’t done until now is actually show AI-generated text in the search results. What they have done is select information from factual sources like Wikipedia, extract the most relevant snippet, and display it in chosen spots in the search results.
Mostly a gimmick
There’s no doubt that AI will become very useful and already is useful in many areas. As a Google-killer, however, I find it hard to take seriously today. It sounds more like a gimmick to me—like cooled cup holders in a new Audi or five cameras on a phone. It may draw a bit of attention, but does it really make a difference? Will Bing suddenly become good just because it can spit out auto-generated text?
On the other hand, back in 2017 I wrote that AI would change the SEO industry quickly—and I’ve been wrong before.
Magnus Bråth
Consultant & Adviser
Magnus is one of the world's most prominent search marketing specialists and primarily works with management and strategy at his agency Brath AB.