Google I/O 2024: Search takeaways and predictions

Say hello to Overviews

The big focus from Google was around generative Overviews. Overviews will be generated from Gemini based on user queries, and provide intelligent summaries of a given topic.

Overviews are being framed as ‘Google doing the Google for you’. At that moment in the presentation it felt as though they waited for a clap that never came, and Jeb Bush would have been proud. However, Overviews do offer hyper-personalised content based on multi-step rationale, such as your location, seasonal trends, and reasoning. Overviews will include links to cited sources and trusted publishers, giving you quick access to the content you’re after if more research is needed.

The content generated for these AI Overviews is expected to use real time information from over a trillion facets, unparalleled ranking systems, and of course the ‘power’ of Gemini. The plan is for Google Overviews to be deployed to over a billion users by the end of 2024. Interestingly, Bartosz Goralewicz has recently run a research study showing that SGE (Search Generative Experiences) features have been declining within search results, with only 14% of queries generating SGE results. 58% of searches produced no generative AI responses.

A rainy night in Stoke-on-Trent – implications for local search

Overviews have the potential to become a real battleground for local search traffic, especially for local businesses such as bars, restaurants, yoga studios and entertainment outlets. Searches about things to do, places to go, and recommendations in a local area are going to be littered throughout Overviews, with Gemini able to use multi-step reasoning to provide you the perfect location for dinner, on a cold rainy night in Stoke-on-Trent, within walking distance of your hotel. Gemini can generate these results by breaking down the language you’ve used to understand your priorities and get you the results most suited to your needs. Featuring on these lists of locations will be key to driving footfall into your location. I recommend optimising your Google business listing, generating reviews, and keeping your contact information up to date.

Overviews have also been touted as a possible planning tool, enabling people to plan trips, meals, workouts and more. Again leveraging real time insight, Gemini and multi-level reasoning will provide you with personalised results. Interestingly, these sorts of planning searches will generate a personalised results page dedicated to your search. This kind of dynamic search will demonstrate the multi-step reasoning and personalisation of your search.

Losing the human touch?

In principle this all looks great. But it does feel as though it removes the human element of planning – finding those hidden gems, those cozy spots no one knows about. Instead it just returns the most reviewed, or most up-to-date.

If you’re relying on Google to plan your life, you can. But will it do a great job? Probably not. It’ll be a thumbnail sketch of what’s good, but not the best. Overviews should be treated as just that – a step into finding the right thing for you. But I find the idea of Google planning a trip, or doing the research for me, as removing a step in my own journey. Part of the fun is planning a road trip, or finding a new spot. Generative AI is just the average of what it understands, and cannot replace the human experience. Sure, a place might have 5-star reviews and be well priced, but the vibe might be completely off. Gemini won’t be able to tell you that.

Video search

And then there’s video search. With Gemini (previously BARD) you’ll now be able to pose video questions to Google search, and expect it to generate a response in the search results based on the video you’ve uploaded. This builds on Google multi-modal processing, allowing Gemini to interpret video and speech at the same time. In an era dominated by video, it’s fascinating to see Google move in this direction – but a bit like Google Lens, the reality of audiences usage might be quite different.

The example they gave in the keynote was around a broken record player, with Rose Yao filming the issue she was having and Gemini presenting an Overview of possible issues. The biggest problem was that we didn’t see her fix the record player! So how good was the Overview? Was it helpful? How good was the link recommended to her? Has it really enhanced the user experience? This felt like a big missed opportunity to show how video search can be used in the wild.

From a content production point of view, I’m curious to see if we’ll get access to these sorts of video questions and insights. I can imagine an engineering situation or healthcare environment, where video searches would be fascinating, and seeing how Gemini handles highly complex multi-level problems. As we’ve seen previously, when it comes to highly specialist questions, AI generally has a problem with generating useful content. From a content production point of view, this demonstrates the value of really understanding your audience, their pain points, challenges, and concerns within a given area.

The bottom line for search

The fundamental takeaway from my perspective is that Google is rapidly continuing its shift from a content navigation tool to a content generator/aggregator. This keeps audiences locked into the Google ecosystem, rather than taking users to what they’re looking for. The legality of the content Google is generating using Gemini has to be questioned; in real time they are essentially stealing the IP of publishers, website owners, personal trainers, dieticians, and everyone else, and serving their research and content to their own user base. There are currently lawsuits, globally, centred on how AI is using outside content to generate its own. It’s a fascinating rabbit hole to go down.

I find it extraordinary that Google focuses on E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority and trust) in its quality rater guidelines, and yet Gemini completely overrules that with no accountability. We’re quickly removing the human experience from our content and relying on average insights to inform our decision making processes. Sure, there’ll be links to publisher websites, but we’re in an attention economy. Are users really going to do their own research, or will they just move onto the next query?

I fear for access to content, as publishers try to ringfence and block search engines access, increasing the use of paywalls and sign-ups to access high quality information. We’ve seen it with the press recently. But if I’m a brand investing in research to create compelling content, the last thing I want is for that content to be repurposed and spat out by a Google Overview with no remuneration.

As brands, agencies, and marketing departments, we should aspire to be better than a ‘Google Overview’. We should be providing our audiences, customers and communities with truly great content, that’s rich, insightful and data-led. Overviews will never do the real research for us, and that should be our focus: investing in owning our own data and research, and delivering that in creative formats across all our channels, with a clearly integrated approach. That’s something we truly believe in at Fox Agency.