The Google Bard / BingGPT AI wars are EN FUEGO!
In this blog/newsletter, We take a look at the following:
- Google’s recent announcements
- BARD and how is it used differently by Google
- BING and ChatGPT
- What is NORA (no one correct answer)
- New Google Maps Features- Immersive Views
- AI meets AR
Google states proudly: “your Camera is your new Keyboard.”
Meaning: Visual Search is here! More on that in a minute.
Hot off the sneakers of Microsoft’s private event revealing plans for ChatGPT in Bing aka BingGPT, yesterday ‘Google Presents: Live from Paris,’ in which Prabhakar Raghavan, SVP at Google, announced more information about their chatbot, Bard, as well as other AI-driven initiatives for search.
The general opinion for this launch is, well…. A little underwhelming and we saw that last week with Google’s stock prices falling on the heels of this new “launch.”
Introducing Bard (no, it’s not B-R-A-D), but we like Brad better….sorry Bard.
Google recently announced Google Bard, “an experimental conversational AI service powered by LaMDA.” (Language Model for Dialogue Applications).
Google states, “Bard will simplify and make sense of information when answering questions.” For example, you can ask it to explain the pros and cons of buying an electric car. You can then ask it to plan your next road trip, tell you destinations to stop at along the way, and show you interesting things to do with your family.
Google “draws information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses.”
While tools like ChatGPT have the capability for content creation, and that’s what most SEOs use, it feels like Bard could remain more of a search engine with increased power for business discovery.
Bard is launching to Trusted Testers (pick us@INTUNE Google) this week before launching broadly in the future.
Like Microsoft, Google has also made an excellent effort to remain responsible in this new world of AI, highlighting that it has been in their DNA from the start.
BingGPT anyone?
Microsoft also had a big reveal: During a surprise event, Microsoft previewed new Bing and Edge browsers powered by Open AI’s GPT 3.5 – a chatbot more potent than the ChatGPT we’re familiar with. (maybe we are not familiar since we never use them)
The demo showed users asking Bing for recipes, buying furniture, and collecting travel tips using a ChatGPT-like chat box that shows the sources cited. (SOURCES)(WHAT?)
Check out some examples on their website.
And, unlike its predecessor, this new AI model can retrieve the latest news. Nice.
Remember what we said earlier about your Camera as your new keyboard? And Have you used Google Lens? If not you’re missing out on a fantastic learning experience. Right now, Google sees at least 10 BILLION visual searches each month!
NORA – No One Right Answer
The latest acronym from the event is NORA (No One Right Answer) which displays multiple sources of information at the top of search results, alongside additional questions for the user to explore more around their search query.
Google uses featured snippets for super quick, factual answers to a query. Still, because people might want a diverse range of opinions, Google uses generative AI to search results to give users more choices of results to find the answer they’re looking for. (thumbs up)
But chew on this: What this might mean for local SEO is a little of what we call “the grey area.” For Instance, when searching for “best pizza in {enter your city},” the search intent is to find one specific pizza place. If NORA starts sharing multiple choices, we might as well continue our usual search on Maps.
Or worse yet, get HANGRY sifting through the results!
Google Maps Updates
A lot of great new features like eco-friendly routing (EVs). Have you ever suffered from “range anxiety”? (Thanks TechCrunch) Maps can now give you the super savvy EV driver, the ability to see where you can charge up and suggest stops based on your battery usage! These chargers will have Google built into their software to communicate with Google (and you) instantly. Google Maps will become a part of the Automobile manufacturer’s onboard electronics and navigation, a massive win for Google.
Immersive View
Google announced immersive View at last year’s Search On event, but Google has given us a few more visuals into how it will look and work as it rolls out globally.
When using Immersive View, you can get a sense of what the area is like at different times of day, how busy the area is, and get a sense of what else is surrounding the place you’re searching at. You’ll also be able to use it to explore things like restaurants in the area and look at what the restaurant is like inside, even the lighting! If you are a business and you Want to sign up for it? Here is information straight from Google
But how useful is this for users? While a more visual map is fun to use, the critical thing here is that there’s not much that you don’t get from Maps. In the real world, you can see the business name and how far away the business is just by looking up, so this AR view highlights the business’ reviews. There’s now even more of a business case for local businesses to consider reviews, as it’s another place reviews are surfaced.
That’s all, folks! (que– Bugs Bunny image)
Thanks for being InTune
