The Shark Tank

Like other Silicon Valley companies, Google recently developed its own Artificial Intelligence called the Search Generative Experience, or SGE. Currently in the experimental stages, this AI technology can pull data from reviews, photos, websites, and Business Profiles to generate comprehensive answers to given search queries.

Understanding SGE and its recent update is essential for users and business owners. This blog will discuss its functions, limitations, and improvements made in the latest update. Then, we will analyze how this technology will impact users and businesses.

What is Google’s Search Generative Experience?

Google’s SGE is designed to be the future of search engines. The AI pulls information from the top Google results to generate text summarizing information in short paragraphs. The websites used to generate the information are listed to the right of the text, allowing users to visit the citations directly.

Beneath the paragraph, there are buttons allowing you to ask follow-up questions and featuring common queries. Like ChatGPT, SGE uses your previous queries as context for follow-up questions, allowing your search to flow seamlessly. There is also an option in the bottom right corner to give a thumbs up or thumbs down rating on the effectiveness of Google’s AI experiment. By providing feedback, users can improve SGE for future searches.

Limitations of SGE

While SGE can complete many tasks, Google has purposefully reduced its capabilities in certain areas. For example, topics related to medicine, finances, and other sensitive categories may not have SGE as an option. This is to safeguard the public from false information that could threaten the physical, mental, and financial health of those seeking advice on these subjects. If the AI were to misinterpret or use false information in its generated response, then users could make poor decisions based on falsehoods and mistruths sponsored by Google.

Although useful, this experimental AI needs much improvement. Recently, Google significantly updated SGE, specifically for loading speeds. AI search engines such as ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing Chat have received complaints about their loading times, as generating responses can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. With Google’s improvements to SGE, results now populate in half the time. Google also made other unspecified quality improvements that we hope to hear more about in the coming weeks.

How This Will Impact Users

For users, this technology could drastically improve the search process. Instead of clicking through a handful of websites to find an answer spliced between sources, SGE will generate a short paragraph-style response aggregating this information in an easily digestible format.

However, SGE will arguably impact business owners the most. When searching for goods and services, users will be presented with information primarily pulled from the three-pack, which features the top three businesses according to Google. Various factors determine three-pack, including businesses’ Google review ratings, the quality of photos on their Google Business Pages, and the effectiveness and efficiency of their website.

Photos and reviews are more important than ever to get your website included in the SGE citations. Images should be high-quality and relevant to your business. Frequent posting is also important. Additionally, your Google reviews should lean positive with substantial content and responses to those reviews.

Enhance Your Google Business Profile

Not only will SGE change the way users search for information, but it will also affect the Google Business Profile. Understanding how these changes will impact your digital profile requires expertise in SEO, Google Analytics, and Search Engine Updates. Our team at BluShark Digital is ready to help you enhance your Google Business Profile, website, and overall digital presence. Contact us today to learn how we can help your business excel.