Google says it values the open web, and a current Googler confirmed in a private conversation at the recent Search Central Live in New York that the company, including CEO Sundar Pichai, cares about the web ecosystem. But that message is contradicted by an ex-Googler, who said Google internally regards sending traffic to publishers as “a necessary evil.”
Constant Evolution Of Google Search
Elizabeth Reid, VP of Search, is profiled in Bloomberg as the one responsible for major changes at Google search beginning in 2021, particularly AI Overviews. She was previously involved in Google Maps and is the one who revealed the existence of core topicality systems at Google.
Her statements about search show how it’s changing and give an idea of how publishers and SEOs should realign their perspectives. The main takeaway is that technology enables users to interact with information in different ways and search has to evolve with that to keep up with them. In her view, what’s happening is now a top-down approach to search where Google is imposing changes on users but rather it’s Google being responsive to users.
Her approach to search was said to be informed by her experience at Google Maps where Sergey Brin pushed the team to release Maps before they felt comfortable releasing it, teaching her that this enabled them to understand what users really wanted faster than had they waited longer.
According to Bloomberg:
“Reid refers to her approach as a “constant evolution” rather than a complete overhaul. Her team is still struggling to define the purpose of Google Search in this new era, according to interviews with 21 current and former search executives and employees…”
AI And Traditional Google Search
Google Search lost 20% of their search engineers who went over to focus on rolling out generative AI so perhaps it’s not surprising that she believes the search bar will lose prominence. According to the report:
“Reid predicts that the traditional Google search bar will become less prominent over time. Voice queries will continue to rise, she says, and Google is planning for expanded use of visual search, too.”
But she also said that the search bar isn’t going away:
“The search bar isn’t going away anytime soon, Reid says, but the company is moving toward a future in which Google is always hovering in the background. ‘The world will just expand,’ she says. ‘It’s as if you can ask Google as easily as you could ask a friend, only the friend is all-knowing, right?'”
Sending Traffic To Publishers Is A Necessary Evil
The article offers seemingly contradictory statements about how Google sees its relationship with the web ecosystem. An unnamed former Googler is quoted as saying that “giving” traffic to publishers is a necessary evil.
“Giving traffic to publisher sites is kind of a necessary evil. The main thing they’re trying to do is get people to consume Google services,” the former executive says. “So there’s a natural tendency to want to have people stay on Google pages, but it does diminish the sort of deal between the publishers and Google itself.”
What Current Googlers Say
At the Google Search Central Live event at New York City I had the opportunity to have a private conversation with a Googler about Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s inability to articulate what Google does to support the web ecosystem. The Googler told me that they’ve heard Sundar Pichai express a profound recognition of their relationship with publishers and said that it’s something he reflects on seriously.
That statement by the Googler was echoed in the article by something that Liz Reid and Sundar Pichai said:
“Reid says that Google cares deeply about publishers and that AI Overviews is a jumping-off point for users to conduct further research on the open web. Pichai, for his part, stresses the need to send ‘high-quality’ traffic to websites, instead of making users click around on sites that may not be relevant to them.
‘We are in the phase of making sure through this moment that we are improving the product, but in a way that prioritizes sending traffic to the ecosystem,’ he says, adding, ‘That’s been the most important goal.'”
Takeaways
- Google is reshaping Search based on user behavior, not top-down mandates. But the fact that OpenAI’s ChatGPT pushed Google into rolling out their answer shows that other forces aside from user behaviors are in play as well.
- Traditional search bar is becoming less central, replaced by voice (likely mobile devices) and visual search (also mobile). Google is multimodal, which means that it operates within multiple senses, like audio and visual. Publishers should really think hard about how that affects their business and how they can align it to also be multimodal so as to evolve along with users so that their content is already there when Google itself evolves to meet them there, too.
- AI Overviews and possibly the Gemini Personal AI Assistant could signal a shift toward Google acting as an ambient presence, not a destination.
- Google’s relationship with publishers has never been more strained. The disconnect between the public-facing statements and those by anonymous ex-Googlers send a signal that Google needs to be more out front with their relationship with publishers. For example, Google’s Search Central videos used to be interactive sessions with publishers, gradually drying up to scripted question and answers and now it’s completely gone. Although I believe what the Googler told me about Pichai’s regard for publishers because I know them to be truthful, the appearance that their search relations team has retreated behind closed doors sends a louder signal.
- Google leadership emphasizes commitment to sending “high-quality traffic” to websites. But SEOs and publishers are freaking out that traffic is lower and the sentiment may be that Google should consider a little more give and a lot less take.
Hat tip to Glenn Gabe for calling attention to this article.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/photoschmidt
