With the recent surge in searches utilizing generative AI, Google has reportedly made plans to make the Search Generative Experience (SGE), a paid tool. Google’s traditional search service will remain free to use, nonetheless, the generative AI search experience will be added to its premium subscription services.
Ever since its launch in August last year, the AI-powered SGE has remained available to users as an opt-in experiment in Google’s Search Lab. Once enabled, SGE provides relevant information upfront on the search page, instead of showing links to multiple websites that may have information related to search queries and keywords.
Read along to find out more about generative search AI’s importance within the Google ecosystem.
It generates an AI-powered overview of key information along with relevant links that point to the source of information. Besides this, there are a bunch of features in this AI-powered search features that are now about to become paid. Let’s explore all of these.
The search AI can analyze search results and provide concise summaries of relevant information, from all the available information across the engine. This saves you time and effort, letting you grasp the essentials before diving deeper.
Search pages might not just display links, but also include key takeaways, comparisons, or helpful visuals generated by AI, offering a more comprehensive understanding of search queries. With gen-AI, search results go beyond just links, you get access to illustrated answers.
Generative AI enables a more interactive search experience, allowing you to ask follow-up questions and receive dynamic responses based on your search journey. Your responses get updated per your previous queries.
Language limitations disappear with gen-search. AI breaks down language barriers and translates search queries, giving realtime results. An additional benefit to the same is making information accessible to a global audience.
It is only natural that this feature be added to the paid service suite as the generative AI features utilize a large sum of computing resources as compared to the normal search results. The existing premium service suite currently includes access to Gemini Advanced and AI-powered tools for platforms like Gmail and Docs. Along with Workspace support tools, this subscription also includes an additional 2TB of cloud storage and many more features that optimize your Google usage.
In a statement from Google, it was said “With our generative AI experiments in Search, we’ve already served billions of queries, and we’re seeing positive search query growth in all of our major markets. We’re continuing to rapidly improve the product to serve new user needs.”
Besides this announcement, the questions about an ad-free Google experience were also answered and it was mentioned that currently there are no plans for the same. But you can definitely expect more premium capabilities and services soon. To sum it up, Google has a lot in store for its subscription owners, it is just a matter of time.
