Latest news with #search engine


Telegraph
2 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Google triggers turmoil for web businesses with AI overhaul
Google is overhauling its dominant search engine with an 'AI mode' that will no longer provide links to other websites, in a major shift expected to cause turmoil across the web. The tech giant will launch the feature in the UK from Tuesday. Instead of showing links to websites, the AI mode generates its own answers using information from around the web. The update, seen as a landmark moment for the web, is likely to lead to more turbulence for websites that have already seen huge drops in traffic from Google as the company pushes AI-driven answers into its search results. Google dominates the search market, accounting for more than 90pc of British queries, meaning much of the web relies on traffic from its results. The new AI mode, which will be made available over the coming days, acts in a similar way to chatbots such as ChatGPT, providing answers without users needing to click on other websites. The feature marks a wholesale departure from the company's foundations, which saw it crawl the web to offer users '10 blue links'. Although Google will still offer its traditional search results, it will feature AI mode as an option in results, and the company has described the feature as 'the future of Google search', suggesting it will increasingly prioritise it in future. AI mode will be able to recommend restaurants, help buy clothes and find information, tasks that entire web industries have been built around. Google's Hema Budaraju said that the change was 'the beginning of a major shift' and would let users 'find information that was previously much harder to find'. However, it is likely to be seen as a new setback to web publishers that are already reeling from existing changes to Google's search engine. Over the past year, Google has started furnishing results with 'AI overviews', which seek to answer queries directly and are positioned ahead of links to other websites. The Pew Research Centre said last week that searches featuring this AI overview feature only result in people clicking a link 8pc of the time, compared to 15pc for search results that do not include the feature. While the company has said its AI-generated answers continue to provide links to other sites, Pew found that people will only click them 1pc of the time. According to analytics company Similarweb, more than two thirds (69pc) of news searches do not lead to users clicking on a link. The development is likely to provoke a backlash from the websites whose data Google relies on to train its AI systems, and calls for the company to pay for the material its systems use. 'This is yet another example of Google using its dominant position in search to force news publishers to allow their content to be ingested for AI,' said Owen Meredith, the chief executive of the News Media Association, an industry body of which The Telegraph is a member. 'If publishers want to block Google's search crawlers to stop their content from being exploited with no transparency, consent - or appropriate reward for original source material - they'll be demoted from general search listings, causing catastrophic drops in audiences. 'It's a lose-lose for sources of trusted verified news and information as the dominant tech firms continue to draw yet more web traffic into their walled gardens.' Publishers and artists are demanding that the Government introduce stricter rules on copyright protection to prevent AI businesses scraping their data without consent. A group of independent publishers submitted a formal complaint to British and European competition authorities earlier this month, saying Google should be forced to let websites opt out of training its AI overviews. Last week, the Competition and Markets Authority said Google has 'strategic market status' in search, a designation that could lead to publishers receiving fairer terms from the company. While many chatbot companies have reached agreements with publishers to use their content, Google has largely avoided striking such deals.


BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Google launches new AI search feature in UK
Google is rolling out a new tool in the UK that will generate results using artificial intelligence (AI), in a significant shake-up to the world's most popular search of a list of search results showing links to other websites in blue type, people who choose "AI Mode" will be given an answer written in a conversational style, containing far fewer links to other new search tool will not replace Google's existing search platform, which processes billions of queries every experts predict such tools will increasingly incorporate AI, a shift that is concerning organisations, firms and publishers, which rely on search traffic. People are increasingly turning to AI chatbots such as ChatGPT instead of traditional search engines to find quick, simple answers to questions, even though they are not always itself already includes a brief AI-generated "overview" in the listed results for some the new tool, which uses Google's Gemini AI platform to generate its answers, has already been launched in the US and is being rolled out in the UK over the next few now, AI Mode will be optional and will appear both as a tab and an option within the search box itself. Complicated queries The tech giant said it was responding to changes in the way people use its search engine to ask more complicated questions."About two years ago, if you spilled coffee on your carpet, you would have [searched for] 'clean carpet stain'," said Google's product manager for search, Hema Budaraju. "That's how you would have probably keyworded your way through. "Now, my query is likely to be, 'I spilled coffee on my Berber carpet, I'm looking for a cleaner that is pet friendly'." The BBC was unable to test the tool with its own questions during the demo because the tool had not yet been activated in the Google provided a demo using the example of someone searching for suitable places to take a young family strawberry the answers it provided seemed to be spread over a wide geographical area. It featured a handful of links to businesses, including their locations on a map, but they came lower down in the response, compared to a traditional Google search. Clicking links Businesses, from retailers to news publishers, currently rely on web traffic funnelled their way from Google's search results. Firms can pay for prime spots on the results lists, as a form of advertising.A shift towards AI-generated responses, containing fewer direct links, could up-end that Budaraju said the firm had not yet finalised how advertising revenue for AI Mode would work, or whether firms would be able to pay to be included in the it is already concerning some businesses, who say people are less likely to click through to their websites via the links contained in an AI summary. Ms Budaraju disagreed with this characterisation."I would say that I think people are going to use these technologies to unlock newer information-seeking journeys," she said. "These kind of questions didn't happen before, and now you made it really possible for people to express anything a lot more naturally."The Daily Mail claims the number of people who click its links from Google search results has fallen by around 50% on both desktop and mobile traffic since Google introduced its AI Overview a recent study by the Pew Research Centre suggested that people only clicked a link once in every 100 searches when there was an AI summary at the top of the page. Google argues the research methodology in that study was flawed. News model Rosa Curling, director of the campaign group Foxglove which commissioned the research, said she was concerned what the increased use of AI might mean for news AI-generated summaries are often inaccurate, people weren't clicking through to the original news items they were based on, she said, undermining the business models of news organisations."What the AI summary now does is makes sure that the readers' eyes stay on the Google web page," she said."And the advertising revenue of those news outlets is being massively impacted."Google said it already generates more than two billion AI Overview boxes every day in more than 40 languages, although not in the EU, where legislation procludes are also significant concerns about the environmental impact of increased AI use. Running AI requires huge data centres that use a lot of power and clean water. Ms Budaraju said Google remained committed to sustainability."We are constantly, as Google and as Search, evolving sustainable ways to serve technology," she said.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Perplexity in talks with phone makers to pre-install Comet AI mobile browser on devices
By Akash Sriram (Reuters) -Nvidia-backed Perplexity AI, the startup challenging Google with its AI-powered search engine, is in discussions with mobile device makers to pre-install its new Comet browser on smartphones, CEO Aravind Srinivas told Reuters on Friday. The move could significantly boost Perplexity's reach by capitalizing on browser "stickiness", where users tend to stick with browser apps that are pre-installed or set as default on their devices, potentially driving habitual use of the company's AI tools. "It's not easy to convince mobile OEMs to change the default browser to Comet from Chrome," Srinivas said, referring to original equipment manufacturers and highlighting the challenge of user inertia on mobile platforms. Comet, currently in beta and available only on desktops, integrates Perplexity's AI directly into web browsing, allowing users to ask questions about personal data like emails, calendars, or browsing history, and even perform tasks such as scheduling meetings or summarizing webpages. Perplexity aims to target "tens to hundreds of millions" of users next year after stabilizing the desktop version for a few hundred thousand initial testers, Srinivas said. Its efforts reflect a broader industry shift toward browsers with agentic AI capabilities, ones that need minimal human intervention to make decisions and achieve specific tasks. Reuters reported earlier this month that OpenAI is developing its own agentic AI browser, which could automate complex tasks such as booking travel or managing finances. As of last month, Google's Chrome had a market share of about 70% in mobile devices, while Apple's Safari and Samsung's browsers together commanding another 24%, according to Statcounter data. Bloomberg News reported in June that Perplexity was in talks with Samsung Electronics and Apple to integrate its AI search capabilities into their devices, potentially enhancing assistants like Bixby or Siri. Perplexity has completed a $500 million investment round, which valued it at $14 billion earlier this year. Its investors include Accel, Nvidia, Jeff Bezos and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Inicia sesión para acceder a tu cartera de valores


CNA
18-07-2025
- Business
- CNA
Perplexity in talks with phone makers to pre-install Comet AI mobile browser on devices
Nvidia-backed Perplexity AI, the startup challenging Google with its AI-powered search engine, is in discussions with mobile device makers to pre-install its new Comet browser on smartphones, CEO Aravind Srinivas told Reuters on Friday. The move could significantly boost Perplexity's reach by capitalizing on browser "stickiness", where users tend to stick with browser apps that are pre-installed or set as default on their devices, potentially driving habitual use of the company's AI tools. "It's not easy to convince mobile OEMs to change the default browser to Comet from Chrome," Srinivas said, referring to original equipment manufacturers and highlighting the challenge of user inertia on mobile platforms. Comet, currently in beta and available only on desktops, integrates Perplexity's AI directly into web browsing, allowing users to ask questions about personal data like emails, calendars, or browsing history, and even perform tasks such as scheduling meetings or summarizing webpages. Perplexity aims to target "tens to hundreds of millions" of users next year after stabilizing the desktop version for a few hundred thousand initial testers, Srinivas said. Its efforts reflect a broader industry shift toward browsers with agentic AI capabilities, ones that need minimal human intervention to make decisions and achieve specific tasks. Reuters reported earlier this month that OpenAI is developing its own agentic AI browser, which could automate complex tasks such as booking travel or managing finances. As of last month, Google's Chrome had a market share of about 70 per cent in mobile devices, while Apple's Safari and Samsung's browsers together commanding another 24 per cent, according to Statcounter data. Bloomberg News reported in June that Perplexity was in talks with Samsung Electronics and Apple to integrate its AI search capabilities into their devices, potentially enhancing assistants like Bixby or Siri. Perplexity has completed a $500 million investment round, which valued it at $14 billion earlier this year. Its investors include Accel, Nvidia, Jeff Bezos and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.


Reuters
18-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Perplexity in talks with phone makers to pre-install Comet AI mobile browser on devices
July 18 (Reuters) - Nvidia-backed Perplexity AI, the startup challenging Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab with its AI-powered search engine, is in discussions with mobile device makers to pre-install its new Comet browser on smartphones, CEO Aravind Srinivas told Reuters on Friday. The move could significantly boost Perplexity's reach by capitalizing on browser "stickiness", where users tend to stick with browser apps that are pre-installed or set as default on their devices, potentially driving habitual use of the company's AI tools. "It's not easy to convince mobile OEMs to change the default browser to Comet from Chrome," Srinivas said, referring to original equipment manufacturers and highlighting the challenge of user inertia on mobile platforms. Comet, currently in beta and available only on desktops, integrates Perplexity's AI directly into web browsing, allowing users to ask questions about personal data like emails, calendars, or browsing history, and even perform tasks such as scheduling meetings or summarizing webpages. Perplexity aims to target "tens to hundreds of millions" of users next year after stabilizing the desktop version for a few hundred thousand initial testers, Srinivas said. Its efforts reflect a broader industry shift toward browsers with agentic AI capabilities, ones that need minimal human intervention to make decisions and achieve specific tasks. Reuters reported earlier this month that OpenAI is developing its own agentic AI browser, which could automate complex tasks such as booking travel or managing finances. As of last month, Google's Chrome had a market share of about 70% in mobile devices, while Apple's Safari and Samsung's browsers together commanding another 24%, according to Statcounter data. Bloomberg News reported in June that Perplexity was in talks with Samsung Electronics ( opens new tab and Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab to integrate its AI search capabilities into their devices, potentially enhancing assistants like Bixby or Siri. Perplexity has completed a $500 million investment round, which valued it at $14 billion earlier this year. Its investors include Accel, Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, Jeff Bezos and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.