Google will look much different in 2033 \u2013\u00a0where conversation is the interface rather than the search box. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s according to Mustafa Suleyman<\/a>, cofounder of DeepMind (which Google bought in 2014<\/a>), in an interview on the No Priors Podcast.<\/p>\n Why we care. <\/strong>ChatGPT<\/a>, the new Bing<\/a> and Google\u2019s new Search Generative Experience<\/a> are all huge signals of a major shift in search. Clearly, nothing will change immediately. But in the coming years these changes could potentially upend the way Google \u2013 as the dominant search engine \u2013 has shaped the web and, as a byproduct, SEO and PPC.<\/p>\n The search dialogue.<\/strong> Google is \u201can appallingly painful\u201d conversation right now, where the answer comes in the form of 10 blue links (though Suleyman didn\u2019t mention all the search features and ads that also act as \u201canswers\u201d on today\u2019s SERPs). <\/p>\n Google learns from the results people click on, how long they spend on websites and whether they come back to the search box to refine their search or click on other results. He added:<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is [Google\u2019s] using 1980s Yellow Pages to have that conversation. And actually now we can do that conversation in fluent natural language.\u201d<\/p>\n Google rewards engagement, not answers. <\/strong>Google has shaped content production in a way that favors optimizing for ads and rewards content creators for keeping people on pages longer, Suleyman said. <\/p>\n \u201cYou go on a webpage and all the text has been broken out into sub bullets and subheaders separated by ads. You spend five to seven or 10 seconds just scrolling through the page to find the snippet of the answer that you actually wanted. But most of the time you\u2019re just looking for a quick snippet. \u2026 that looks like high-quality content to Google and it\u2019s \u2018engaging\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n From \u2018speaking Google\u2019 to \u2018speaking to AI.\u2019<\/strong> Suleyman believes we\u2019re nearing a point where searchers will no longer have to think \u201cHow do I change my query and write this?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve learned to speak Google. It\u2019s a crazy environment. We\u2019ve learned to Google, right? That\u2019s just a weird lexicon that we\u2019ve co-developed with Google over 20 years. No, now that has to stop. That\u2019s over. That moment is done and we can now talk to computers in fluent natural language, and that is the new interface.\u201d<\/p>\n Bottom line. <\/strong>Suleyman believes Google should be \u201cpretty worried\u201d that the Google search we know today won\u2019t be the same in 10 years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not going to happen overnight. There\u2019s going to be a transition. But these kind of succinct, dynamic, personalized, interactive moments are clearly the future in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n Google CEO on Search in 10 years.<\/strong> In a recent interview<\/a>, Google CEO Sundar Pichai\u00a0was asked whether we are nearing the end of link-based search and 10 blue links. Pichai said search will be \u201cmore ambiently available to users in radically different ways\u201d compared to today, adding:<\/p>\n \u201cI think the experience will evolve substantively over the next decade. We have to meet users in terms of what they are looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the interview.<\/strong> The video is embedded below. Or, if you prefer, you can read the transcript<\/a>.<\/p>\n