How Google’s Generative AI for Search differs from Bard?

Google has announced new artificial intelligence (AI) powered search experiences designed to take on Microsoft’s Bing AI and ensure that Google Search users do not switch to Bing and other AI-enabled search engines.

The new AI capabilities will allow Google Search to answer new types of questions and fetch more relevant information with fewer prompts. 

Though Google still leads the search engine market with a 92.6% share as per Statcounter, since the rollout of Bing AI in February, traffic on Bing grew 15.4% in March while Google search traffic fell by 2.4%, according to web analytics firm Similarweb. 

“With new breakthroughs in generative AI, we’re again reimagining what a search engine can do,” Elizabeth Reid, Vice President & GM for Search at Google said at the company’s annual developer event, Google IO, Wednesday. 

Google has also announced a wider rollout of its generative AI chatbot Bard to 180 countries including India.

What is Google’s generative AI for search?

Generative AI for search is a new feature that is being rolled out to Google Search users in the US in the next few weeks under a waitlist program. 

Like Bing AI, generative AI for search is designed to provide a more conversational and informative search experience.

With generative AI, users can enter a longer query that includes all their questions, and generative AI will step in to answer it all at the same time in a summary format at the top of the search results. Below it, users can also see some questions suggested by AI to ensure users have all the information they need. Links to websites that usually show in search results will show after the summary. 

In a nutshell, users will get a chatbot-like experience within search along with the links to the websites that can assist them further.

How is it different from Bard?

The key difference between generative AI for search and Bard is that it is designed to be used within Google Search, while Bard is a standalone product like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Bard is designed to have conversations with users on a variety of topics and like ChatGPT, it can also perform multiple tasks, which includes generating articles, poems, codes, emails, and ad campaigns. 

Generative AI for search is more focused on providing factual information, while Bard is more focused on having conversations with users.

Google has not yet announced how generative AI for search and Bard will work together. However, it is possible that Bard can be used to provide more conversational support for generative AI for search. For instance, Bard can be used to answer follow-up questions that users have after they have used generative AI for search.