Searching the Future
I was recently asked (by an exceedingly nerdy good friend of mine):
“What does an AI-Enhanced search engine mean for ads, small business owners hoping to have their shops found online, and the website ranking & SEO industry as a whole?”
My first experience with an “AI chatbot” was with SmarterChild back in the early 2000’s on AOL Instant Messenger (core memory unlocked?). SmarterChild could be added to your friends list and would respond to a wide variety inquiries and conversational topics. This was the first time I had the very sci-fi experience of engaging in natural language conversations with an AI entity.
SmarterChild was a relatively basic chatbot by today’s standards. Powered by simple pattern-matching algorithms, it was quite limited in the ways in which it could respond to user input. SmarterChild could easily be manipulated into giving humorous or nonsensical responses by asking questions in unexpected ways or making statements that didn’t fit expected patterns. This was the early days of “AI” that wasn’t really AI at all, but it was still intriguing enough to leave a lasting impression on me. I knew then that this would be the future of how we interact with computers - just wasn’t sure at the time if I’d see it in my lifetime.
Fast forward two decades and some change - the four horsemen of the AI apocalypse have arrived:
Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana.
The idea of a ‘chatbot’ or virtual assistant is no longer quite as sci-fi as it once was, and artificial intelligence is poised to revolutionize the way we interact with our mobile devices and computers - opening up new possibilities for efficiency, convenience, and improved communication.
A new challenger approaches…
Microsoft-backed ChatGPT has thunderously entered the scene and has redefined my expectations for the future of human-computer interaction. With much more advanced natural language processing - and many other improvements that go way over my head, this modern AI can understand and respond to an even wider variety of requests - providing context-aware responses in a more human-like way than ever before.
As the behemoths of the industry prepare to unleash their AI arsenals upon the world, I’m expecting that early on we’ll see a hybrid approach to search where you’ll have a mix of more 'traditional' search alongside 'AI enhanced' results for more factual/informational searches. By better understanding the context and intention behind queries, AI-enhanced search engines will have the added bonus of empowering more "basic" users to search more accurately - without having to know the tricks us Citizens of the Internet know and use already.
The shift towards AI-powered search will absolutely have significant implications for SEO strategies as the algorithms used to rank web pages become increasingly complex and dynamic. Even the most experienced SEO experts (lookin’ at you, wifey) will admit there’s always a bit of magic and luck involved, alongside the almost incomprehensible amount of tools and tweaks needed to truly optimize a site’s SERP placement. As AI-Enhanced search becomes more and more commonplace, I believe we’ll start to (finally) see a shift away from companies pumping out bland, keyword stuffed word-salad blog posts in the name of “content” and a higher focus on high-quality content that encourages increased engagement - comments, likes, shares, etc. High engagement levels are more difficult to artificially inflate, and act as a sort of proof that users are having a good experience on your website - which will weigh heavily on an AI’s decision to direct you there, or elsewhere. This is a win for everyone, really - more likes and shares means more organic visibility, and I’m sure we all would appreciate more high quality content on the web.
Producing high quality, relevant content that provides value to users will always be a way to ensure your page is ranked well and rises to the top amongst other high quality search results - it's hard to imagine that ever changing.
I welcome our new AI-Enhanced Search & Personal Assistant Overlords with open arms - I just hope we don’t end up like the folks in Her (2013).
Disclaimer: No AI was used in the writing of this blog post. Blog art created with the help of MidJourney.
