Earlier this week, Google unveiled an all-new search experience that brings AI to the fore and pushes the traditional “10 blue links” farther down the page. However, the sheer size of Google Search means there are many edge cases that the company may not have considered.
For example, if you type the word “ignore” into a Google search, you’ll see results like this:
Google has received some criticism on social media for this, and it’s easy to see why. As you can see, the Merriam-Webster link is still there, but you have to scroll past a giant block of blank space. Most users will only see that one reply. And importantly, for users searching for the word “ignored,” the AI’s response provides no conceivable value. It’s just a broken tool.
For context, here’s the same search on Bing. Bing hasn’t been very forthcoming about what AI is all about. It’s not perfect, but it has some useful information.
I’ve been a professional technology journalist for nearly 15 years, and to this day I can’t think of a single time when a search result on Bing was more valuable than an equivalent search result on Google. There truly is a first time for everything!
