In May this year, Google launched an experimental feature called Search Generation Experience (SGE), which uses Google’s artificial intelligence system to summarize search results for users. In this way, users don’t have to click on a bunch of links, and Google will directly tell users what they want to know. In theory, this means that users’ search queries can be more complex and natural, while Google is still able to answer users’ questions. How is your experience with this feature? Foreign media TheVerge conducted a test.
TheVerge tested SGE for a few days and found that it has the following problems, compiled below:
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Waiting several seconds for the SGE’s answer to appear is irritating. While waiting, a blank colored box will appear on the screen with a loading animation inside. When the search results finally load, the colored box expands and Google’s summary pops up, pushing down the list of links below. The Verge editor said that he really doesn’t like to wait for this process. If it is not for testing, he will probably scroll the page immediately and click the link directly.
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SGE responses are often lengthy and confusing. For example, when searching for “Where can I watch Ted Russo?”, the AI-generated answer has two paragraphs, is correct, and is available on Apple TV+, which costs $6.99 a month. But there is still a lot of redundancy in the answer. On the desktop version, Google will display cards with source information on the right, but users cannot easily tell which information comes from which sources. On mobile, the card appears below the summary text.
When asked “Where can I buy Tears of Kingdoms?” the results were a mess, with giant sponsor cards and a confusing list of suggested retailers above the results, no list of games when clicked, and no There’s a Google Map that pinpoints these retail outlets, and on the right there are three link cards where you’ll find ways to buy the game. Searching for a used red iPhone 13 Mini isn’t much better.
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SGE sometimes fails to generate answers even for some of the most popular search terms, such as “YouTube”, “Amazon”, “Wordle”, “Twitter”, and “Roblox” all return an error message: “Manual Smart overviews are not available for this search.” Words such as “Facebook,” “Gmail,” “Apple,” and “Netflix” all work fine with SGE-formatted answers, but the results also take a long time to display.
In summary, TheVerge believes that SGE does not bring a better search experience to people, but makes people feel irritable and wastes time.
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