Big news: OpenAI is coming with a search engine feature called SearchGPT. The new feature will be added to ChatGPT and will be able to read and summarize information from websites for you to give a complete answer to your search query.
For a long time people have speculated: will ChatGPT replace search engines like Google and Bing? Back then the answer was no, it is a language model that mainly generates text. Now OpenAI has a new feature, SearchGPTreleased. This seems to be moving much more towards the workings of a search engine.
What can SearchGPT do?
First, it’s good to know that SearchGPT is now rolled out as a prototype. It’s available for up to 10,000 users to test. According to OpenAI, SearchGPT is a prototype of new search features that use the power of AI models to provide quick answers with clear and relevant sources.
SearchGPT is a prototype of new search features, using the strength of our AI models to give you fast answers with clear and relevant sources. – OpenAI
SearchGPT works with the existing ChatGPT AI models to read information from websites. The system then summarizes this information to provide an immediate answer to your question. After all, that is what we are used to from ChatGPT. The result (your answer) can contain text and images. Below the answer are also links to the sources used. There even seems to be a sidebar with related searches.
An example from OpenAI for a search query about music festivals in Boone, North Carolina:
With this, SearchGPT provides relevant, direct and up-to-date answers from the web with sources. The latter is something that was often criticized by users. Without a source, the information from ChatGPT would not be reliable. It seems that OpenAI listened to users.
Collaboration with publishers and content creators
OpenAI has stated that they will work with publishers and content creators. They hope to help users discover publisher sites and experiences. With AI, they want to make high-quality content from publishers and creators discoverable to users. It is nice to see that OpenAI strives to surface high-quality content on the web. On the other hand, the information will be summarized in one answer, so the real, original content is likely not read. Unless a user clicks through to a search result.
What is the impact on SEO & SEA?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that he has no interest in copying Google Search. He wants to create a user-friendly search environment where large language models (LLMs) combined with search, without all the ads surrounding it. If it were up to Sam Altman, there would be no room for ads within SearchGPT for the time being.
So if users switch en masse from Google to SearchGPT, SEA marketers will have a challenge. But, before we all panic… It is not yet certain how big SearchGPT will become and whether Google will be completely replaced. For example, the Google shopping environment has become very large and prominent in recent years. And Google Maps ensures local findability. SearchGPT will not have that at first. I therefore expect that SEA will still be part of the entire online marketing strategy.
SEO marketers have a different challenge. First, SearchGPT, like other search engines, must be able to read the information on the website properly. SEO specialists can ensure this by making the website technically correct and writing the right content. Unfortunately, SearchGPT will provide a kind of summary in the form of an answer. This means that the answer can be read directly, without the user having to click through to the website.
The number of users on websites will probably decrease. But that does not mean that content is not valuable on websites. My advice is: remain critical and optimize the content on websites. The more relevant and clear you are, the more chance there is that SearchGPT will also show the link to your website.
What now?
Prepare yourself and think about the impact of these new features on your online marketing strategy. There is no need to change your entire marketing strategy in one go. It is important to be aware of SearchGPT and what it can do. If you do want to test SearchGPT, there is a waiting list that you can sign up for. I am very curious about this new feature and how soon it will be available to the public.
Source: www.frankwatching.com
