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[Music]
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Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts,
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radio, news. All right, back to kind of
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our tech focus this hour. Uh, our team
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around the globe and across the United
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States continuing to report out on some
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of the big tech events that are
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happening on this Tuesday. Right now, we
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want to head to Google IO. It's Google's
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annual developer conference. It focuses
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on the company's advancements in AI,
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Android operating systems, smartwatches,
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and its scam detection tools. And Tim,
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it's happening right now in Mountain
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View, California. That's where we find
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Bloomberg News technology reporter
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Jackie Devalos with Google's Liz Reach.
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She's vice president and head of search
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at the firm. Hey Jackie. Hey Tim and
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Carol. Liz, it's great to have you
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today. A pleasure to be with you here
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today. The big news that came out of
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that keynote speech was really AI mode.
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It's what everyone was really hoping to
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get an insight into what's next for
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search. And you called it the most
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powerful search engine yet. describe to
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us why this is a total reimagining of
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the search experience. Yeah, I think um
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we've seen with AI overviews that it's
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been really great for people enabling
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them to ask new types of questions. Um
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but we also saw that people really
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wanted to say sometimes they have those
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hard questions, they want to go directly
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to an AI powered response. Um they
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wanted to ask follow-up questions
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because they're trying to do something
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in more depth in research. And so we
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really thought about what does that
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experience look like for people? um and
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how do we bring it in so that they can
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ask truly their hardest questions um and
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then continue to explore and take action
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throughout the web. So is this the end
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of the blue links? No, absolutely not.
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Um I think both within AI overviews and
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within AI mode, um AI is actually
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allowing us to go deeper into search,
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it's allowing people to find that hyper
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relevant, incredibly fresh content that
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really matches your need. Um if you
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think about it, if you were doing more
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of sort of a keywordy style, you only
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gave a few words. you didn't really
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describe what the particular type of
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shoes you want are. Um, and you saw with
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the shopping example today, okay, if
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you're really describing this is the
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type of rug I want to buy. Can you find
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that great small merchant that sells the
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perfect rug for you? And so I think that
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will continue to thrive going forward.
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One of the biggest questions has really
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around search has really come up around
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do I use one of these other chatbots
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open AAI uh for example or meta
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whatever's out there these days to kind
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of ask it these questions in the same
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way that I used to use uh Google search
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for when it comes to Google's products
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why do you want users do do you prefer
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to have users go through the Gemini app
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or to search kind of what's the unique
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benefit of going to search in the case
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for you know more specific and more
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complex questions. I think search is
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really designed around helping you with
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your information needs. Um it's tuned to
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really think about things like accuracy
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and factuality. Oftent times when you
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have these information needs, you want
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to get started, but then you want to go
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deeper and research more. Um let's say
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you're looking for camps. You want some
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good idea for camps, but then you
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actually want to check out the camp
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sites, right? Um and so search is really
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designed to make those questions
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possible. um and really focused on doing
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the best job possible when you have
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questions with really an information
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focus. You mentioned accuracy and Google
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had some issues with accuracy kind of in
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the more early days of this technology.
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How did you know that AI mode was ready
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for prime time? So we um have quite
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thorough testing that we do constantly.
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Um we have the feedback from the users
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in the labs product um but also put it
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through extensive testing around the
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factuality um around the helpfulness of
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the product and really seeing that both
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from our benchmarks as well as from the
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user feedback we believe it is ready.
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The agent kind of aspect to artificial
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intelligence is something that everyone
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is is really curious about when it comes
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to search. What do agents mean in that
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context? Is it going to be kind of us
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feeding information into search or kind
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of it doing it for us in the long run?
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Um I think maybe a couple of things to
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to highlight. Um we talked about how
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we're bringing Project Mariner in today
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to search um on those cases. For
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instance, you're trying to buy baseball
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tickets. You would have to go to
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hundreds of different sites, enter in
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the same day, the same number of tickets
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and go look at them. Um and we can go
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off and help pull that information
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together and then allow you to take
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action. Um but I think this is an
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important part of agents is agents
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should be taking um the drudgery out of
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the work for you. That's how we think
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about in search but still keeping you in
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control right um so what's the part of
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the task you don't want to do but then
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coming back and saying well which of
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these do you want right um I think if
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you're trying to pick tickets or you're
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trying to buy a great purse both of
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those at the end of the day you probably
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still want to sign off on that final
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choice. Um, and so we're really thinking
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about the role of both reducing the
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effort but enabling you, the agency, to
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participate. I'm hearing a lot about
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engagement. So users are going to be
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using this in a different way and
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possibly for longer and more
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efficiently. Earlier this year, an Apple
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executive said that the number of Google
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searches in the Safari browser was
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starting to tick down. Do you expect
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that AI mode could actually reverse that
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trend? Um so as we stated um overall
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search queries are up including on the
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Apple platforms. Um but I think you also
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heard from Sundar today AI overviews has
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driven an increase in queries already
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today. Um I think we expect with AI mode
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that that will happen as well. It's
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really an expansionary moment. Um
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there's a lot of questions that you
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might think about in your head but you
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didn't historically think it was worth
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the time or effort to go ask them. Um,
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and as technology unlocks this, we saw
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this with AIO reviews, people just come
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and they ask that question that used to
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pop in their head and they would let go
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and do that. And so we really expect the
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space to grow over time. One of the
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areas that I know publishers and content
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creators are really curious about is
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kind of what the longer term impact of
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AI overviews is on them. Can you kind of
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break down how you expect AI mode kind
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of largely available to affect that
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cohort? Um, so I would say two things.
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We saw with AI overviews um that pages
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with AI overviews drive higher quality
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clicks to websites um which means people
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spend more time on them. They're really
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engaged on them. So it's a good thing
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for publishers. So I think that's that's
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a great thing of getting really high
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quality content and and we are looking
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forward to doing the same thing with AI
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mode as well. I think we're going to
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continue to find um deeper parts of the
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web that really incredible hyper
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relevant content. Um, but I would also
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say I still expect the vast majority of
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people um to interact primarily on the
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main search experience with AI
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overviews. AI mode is really for those
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harder tasks. It's for the subset of
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people that really want to be on that
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sort of cutting edge frontier of models.
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Um, but AI overviews and the main search
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page continues to be a great place um
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for a lot of your questions. When it
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comes to antitrust, it's on our viewers
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minds. for Bloomberg and were really
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focused on what those implications could
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be on the broader business model. Uh a
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federal judge last year ruled that
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Google's dominance in search was an
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illegal monopoly and of course the
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outcome of that is still really uh yet
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to be seen. But for you in your shoes as
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head of search, how are you thinking
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about the effect that could have on your
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road map? So in general we stay just
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focused on building the best thing for
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our users. Um, people continue to choose
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Google because they find it helpful, not
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because they have to. Um, and that is
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really our northstar and has been for
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years. You go back to that mission of
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organizing all the world's information
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and make it universally accessible and
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useful. Um, we're a long ways away from
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the end of that, right? Um, yes, we've
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come a long way in the last 25 years,
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but there's still so many opportunities
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to make information more useful. Um, we
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talked today about how we think the
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future of search is going beyond
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information to intelligence, really
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helping you in a deep way with your
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needs and that's that's what gets us
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motivated every day. So, you don't see
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the outcome of that antirust trial kind
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of affecting uh your strategy in search
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going forward or slowing it down in any
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way? So, we don't generally comment on
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um pending legislation, but I think in
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general we'll continue to try and build
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um amazing products for users that
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people love just as we have over the
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last 25 years. Liz Reed, thanks so much
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for joining us. Thank you for joining.
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Have
