Google Search: Difference between revisions
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Google Search is a search engine created and developed by [[Google|Google LLC]]. It was released on September 27th, 1998. | Google Search is a search engine created and developed by [[Google|Google LLC]]. It was released on September 27th, 1998. | ||
==Consumer | ==Consumer impact summary== | ||
*'''User privacy:''' Google Search stores long-term cookies to save user's preferences, something that has raised privacy concerns. | |||
Google Search stores long-term cookies to save user's preferences, something that has raised privacy concerns. | |||
*'''User freedom:''' Some features such as AI overview or AI mode cannot be completely disabled. The user cannot change the ranking of results other than by crafting queries and changing keywords. Google adds positive bias for ads and partner sites such as [[Reddit]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Expanding our Partnership with Google |url=https://redditinc.com/news/reddit-and-google-expand-partnership |url-status=live |website=[[Reddit]] |date=22 Feb 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251213184611/https://redditinc.com/news/reddit-and-google-expand-partnership |archive-date=2025-12-13 |access-date=12 Dec 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=An expanded partnership with Reddit |url=https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/company-announcements/expanded-reddit-partnership/ |url-status=live |website=Google Blog |first=Rajan |last=Patel |date=22 Feb 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260112081436/https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/company-announcements/expanded-reddit-partnership/ |archive-date=2026-01-12 |access-date=12 Jan 2026}}</ref> | |||
Some features such as | |||
=== | *'''Business model:''' Google Search engine gets revenue from ads shown at the top of search results. | ||
Google Search engine gets revenue from ads shown at the top of search results. | |||
*'''Market control:''' Google Search engine is the most used search engine in the world. According to StatCounter, Google Search has a 90.2% market share as of April 2026.<ref>{{Cite web |publisher=StatCounter |date=Apr 2026 |title=Search Engine Market Share Worldwide |url=https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260518141238/https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share |archive-date=2026-05-18 |access-date=21 May 2026 |website=StatCounter}}</ref> They pay [[Apple]] and [[Mozilla]] to be the default search engine on [[Safari]] and [[Firefox]], respectively. | |||
Google Search engine is the most used search engine in the world. According to StatCounter, Google Search has a 90.2% market share as of April 2026. <ref>{{Cite web |publisher=StatCounter |date=Apr 2026 |title=Search Engine Market Share Worldwide |url=https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260518141238/https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share |archive-date=2026-05-18 |access-date=21 May 2026 |website=StatCounter}}</ref> | |||
==Incidents== | ==Incidents== | ||
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===AI Overview (2023)=== | ===AI Overview (2023)=== | ||
In May 2023, Google announced Search Generative Experience (SGE) for Google Search. AI Overview was released in May 2024 in the US | In May 2023, Google announced Search Generative Experience (SGE) for Google Search. AI Overview was released in May 2024 in the US, as an AI-powered feature that appears at the top of search results, showing an AI-generated summary of the search query. | ||
It has been critiziced for giving false information due to [[wikipedia:Hallucination_(artificial_intelligence)|hallucinations]] that even involved into suggesting to perform harmful activities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McMahon|first=Lov |last2=Kleinman |first2=Zoe |date=24 May 2024 |title=Glue pizza and eat rocks: Google AI search errors go viral |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd11gzejgz4o |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241008234240/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd11gzejgz4o |archive-date=2024-10-08|access-date=25 May 2026 |website=BBC}}</ref> There's also criticism for its energy and resource consumption and how these summaries prevent people to access to web sites in order to get the information. | |||
The implementation of this feature has ended in some cases involving lawsuits due to the misinformation provided by hallucinations<ref>{{Cite web |last=Martin|first=Emmy |date=13 Jun 2025|title=Minnesota Solar Company Sues Google Over AI Summary |url=https://www.govtech.com/public-safety/minnesota-solar-company-sues-google-over-ai-summary |url-status=live|access-date=25 May 2026 |website=Government Technology}}</ref><ref>https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.225722/gov.uscourts.mnd.225722.1.1.pdf</ref> and site owners suing Google for copyright infringements and antitrust practices. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Meen|first=Andy |date=14 Sep 2025|title=Why Rolling Stone Owner Penske Media Just Declared War On Google|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/andymeek/2025/09/14/why-rolling-stone-owner-penske-media-just-declared-war-on-google/ |url-status=live |access-date=25 May 2026 |website=Forbes}}</ref> | |||
There's no official method to completely disable AI Overview. However, | There's no official method to completely disable AI Overview from search results. However, adding <code>-ai</code> at the end of search queries prevents the AI Overview to appear. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Stimac|first=Blake |date=20 Apr 2026 |title=How to Tell Google's AI Features to Leave You Alone, Once and for All |url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/how-to-tell-googles-ai-features-to-leave-you-alone-once-and-for-all/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260524051148/https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/how-to-tell-googles-ai-features-to-leave-you-alone-once-and-for-all/ |archive-date=2026-05-24 |access-date=25 May 2026 |website=CNet}}</ref> | ||
===AI Mode (2025)=== | ===AI Mode (2025)=== | ||
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{{reflist}} | {{reflist}} | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Google| ]] | ||
[[Category:Products]] | |||
Latest revision as of 15:29, 25 May 2026
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| Basic Information | |
|---|---|
| Release Year | 1998 |
| Product Type | Search Engine |
| In Production | Yes |
| Official Website | https://www.google.com |
Google Search is a search engine created and developed by Google LLC. It was released on September 27th, 1998.
Consumer impact summary
[edit | edit source]- User privacy: Google Search stores long-term cookies to save user's preferences, something that has raised privacy concerns.
- User freedom: Some features such as AI overview or AI mode cannot be completely disabled. The user cannot change the ranking of results other than by crafting queries and changing keywords. Google adds positive bias for ads and partner sites such as Reddit.[1][2]
- Business model: Google Search engine gets revenue from ads shown at the top of search results.
- Market control: Google Search engine is the most used search engine in the world. According to StatCounter, Google Search has a 90.2% market share as of April 2026.[3] They pay Apple and Mozilla to be the default search engine on Safari and Firefox, respectively.
Incidents
[edit | edit source]Integration of ads in the search engine
[edit | edit source]The search engine didn't have any ads at the beginning, but since October 2000, Google integrated ads at the top of the search results, being easily differenciable from regular search links. Over time, the platform has modified the hyperlink ads appearence to disguise them better as regular links.
Since 2000, these ads appeared at first in a yellow section, highlighting the hyperlinks inside that section were ads [citation needed]. Later this was modified, and the yellow section was removed and hyperlinks that were ads showed a small "ad" label next to them [citation needed]. In 2022, these labels were removed, and a "Sponsored" section was created. Links in this section have a similar appearence to links that are not ads. [4]
Priorization of showing sites with AI-generated content in Search results
[edit | edit source]On January 30th 2026, Louis Rossmann uploaded a video on YouTube [5] evidencing how Google Search SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has been modified to penalize web sites that do not contain AI-generated text. On February 12, he uploaded another video, showing how he managed to make his website the first on the search results page by adding AI-generated text to the site. [6]
Presence of malicious websites on search results
[edit | edit source]AI Overview (2023)
[edit | edit source]In May 2023, Google announced Search Generative Experience (SGE) for Google Search. AI Overview was released in May 2024 in the US, as an AI-powered feature that appears at the top of search results, showing an AI-generated summary of the search query.
It has been critiziced for giving false information due to hallucinations that even involved into suggesting to perform harmful activities.[7] There's also criticism for its energy and resource consumption and how these summaries prevent people to access to web sites in order to get the information.
The implementation of this feature has ended in some cases involving lawsuits due to the misinformation provided by hallucinations[8][9] and site owners suing Google for copyright infringements and antitrust practices. [10]
There's no official method to completely disable AI Overview from search results. However, adding -ai at the end of search queries prevents the AI Overview to appear. [11]
AI Mode (2025)
[edit | edit source]AI mode is a feature introduced for Google Search in 2025 as an alternative form to search information on the web. It uses a chat interface and artificial intelligence to search the web and find the content that might be relevant for the user. Like AI overview, there's no official way to disable this feature.
In 2026, Google will introduce integrated ads into AI overview and AI mode. These ads might appear in the conversations with Google's AIs with a similar appearence to a regular answer, but they contain a small "sponsored" tag at the top of the reply, something that might be hard do identify at first glance. This form of integration has raised privacy and concerns about the potential usage of AI for manipulation and potential integrations that might make nearly impossible to differentiate between content that is and isn't an ad. [12]
Additional AI integrations in Google Search (2026)
[edit | edit source]On May 19th, 2026, during the Google I/O were announced additional AI integrations for the search engine. These integrations involve modifications of the Search box and integration of Google Gemini Flash 3.5, predictive algorithms and the integration of "Search Agents", customizable AI agents dedicated to operate and search in user's behalf[13].[14]
These announcements sparked controversies involving AI mistakes, privacy concerns, integration of unnecessary features, environmental impact, reduction of human visits on websites and the possible control over the results a user can see.
Lawsuit
[edit | edit source]United States vs. Google (2020)
[edit | edit source]See also
[edit | edit source]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ "Expanding our Partnership with Google". Reddit. 22 Feb 2024. Archived from the original on 2025-12-13. Retrieved 12 Dec 2025.
- ↑ Patel, Rajan (22 Feb 2024). "An expanded partnership with Reddit". Google Blog. Archived from the original on 2026-01-12. Retrieved 12 Jan 2026.
- ↑ "Search Engine Market Share Worldwide". StatCounter. StatCounter. Apr 2026. Archived from the original on 2026-05-18. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
- ↑ "The word "ad" will no longer appear in Google search advertising, and company names and logos will also be added". LinkedIn. ScaleUp Marketing Solutions. 18 Oct 2022. Archived from the original on 2026-05-22. Retrieved 22 May 2026.
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II2QF9JwtLc
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uKZ84zwJI0
- ↑ McMahon, Lov; Kleinman, Zoe (24 May 2024). "Glue pizza and eat rocks: Google AI search errors go viral". BBC. Archived from the original on 2024-10-08. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
- ↑ Martin, Emmy (13 Jun 2025). "Minnesota Solar Company Sues Google Over AI Summary". Government Technology. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.225722/gov.uscourts.mnd.225722.1.1.pdf
- ↑ Meen, Andy (14 Sep 2025). "Why Rolling Stone Owner Penske Media Just Declared War On Google". Forbes. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Stimac, Blake (20 Apr 2026). "How to Tell Google's AI Features to Leave You Alone, Once and for All". CNet. Archived from the original on 2026-05-24. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
- ↑ Hawkins, Josh (21 May 2026). "Google's new AI search ads are designed to look like helpful answers". Make Use Of. Archived from the original on 2026-05-22. Retrieved 22 May 2026.
- ↑ Reid, Elizabeth (19 May 2026). "A new era for AI Search". Google Blog. Archived from the original on 2026-05-19. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
- ↑ Yildrim, Ece (19 May 2026). "Google Search Is Dead. Welcome to the Era of the 'Intelligent Search Box'". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 2026-05-19. Retrieved 21 May 2026.