Casey Newton writing for Platformer: Google’s Broken Link to the Web

Aside from the opening act, the TikTok DJ Marc Rebillet, no creator, developer, or startup took the stage. Instead, a handful of celebrities appeared in brief videos, with Wyclef Jean enthusing over AI music tools and Donald Glover experimenting with AI filmmaking. To the extent there was an obvious opportunity, it was to use Google’s products, covering a bewildering array of tasks, from homework to shopping to moving to celebrating an anniversary.

This is something I’ve noticed for years at this point as well. Yes, there is some developer stuff here, but if you’re not doing AI stuff, this entire event wasn’t for you. And if you’re an Android user wondering what cool things Google is doing that will make your iPhone friends jealous, you basically weren’t even mentioned.

I turned the event off before it was even done. I use Google’s products and enjoy the ones I use, but this whole presentation just made me feel nothing.

The company’s AI-powered search results, which it calls Search Generative Experience, are coming to all users in the United States soon, Google announced today. By the end of 2024, they will appear at the top of results for 1 billion users.

Honestly I’m wondering how the general public feels about these responses appended to the top of their searches, because I find them absolutely interminable and just push the actual stuff I want even further down the page.

Tired: scrolling past the ads to see the results.

Wired: scrolling past the AI nonsense and the ads to get to the results.

We’ll see how this goes.