What's next short term is to get testing: If we do that we'll see how it'll benefit websites and publishers.
... and searchers / consumers.
Me thinks that commerce will always be impossible to achieve perfect results in competitive verticals, because:
1/ Commercial Bias (including sponsored results for monetization purposes versus relevant non paying options)
2/ SEO Manipulation (the bigger the company budget and expertise the more those websites feature and rank higher. This doesn't always match the quality or relevance of the content but rather with the corresponding SEO strategies.
3/ Disintermediation ( direct access to consumers aiming to bypass intermediaries and reach consumers directly, leading to biased information as businesses promote their products as the best option without third-party validation.
4/ Fragmented Information (with businesses trying to control the narrative and reach customers directly, information can become fragmented and harder to find in one comprehensive source).
5/Marketing "Bullsh*t": ( Overhyped Claims: Businesses often use exaggerated claims and buzzwords to attract attention. This can make it challenging to discern genuine value from marketing BS).
6/ Lack of Transparency: (Companies may withhold critical information or present it in a misleading way to make their offerings seem more appealing).
7/ Relevance vs. Accuracy: (Search engine algorithms are designed to prioritize relevance based on user behavior, which doesn't always equate to accuracy or quality).
8/ Content Freshness: (Algorithms may favour newer content, which isn't always the most comprehensive or accurate, especially in commercial queries where the latest product might not be the best).
9/ User Intent and Query Ambiguity:(Ambiguous Queries: Users often input vague or ambiguous queries, making it difficult for search engines to understand and provide the perfect answer).
10/ Varied User Intent: Different users have different needs and contexts, even for the same query. What is perfect for one user might not be for another.
11/ Volume of Information: (Information Overload: The sheer volume of information available can overwhelm users and make it difficult to find the most relevant and accurate answer.
12/ Quality Control: (Not all information indexed by search engines is of high quality. Sorting through the noise to find valuable content remains a challenge).
13/ Personalization: (Personalized Results: Search engines tailor results based on user data and past behaviour, which can lead to echo chambers and a lack of diverse perspectives. I'm not sure that AI will overcome this any time soon. This personalization might not always align with finding the perfect commercial answer).
The one thing that can set SearchGPT apart (and other upcoming search engines) is it's improvement over the current search and presentation paradigms (aka Google) which need to hang on to advertising revenues which clutter results quality, and in many cases do not favour searchers and consumers. Once searchers find a better way to find what they want then a significant shift is possible IMO.
But search can never be entirely accurate, otherwise the term "search" and resulting business would not exist.
SearchGPT may only be amplifying competitive evolution amongst major stakeholders such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook etc and new incumbents.
Let's see what the next steps bring.
