Pichai says Search should be less opinionated on some queries

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 21:07

   for however many years decades now the go google it and you'll get an answer and that answer is the same for you and me generally has been a very important idea like i think a fixture in the culture maybe google is the last company saying it will just tell you the truth out of all the companies out there okay we're going to infinitely personalize the search box we're going going to infinitely personalize the search experience.

2. 21:29

   And we're all going to get different answers to queries. We're all going to maybe even look at different interfaces, depending on what we're asking, what our personal context is, how much data Google has. Do you think about that profoundly? How much can you destabilize the last sort of common source of truth most people experience on the internet? Look, I think there are factors well beyond our control, which is people today have a wider variety of sources than ever before.

3. 21:56

   So I think, you know, people are getting content from so many different sources. But within the world of Google, I still think we deeply care about this being a source of knowledge and information. I think there are objective experiences and subjective experiences, right? What's the capital of the USA? You know, it's not going to be custom created for anyone, right? These are objective things. Help me plan a nice trip to Montreal for a weekend.

4. 22:24

   you know, naturally, the answers don't need to be the same for everyone, right? So there is a continuum there. I do think the more, you know, so we deeply care about, you know, for certain categories of information, we do still anchor around authoritative information to present as much of an objective view as possible. And if it is health-related queries, we naturally tend to show more authoritative answers than if you're saying, you know, what sweater should I go by?

5. 23:04

   Yeah. Can I show you a search result? A few years ago, I showed you a search result. I've been tracking this one for years. I always love amongst the 10 trillion queries. Yes. Well, this one's a favorite. We have a very scientific, statistical way of doing this. I think this is important. And I want to get into how consumers might be experiencing these products. So this is a search I just do all the time for best Chromebook. I'll just show it to you. There it is. So it starts with an AI overview. It just very confidently tells you the answer. And then there's a bunch of sponsored boxes. And then the one that gets me is right below that. I believe the result is Reddit. And it has a top result in Reddit. It's actually a different answer than the AI overview. And then there's like the Times, which has a different answer. And you kind of scroll

6. 23:43

   this and you're like, the AI overview is telling me one thing. The first organic result is like fairly down the page. And all of these are different answers. And I hear what you're saying about objective results and subject results. What laptop should I buy is somewhere in the middle of those things, right? And I'm just curious how you think that experience for consumers is today in AI mode and where you think it should go? Look, I think, I mean, to be very clear, in the world of AI, always in AI mode, we are organizing, giving context, but there are sources throughout. So you're still presenting organic content in a different way, right? So, I mean, there are links and sources you're giving to, but there is an opinion to go with it too, which is what you're talking about. I do think, you know, some of this will be iterative with

7. 24:32

   users right i think um one of the great things we find with with search is it's easy to measure user satisfaction for 25 years we've learned to measure user happiness user satisfaction in a correlated way with improving the quality of the product not for short term so that's why we do these long-term studies and if we get wrong or get get any experience wrong it shows in the metrics and we course correct.

8. 25:00

   Yeah. Right. And we pride on the ability to track this over longer term, be it engagements, sessions, you know, returning to a topic, the number of bounce backs they do. So very, very sophisticated way of looking at it. I think in some areas like that, I think the experience will continue to evolve. You're right. Do you think that experience is good today? I think it's probably more opinionated than it should be for the particular query you showed me.

9. 25:31

   That's how that was my reaction as a user. So I think that's the scope for improvement is how I would say in a fast evolving space. But I would expect that to happen in the product.