Brand News: OpenAI's SearchGPT vs. Google - Revolutionizing the Search Landscape

Discover how OpenAI's latest venture, SearchGPT, is poised to shake up the online search landscape, potentially dethroning Google Search by the end of 2024. What could this mean for the way we explore information on the internet, and how will it impact content creators and website owners? Tune into Brand News as we tackle this intriguing topic, offering insights into how SearchGPT plans to deliver streamlined, clutter-free answers while still driving traffic to the original sources. We'll discuss why balancing instant answers with encouraging users to dive deeper into content is crucial for this new search technology.

Join us as we unravel the potential challenges and opportunities awaiting OpenAI in the quest for harmonious relationships with content publishers. How will incentivizing content sharing and ensuring proper traffic flow to original creators change the game? As we analyze the implications on user interaction and the dynamics of search engines, we'll speculate on whether SearchGPT can maintain the delicate equilibrium between providing quick answers and fostering curiosity. Prepare to be captivated by a conversation full of insights, predictions, and perhaps a glimpse into the future of online search.

The Digital Horizons Podcast is hosted by:

James Walker - Managing Director WHD
Brian Hastings - Managing Director Nous

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back to Brand News, and today we're going to
be talking about OpenAI tointegrate SearchGPT into ChatGPT
before the end of 2024.
So what we're saying here isthat ChatGPT is going to
seriously enter the searchmarket as a competitor to Google
Search.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, google's been scrambling to introduce AI tools
into search.
We've already talked about thison the podcast, with its
bungled attempts to provide AIoverviews, where we got recipes
that included glue to hold thecheese to a pizza and rocks
added to recipes to help withdigestion.
They've obviously been workingon the kinks of that, but it's

(00:45):
all been generated in fear ofwhat is coming, and that's this
open AI to create SearchGPT.
Yeah, joy I'm having in usingChatGPT.
I'm definitely going to useSearchGPT.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, I think it'll be an interesting change.
I mean, we've been so used to,and sort of confined to, only
having Google as a tool, so it'dbe interesting to see how it
differs.
There's been a beta mode out,so it's been out since July, and
it only has 10,000 userscurrently on it within the US.
So I think that they'veobviously got a very far way to
go to be a strong player in thesearch market.
But being that they've got sucha strong usage already from

(01:18):
ChatGPT, you feel like it's notgoing to be a hard sell to get
people across into this new sortof style of search to find
answers that you're looking for.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
How do you think this is going to impact those with
the websites with the content onit?

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, so they have mentioned on there is that
obviously the chat GPT ispulling information from the
websites and so for people whoare creating content and that's
going to, and then if they wereto lose traffic, it's going to
disincentivize people fromactually putting stuff on the
internet, because if they stopgetting traffic, because
everyone's doing this and it'sall falling within ChatGPT, then
you're not going to have anycontent to pull from because
people aren't going to put thecontent there.
So they're talking about at themoment the incentivized scheme

(01:52):
that they're doing is to giveyou traffic.
Yes, so they're not going to payyou but they're going to send
traffic to your website becausewhat they're saying at OpenAI is
that, well, people are going towant to get the information.
They're going to see a snippet.
It's going to provide them theanswer.
Because they're saying that alot of times when you're on
Google, you're trying to searchfor a thing, but then you get a
list of 20 different thingswithin a listicle site, which is
people trying to get affiliatelinks or whatever.
It's quite hard to get youranswer sometimes, whereas the

(02:18):
way they're positioning this isthey want to give the answer to
the thing that people are goingto want to be like, all right,
cool, well, I'm going to verifythis.
I want to get a bit more deeperinto this, and that's where
websites and publishers aregoing to be able to see the
benefit from this platform.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, if they bungle that relationship between the
original owner of the contentand the end user, they're going
to have an issue where peoplearen't going to want to share
their content.
But I think it is in their bestinterest to provide that
traffic or inspire the user toflow through to the end sites as
a reward for offering thetraffic to begin with.

(02:53):
So it'll be interesting to seehow that works.
I know when I do Googlesearches and the snippets bring
back, say, a list of four things, and it says five more rows,
you've got to see the site.
For the rest of it, I dogenerally flow through, but if
it's like movie times or simpleanswers, currency exchanges,
things like that, I'm not goingany further.

(03:13):
Snippets are working for thosecases.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, snippets are working for that case.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
yeah, but maybe it's top five laptops to buy this
year.
They might find a way to givean overview, but the more detail
is available on the inside.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah Well, it'd be interesting to see I mean, this
is very early days It'd beinteresting to see where the ad
side of things fall into this,because if they can capture a
sizable amount of traffic that'scoming through, will ads be
delivered?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Because you'd expect, as a business, you'd want the
opportunity to be able to showup in that if you've got an
answer that's going to provide aresponse for someone who's
searching, and will that reducethe perceived quality of the GPT
answer if it can be gamed bypaid advertisers?

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, but then does it need to?
If it, potentially, then itcould just use its
subscription-based model, whichGoogle obviously doesn't have
the subscription-based soinstead people are using the
access platform to get theinformation, get enough users on
it.
Maybe that doesn't require thead revenue.
Yeah, they can do it without us, that's right.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Let's hope not.
But yeah, I think you're right,they haven't needed.
They've sort of GPT-5 isn'tgoing to need the paid
subscription that GPT-4 needed.
So, they don't really careabout the paid subscription, not
at this point, but I guessthere will be a time for
monetization right, yeah,absolutely.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
So we're going to get into.
I guess at the end of the year,as soon as this does roll out,
we'll make sure we do afollow-up episode and see how we
find the process of using itand hopefully people can give us
some feedback on how they'vebeen using it as well.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Thanks, that's brand news for this week.
We'll see you next week.