We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

ablation

Well, yes. I mean of course they are. They're an ad company.

amazingamazing

Surprised it took this long.

wompapumpum

Please let me advertise beside incorrect content

swiftcoder

...was this ever in doubt? Search accounts for >50% of alphabet's total revenue - they are hardly going to kill the golden goose intentionally

Eldodi

It will be interesting how hidden those ads will be compared to current Search experience or what OpenAI is already doing. It's a lot easier to mislead a user with an AI generated ad that with a Search result IMHO, I'm betting on a huige backlash if they don't make it VERY clear that ads are ads.

FinnKuhn

I would have expected them to wait with ads until OpenAI starts first and users switch to Gemini. Google is probably the player that could afford to wait the longest with this and increase their market share that way.

karlkloss

Does nobody talk abot the elephant in the room? Will the answers the AI gives also be influenced by Googles customers?

Trias11

Yeah, Lets build the next generation AI and slap an ads on it for a good measure.

_3u10

Fuck yes. I was worried about not having ads and google providing useful results again. The last time i clicked on an AI link it took me to a page that wasn’t just more google ads or SEo bullshit. It was very disappointing I was looking forward to accidentally clicking more ads and instead found information relevant to what I wanted to know.

nelblu

> We’re introducing more helpful ads in AI Mode I always chuckle when ad companies say that. I have never seen a helpful ad in google search, but well I have been using adblockers forever so I would not know.I am honestly curious though, for those who don't use adblockers - what percentage of ads that you see are actually helpful?

schnitzelstoat

I've tried the AI mode and it seems to basically give the same results as a ChatGPT query - which raises the question why use Google AI mode and not ChatGPT? (or any other of the similar models?)

woeirua

Google has to do this to protect their ad revenue. But… Anthropic doesn’t have to do ads (OpenAI might have to for their free tier) and if the ads degrade the experience too much then people will just abandon Google/Gemini for search entirely.

pelagicAustral

What I am really waiting for is ads on my commit messages.

_3u10

Will I be able to pay google to make its Claude code write code that uses left pad as a service.

jdw64

I wonder whose bright idea it was to label ads as 'helpful'. Do Google execs actually look for ads first when they google a question?

gsky

Most ads i see on YouTube are outright scams. Google and Meta are so evil.

anonzzzies

So every search will now result in an ad and/or hallucination?

rashar

Ads and population control by propaganda are the future of AI. GenAI in other fields is useless and only promoted by charlatans or the financially invested.

techterrier

dog barks, more at 11

cryo32

Dear customers, we regret to inform you that the existing hallucinations now include biased trash.