Google search’s “AI summary” feature now available in more than 100 countries and regions, with more than 1 billion monthly users – GIGAZINE

Google is introducing a new feature called “Displaying AI-generated summaries in search results.”Overview by AI(AI Overviews)” was released in the United States on May 14, 2024. In August, it was announced that the service would be available in six new countries: the UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil, and from October 28th, it will be available in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. It has been announced.

AI Overviews in Google Search expanding to more than 100 countries
https://blog.google/products/search/ai-overviews-search-october-2024/

Find information in faster & easier ways with AI Overviews in Google Search – Google Search Help
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/14901683

Google’s AI Overview is rolling out worldwide | Mashable
https://mashable.com/article/google-ai-overview-launch-worldwide-global

AI-generated summary is a function that displays a “search result summary” generated by AI at the top of the search results. Below is an example of a search for “Congratulations if you can’t attend the wedding.” Above the search results that display sites related to the question, AI answers the question in natural language.

“Since we launched AI Overview in May and expanded outside the US in August, the feedback we’ve received has been extremely positive,” said Srinivasan Cheenu Venkachari, vice president of search quality team. People love searching with AI summaries and find search results more helpful. So now, in our biggest expansion to date, we’re launching AI summaries in over 100 countries and more. We’ve made it accessible in many languages, giving you a whole new way to search for any question you may have.” With expansion in more than 100 countries, more than 1 billion users worldwide will be using AI summaries every month, Venkachari said.

In addition, Hema Budaraju, Google’s senior director of search product management, told the web media Mashable, “AI summaries can create something better than what’s on the search page. It is not meant to completely replace a standard Google search, but rather as a starting point for further investigation, to quickly address more complex, nuanced questions, or those that don’t have immediate answers. They may not appear for simple questions that can be answered satisfactorily on the search results page, but will be added to searches where we think they add value.” In fact, when a marketing company investigated the appearance rate of AI-based summaries in the early stages of release, they found that the overall appearance rate dropped sharply from 84% to 15% within a month of release, and the appearance rate changed depending on the genre searched. It was reported that.

Although the overall appearance rate of “AI summary” in Google search results has decreased sharply from 84% to 15%, it is still high at 63% in healthcare-related cases – GIGAZINE

According to Google, after testing AI-powered summaries, users found search results with AI-powered summaries to be more helpful, with younger users between the ages of 18 and 24 showing more interest in AI-powered summaries. Apparently it was found to be expensive. There are also reports that users are staying longer on Google even when they don’t click on an AI-generated answer. Mashable says, “We can expect this to mean people are being more cautious and should thoroughly double-check information provided by trusted sources.”

For regions where AI-powered summaries are available, seeCountries and regions where Search Labs and experimental versions are availableYou can check from the page. At the time of writing, it is available in seven languages: English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish, and in more than 120 countries and regions.