Google's AI Mode, moving simple search closer to more of an answer engine, has arrived in Australia.
This is one step further than AI Overviews which arrived in Australia 12 months ago.
Publishers and marketers fear another sharp drop in organic search traffic with AI Mode, which puts links further down the page.
The switch to AI search has already started to eat into organic traffic referrals online in Australia.
Data from digital market intelligence company Similarweb shows a more than 5% drop on news websites in Australia and a lot more to come.
The new AI Mode uses a custom version of Google Gemini models, allowing longer, more detailed questions without requiring multiple searches via text, image or voice.
The tool is built into Google’s search and uses a query fan-out technique, breaking questions up into subtopics and offering a follow-up of queries on the user’s behalf.
Users will be provided with web content and real-time sources such as the knowledge graph and shopping data.
The AI model works off Google’s quality and ranking systems to prevent misinformation.
Testing began in the US earlier this year.
High organic referral traffic sites such as the Washington Post and the HuffPost are down by up to half.
Google argues that clicks via AI Mode of better quality, with users spending more time on the websites they are directed to.
Hema Budaraju, vice president, product management, search, said AI Mode is already resonating with people who appreciate its speed, quality and fresh responses.
“Helping people discover content from across the web remains central to our mission,” Budaraju said.
“With AI Mode, you can express exactly what you are looking for, and get the right web content in a range of formats, with prominent links for people to click on.
“By expanding the types of questions people can ask, Google Search opens up new opportunities for content discovery.
“With AI Overviews, we’re seeing that people have been visiting a greater diversity of websites for help with more complex questions.
“And when people click from search result pages with AI Overviews, these clicks are higher quality for websites — meaning users are more likely to spend more time on the sites they visit.
“And in the months since we first started testing AI Mode, we've continued to evolve how we show links in responses to make it easier for people to continue their journeys on the web.”
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