SearchGPT launch
OpenAI is testing a fully fledged Search Engine powered by ChatGPT: SearchGPT https://chatgpt.com/search
The new iteration of the AI powered search engine brings mind blowing new features like.. links to content, images, video, live content and rich graphic experiences. Wow. Sounds like Google 15 years ago – you might think.
Despite none of this being "new", this is a milestone for OpenAI. The new interface opens up major opportunities and risks.
Is it mainstream yet?
Seems like it's taking forever before it is announced: ChatGPT and Gemini is already used by millions of consumers to make purchase decisions and pick service providers, their holiday destination, or even their car. But we don't really know that yet and there isn't compelling data that shows ChatGPT is used by the mainstream yet. Despite many of us being certain it will be soon.
Early adopters are certainly using ChatGPT in favour of Google Search for a large portion of their research and search queries, and research has shown that 74% of consumers trust AI assistant recommendations.
I think we're about to find out soon. One of the side-effects of SearchGPT, is that website analytics tools will start recording HTTP referrer traffic from SearchGPT links. So hopefully we will begin seeing some real data on the number of referrals driven by OpenAI.
Ultimately, what we marketers want to know is: Is OpenAI mainstream? Can we buy ads yet? How do we optimise AI rankings (LLM SEO?).
Apropos, I notice there is a lot of space in the new SearchGPT UI for Paid Search Ads on the left hand side. Don't you think? I would not be surprised if OpenAI is already working behind the scenes with top travel, e-commerce and Digital Ad management tools – testing ad formats and bidding APIs.
And as far as LLM SEO and brand tracking is concerned - did I mention https://rankbee.ai/ is soon launching an AI assistant analysis and optimisation tool? Follow RankBee to get early access 😄
What about the New York Times?
Well ok this is a topic that peeks my interest – it's about how AI hoovers up all the information that all of us (including companies like the NYT) have painstakenly created, and then uses it to make money for OpenAI and wipes out the creators from the value chain.
You see, the NY Times is pissed off with ChatGPT and is suing them – because when ChatGPT users ask questions like, "why did Sam Altman face a board of directors revolt?" – ChatGPT is allegedly using verbatim quotes from the NY Times, without any attribution. Hence arguably using their content to build a (paid) service with their customers and API users – without paying the NY Times for it.
By providing links to external sites through SearchGPT, OpenAI is defusing a brewing storm from publishers like the New York Times and top retailers like Amazon, who have opposed direct indexation from OpenAI.
You see the NY Times and Amazon, spent years building direct relationships with their customers. NYT readers get their news from their app through their subscription, and Amazon Prime subscribers, shop directly from Amazon.
Amazon.com/robots.txt & NYtimes.com/robots.txt:
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /ChatGPT is a threat to publishers and category leaders in retail, travel etc – because if an AI assistant can successfully fulfil customers desires directly, without the consumer visiting the brand's website for the majority of their journey, the consumer relationship shifts. NYT, Amazon and Expedia become a commodity, and ChatGPT becomes the relationship owner with the customer. Example: "buy me a toaster that fits our kitchen", or "Read me my morning news" or "give me some options for an easter school-break holiday".
In any number of these queries, ChatGPT can shop retailers and content sources, and decide for you, where to get the information from and what to recommend buying. So ultimately, the AI bot guides your purchase decisions without you forming an affinity towards any other brand - or without even being aware of other brands. Big brands don't like that.
By providing SearchGPT as a separate service to ChatGPT, OpenAI is likely to give more options to publishers like Amazon or the NYTimes to form customer relationships and participate in their platform. NYT articles will link to their publisher, Amazon products will link to Amazon, and holiday prices will link to Expedia.
SEO guess: From a technical SEO point of view, we should expect to see new bot definitions for SearchGPT, that allows publishers to share their content with SearchGPT but not ChatGPT.
