Nothing is unassailable. Even Google Search.

I was just yesterday working on a presentation about my VIP Marketing Method (ask me about it anytime) and one thing in there was about the absolute nature of Google’s hold over search. Once upon a time, there was choice. Now, effectively, only Google matters.

And then today we hear that OpenAI’s GPT-4o is coming with features designed to create a fully convincing AI companion (like the movie ‘Her’).

It seems improbable to me that OpenAI is not working on search, as extended search capabilities would be a core part of an enablement that would create a more capable voice assistant than Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa (with the latter it’s hard to imagine how it could be any less capable). Google will clearly leverage search in future generations of Gemini, and unlike in phones, where owning search wasn’t a battle worth fighting, AI search is a high value and potentially differentiated feature. 

Hang on! I hear you say, isn’t search basically paid for by advertising? How will that work with AI chatbots? Don’t worry… there are many ways. Already key AI models are paid for, unlike search engines: I shell out about $20 for GhatGPT (Gemini is similarly priced as part of Google One AI) and another $60 or so for specialist tools. Or, specialist AI enabled search, like data analytics could command a per use fee. Personalisation, smart filters, etc. could be paid for too. That’s the tip of the iceberg. Soon text based search could look as quaint as those pages that sold ad space by the pixel...

The Million Dollar Homepage. Source: Wikipedia.