Google’s Project Magi Will Change How We Search Online

What Is Google’s Project Magi?

Changes are coming to Google search, so as a marketer you will want to be prepared. Google has 160 developers busily working on Project Magi, an AI-powered search engine that’s going to change how your customers search and even make purchases on the Internet.

Project Magi’s goal is to create a search engine that is more conversational than Google is currently, that is more personalized and that enables transactions right on Google without need to go to the business’s website.

Google’s extensive resources enabled it to launch a trial of Project Magi to one million US users in May 2023. They are expected to launch it to 30 million users by the end of this year. Google is also expected to add more features sometime during the fourth quarter.

When will Project Magi be fully launched for public use? The jury is still out.

But before that happens, Google will be upgrading its current search engine with AI features.

Why Is Google So Focused on Project Magi?

Google is accustomed to its search engine handling 92% of the world’s searches. Bing has always trailed behind at only 2.9%.

According to The New York Times, Google’s reaction was surprise and panic when they learned in March that Samsung was considering replacing Google with Bing as the default search engine on its mobile devices.

Why would such a blasphemy even come up in casual conversation at Samsung, much less be under serious consideration?

Because in February, Bing announced it was planning to integrate Open AI’s premiere artificial intelligence natural language model everyone is talking about into Bing – ChatGPT. Integrating ChatGPT has gone a long way to putting Bing back on everyone’s radar.

It was incumbent on Google to take swift action. The Samsung contract is worth $3 billion to Google, not to mention that the Apple contract would soon be up for renewal to the tune of $20 billion. A lot of companies that thought they were unshakeable have fallen because they were not flexible or visionary enough to correct course according to market and competitive conditions.

AI technology is now going to be the source of competition for Google, so they need to get ahead of the game. Project Magi will be a direct competitor to ChatGPT-fueled Bing, but will also take it to the next level… or even the next several levels.

But Wasn’t Google Already Developing AI products?

Google has actually been working on AI research for years particularly at its well respected London-based DeepMind lab. For example, it has developed language models that have been used in chatbot development. and it has developed AI for self-driving automobiles. But the Google search engine has not been totally AI-driven, because of the challenges of keeping information accurate.

Two of the Google products in the news are Bard and Gemini.

• Bard: Those who have been paying attention are already aware that Google released its own chatbot, Bard. However, Bard’s reception has been less than stellar.
• Gemini: Many may also be aware that Google’s DeepMind is very close to releasing Gemini, a large language model which will compete with ChatGPT. Gemini will be trained not just on text but on other media such as images. That means you can input images and also get image output.

What Will Google’s Project Magi Offer?

Project Magi is developing a full-fledged search engine based on AI and arguably more powerful than any we have seen.

• Transactions right in Google: Transactions will be able to take place right in Google without the need to go to a business’s website. This is similar to how it’s currently possible to make purchases within social media today.
• Ads will remain, but may change: Unlike Bard, Project Magi is expected to keep ads in search results as well as organic results. Ads may change from a cost per click (CPC) model to a cost per action (CPA) model so your clients only pay when a customer buys something or completes some other specified action.
• More conversational search: Project Magi will respond to conversational searches better than current search engines. It will be better programmed for conversational searches that are more common with ChatGPT and voice search.
• Multimedia search: It will be able to understand and contextualize not only text on websites but also multimedia such as images and videos.
• Personalized search results: Search results for each user will be personalized over time. The more you use it, the more you will see results that reflect your interests. This means fewer irrelevant results.
• Better user experience: Because it will be both more conversational, visual and relevant, it will give users a more natural, engaging experience.

Umbrella Is Ready

In order to deliver the best SEO, advertising and website experiences, it’s necessary to keep up on the latest technology. And major changes from Google such as Project Magi cannot be ignored. If you want help with white label marketing to your clients, schedule a free consultation by calling (866) 760-2638 or complete the form on this page.