Hey there!

Happy Tuesday! Today we are packed with news from giants all around. Alphabet is looking to acquire HubSpot, Adobe brings new features to Premier Pro and Meta is testing AI search bars. But our main point of discussion is about Search. Will AI kill SEO? Or will it become just another search engine?

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Search Is Dead. Long Live Search.

AI continues to evolve and concerns about its impact on search engines and SEO are prevalent. We’ve covered extensively the growth of Perplexity (a favorite of ours), as well as attempts by platforms like ChatGPT to potentially enter the Search arena currently dominated by Google. These are seen by some as a potential threat to traditional search methods. However, the reality suggests a different narrative.

Search is fundamentally about choice, and while AI-powered search can offer some options, they will always be limited compared to the vast array of results provided by traditional search engines.

Voice search, powered by AI assistants such as Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa, has not taken off as expected because it only satisfies searches that can be answered with a single response. More complex searches, such as finding the best beach vacation destinations, require refinements that are easier to make when choices are presented visually.

Search engines are the digital equivalent of a grocery store's cereal shelf, offering users a wide range of options to suit their tastes and preferences. Even with deep personalization powered by AI, human emotions and desires can drive different choices.

Moreover, users don't just need the top ten results on a search engine's first page; there are hundreds and thousands of results on further pages that provide value. If there was no benefit in having more than ten results for any given query, search engines would have removed that option years ago.

While AI-only language models may not fully replace search engines, there is a substantial threat from generative AI hybrid engines like Google's SGE. This allows users to have quick answers while retaining the ability to choose, making SEO more crucial than ever. SEO professionals must position their brands to be highlighted in these AI-generated summaries, which are likely to be based on top-ranking results.

SEO is adapting to the changing algorithms and user behaviors driven by AI. Critical aspects of SEO remain vital, but the focus is shifting towards a more holistic approach considering user intent, context, and overall user experience. AI-powered tools enhance SEO practices, providing deeper insights and allowing professionals to create more targeted and relevant content.

What does this mean for ecommerce sellers?

For ecommerce businesses, the evolution of search implies adapting to a dual approach where AI enhances the visibility and relevance of their offerings without fully taking over the search process. The structure of search traffic may change but this only makes the importance of SEO even more critical.

Sellers should focus on optimizing their content not just for AI but for traditional search mechanisms as well. This means maintaining strong SEO practices that ensure visibility across both AI-driven and conventional search platforms. As AI is consistently moving the target, user experience including context and intent are being considered more. All the while sellers should continue optimising content, keywords and technical website optimisation as these remain key.

• It’s all about the data as Alphabet is considering the acquisition of HubSpot. 

• Discovering new content on Instagram with Meta’s AI-powered search bar. 

• Adobe is not holding back, AI is changing video and audio editing in Premier Pro.

• Definitely check out Poe’s new multi bot chat feature. It allows you to change models in the same chat (e.g start with GPT4 and then switch to Claude Opus, wow!)

• Top Ranking 500 GPTs based on in-depth Interaction Data

🥊 TypePrompt - AI hooks that make your content impossible to ignore.

📧 Snoooz AI: Send personalized out of office responses and automatically loop in backups on urgent conversations, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

📹 HeyGen GPT- Transform text into lifelike and customized videos instantly

✍🏻 Matrices - AI native spreadsheet that fills itself.

💬 CopilotKit- Build in-app AI chatbots and AI-powered text areas

🧑🏾‍💼 Taskade AI: An AI-powered team organizer to simplify the way your team works. Taskade helps you distribute work among team members to get work done faster and smarter.

😍It was great, all I needed

🙂Good, not great

🙄It sucked