A.I. browsers like ChatGPT Atlas represent how A.I. is poised to hit search. For business owners, this could significantly change the game of reaching customers online.
The Five Most-Key Takeaways from This Blog Post
- OpenAI was not the first to do this, as A.I.-ifying browsers is a major pursuit of Google, Perplexity, and The Browser Company.
- ChatGPT Atlas’s release coincides with other recent A.I. browsers’ release: Comet by Perplexity and Dia by the Browser Company being a few notable ones.
- A.I. browsers make chatbots central to the search experience, so that using these browsers feels a bit like interacting with an answer engine in addition to a more-traditional search engine.
- ChatGPT Atlas is available to the general public, so if you want to check it out then it is yours to test. If you do not want to do that, then know that it feels like using ChatGPT, except you can go to a regular search engine like Google if you want the traditional experience.
- It seems unlikely that the answer-engine feature will wholly replace traditional search, as it seems more like a more-convenient alternative that is attractive for some queries, but not adequate for others.
The Significance for Business Owners
The more people using A.I. browsers, the less time many of those users will spend sifting through S.E.R.P.s to try to find information.
However, that does not mean that the Internet is suddenly going to become impossible to get customers.
Users will still have links going to businesses’ websites. Also, people of course still do searches for specific products and services in their area, so naturally that could lead them to your business’s website.
However, it does seem like S.E.O. will be undergoing a profound shift, where A.I.O. will be another area to focus on that business owners should know about.
A.I. Browsers and S.E.O.: The Emergence of A.I.O.
Some people like to say that S.E.O. will be replaced by A.I.O. (artificial-intelligence optimization) or A.E.O. (answer-engine optimization), but the truth is that it will probably just lose some territory to A.I.O. rather than be fully replaced.
If you use ChatGPT Atlas, you can see why. You will feel compelled to use the ChatGPT answer-engine interface for some queries, but also go to Google or other traditional search engine for other queries.
And when users go to the traditional search engine, they will still be looking through those ten blue links for information. What determines placement on those ten blue links will be S.E.O. best practices.
That being said, traditional search engines are still incorporating A.I., such as Google’s A.I. overviews. A.I.O. comes into play when dealing with features like that as well as answer engines that may provide sources, but ultimately offer the searched-for information upfront.
Getting cited by an answer engine or A.I. summary is the goal of A.I.O./A.E.O.. Figuring that out is a work in progress for the S.E.O. community, but some best practices include keeping paragraphs short and sweet.
Formatting blogs so that answers to common questions can be readily found in the blog is key to A.E.O./A.I.O..
Will Answer Engines Overtake Traditional Search?
Why would the answer-engine feature of these A.I. browsers not completely overtake traditional search?
In using ChatGPT Atlas, the writer of this blog post naturally favored the ChatGPT interface for some queries, and the traditional search for others.
Many other users may have the same approach, though the ratio of ChatGPT queries and traditional search (sifting through links and following links to scour pages for the information you are looking for) could very well differ dramatically from user to user.
Really, the question is not whether answer engines are necessarily in a competition to replace traditional search. Really, these will just coincide with traditional search, and compete with traditional search for certain queries rather than replacing traditional search wholly.
The Last (But Not Least) Key Takeaway from This Blog Post
Business owners should be familiar with A.I. browsers, which may very well be the future of internet search. However, be skeptical of claims that answer engines will fully replace traditional search, as there will likely be plenty of reasons to keep the classic “ten blue links” format for certain queries.
Other Great GO AI Blog Posts
GO AI the blog offers a combination of information about, analysis of, and editorializing on A.I. technologies of interest to business owners, with especial focus on the impact this tech will have on commerce as a whole.
On a usual week, there are multiple GO AI blog posts going out. Here are some notable recent articles:
- For Businesses and Other Organizations, What Makes a Successful Chatbot?
- IBM Watson vs. ChatGPT vs. Gemini: How Will Each Affect Search Engines?
- Using A.I. to Find Resources for Business Owners
- How Would Restricting Open-Source A.I. Affect Business Owners?
- The EU’s A.I. Act Has Become Law: The Implications for Business Owners (Especially American)
In addition to our GO AI blog, we also have a blog that offers important updates in the world of search engine optimization (SEO), with blog posts like “Google Ends Its Plan to End Third-Party Cookies”.
GO Deeper on Substack!
If you want to get a bigger-picture view on where A.I. is and is headed, then check out our Substack to learn about emerging and dominant themes in the A.I. industry that affect all kinds of businesses!
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