I enjoyed this interview with Liz Reid, Head of Search at Google, on the ACCESS Podcast with Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger.
Liz has talked a lot about the future of search. Here are the five most interesting parts.
Will agents ultimately take over the majority of activity on the web?
Yes, but not all the interaction. Liz said:
“I definitely think there’s going to be a world where agents interact a lot over the internet, not just people. I personally don’t believe in a world where it’s just agents, in the sense that I still think people want to hear directly from other people sometimes… But the fact that you can start 10 agents and only have a limited amount of time and the agents don’t necessarily, I think probably means there’s a world where there’s a lot of agents talking to each other and not just people in the future like us.” develop further.”
I found this interesting because Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, recently predicted that we would end up with a new economic model where agents talk to other agents and negotiate things between themselves. He said:
“I think if you go through with this it will mean a lot of changes to the structure of the web… I think it will be a major disruption.”
Marie’s opinion: We are starting to see that AI agents are capable of achieving things we never thought possible. Agents can do coding. In fact, Spotify said that thanks to AI, its developers haven’t written a single line of code by hand since December. We’re starting to see people building agent systems with OpenClaw. Personally, I have built a few systems, but nothing that I would be comfortable using as a replacement for my own processes…yet! However, this will change as models and technology improve. I believe we are entering a new phase of the web where there is more agent activity than people. For further reading, here are my thoughts on how Google’s Agent2Agent protocol will radically change the web.
Will Gemini and Quest eventually be a thing?
Liz said, “I don’t know the answer.” In some areas twins and search converge, in others they diverge. She said that learning how and where to display links from the Internet is an area that Google is still very much in its early stages of and is ripe for exploration.
Marie’s opinion: Google CEO Sundar Pichai told us that Google is testing new AI experiences in AI mode and will migrate them to the main search experience over time as they see what works. We recently saw that on mobile devices, when a user clicks “See more” at the bottom of an AI overview, they are redirected to AI mode. I find it fascinating how similar the AI mode is to the Gemini app. I think the days of traditional search are essentially over. People will continue to use Google to find specific websites, and there will be cases where people really want to see content created by humans. However, when people want a quick answer to a question, they increasingly get that answer through the AI overview.
Liz also suggested a third possibility that doesn’t involve AI Mode or Gemini coming out on top, but she said, “And who knows. Maybe the agents think the right product is neither. It’s a third product altogether that they’re merging into. I don’t know yet.”
Is Google OK with using AI to create content?
Google is completely okay with using AI to help create content. However, Liz said that sometimes AI just causes inconsistency.
“I think we need to fight this from the search side to make sure we get the great content.”
Marie’s opinion: I think that was the most important thing Liz said about the content.
“I also think it’s time for YouTubers and journalists to say in different ways: Are you producing great content that people are actually interested in, or are you creating the same garbage as a hundred thousand other people and hoping your content gets to the top? That’s not so good.”
This is a big change for content marketers. I challenge you to take your most recent blog post and paste it into your favorite LLM and ask, “Is this content truly original and unique, or does it simply rephrase what others have said on the web?”
Personalization will play a bigger role
Liz has talked a lot about Google’s Personal Intelligence. Google wants to show content from websites you are connected to.
This quote was very interesting:
“If you have a cooking subscription with someone, we can make those recipes appear even more and you know you can click through, right? People hate getting links to go to and they have to bounce back because they can’t get through to the content and they’re not ready to do it. But sometimes those people have decided to pay someone and not the other six people. Then we should uncover the recipe they’re paying for, not the six they don’t have access to get more.”
Marie’s opinion: I’m not sure what Liz meant when she said “cooking subscription.” Was she perhaps referring to established services like HelloFresh? Or perhaps it hints at further monetization options in search?
This leads me to my final interesting point.
Could micropayments become a reality?
The podcast hosts talked about how some content on the internet is paid for. Liz hinted that perhaps one day we’ll have a system that makes it easier for searchers to pay for access to specific content rather than full subscriptions. She said:
“Micropayments have never really taken off, but maybe that will change over time. But I think there’s an opportunity to use personalization to not just personalize with some kind of little ranking game, but to really empower them. These are the people you trust. Let’s make it easy for you to access this information with AI.”
Marie’s opinion: I think there are a lot of opportunities emerging in this area. Last year, Google announced AP2, the Agents Payments Protocol, which will enable agents to transact with each other. I think the day will come when those who create content that people search for and consume will somehow have a new source of income.
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