While reading a newspaper article some time ago, I came across the expression ‘The Toilet Theory of the Internet’. This refers to the phenomenon of users using the Internet in the bathroom or during other short moments of spare time . To be more precise, in the past, users considered the act of ‘searching’ to be a high-level action and did it with great effort, but now they do it briefly and lightly. This theory suggests that Internet use has gone beyond simple knowledge acquisition and has become a tool to fill trivial gaps in daily life. These changes provide search engine providers with the opportunity to increase user accessibility and maximize the efficiency of information consumption.
Introduction of Google’s AI tools and their impact
When looking at the keyword search, Google cannot be mentioned. Google recently introduced new tools that utilize AI technology to provide faster and more accurate summaries of search results. This allows users to obtain information more quickly and fits well with the user behavior mentioned in the 'Toilet Internet Theory'. However, these changes may have negative impacts on website operators and content creators, such as reduced traffic.
Recently, Google talked about artificial intelligence-powered search through its 2024 I/O.
1.
Personalized search results
Advances in AI technology are likely to advance in the direction of providing user-tailored search results. We will provide more accurate and personalized information by analyzing the user's previous search history, location information, and preferences.
2.
The rise of voice and visual search
With the increased use of mobile devices, the proportion of voice and image searches will increase. This can make information more accessible and improve user experience.
3.
Search optimization through deep learning
AI technology will evolve to better understand users’ search intent and deliver more relevant results. This provides a path to increase search accuracy and improve user satisfaction.
The “search engine” itself is a relic of the past.
This somewhat cheeky remark was said by Perplexity, who recently became a unicorn. They describe themselves as answer engines and say that the future of search engines will be answer engines.
Perplexity is building the next-generation answer engine to help users find information in new and effective ways. “Perplexity is building the next generation answer engine , empowering our users to find information in new and more effective ways.”
Their argument is that existing search engines pass all the burden on to users. The user is responsible for the entire process of thinking about the search term, entering it, and finding the desired answer from the results, which creates a difference in finding good information. So they said they would provide the correct answer, but on the other hand, I thought it was dangerous. What if the answer is wrong? That thought.
As seen in the CEO's recent interview with Bloomberg after seeing Google's announcement, they seem to be acting with a fairly clear philosophy. I've become a unicorn and now I have to run. Can we really make Dr. Cheokcheok say only the correct answers they say? (Of course, not everyone who is a doctor knows this ^^)
Google is shaping the future of search. For the past 20 years, we have been exploring the Internet through search engines such as Google. But with each passing year, these search engines become increasingly noisy and less reliable. Those 10 blue links provided by search engines have turned into sponsored posts, ads, and clunky, ad-filled blogs. The future of search is delivering instant answers from quality sources across the web, not links. From academic research to news articles, explore every corner of the Internet in real time. Answers are derived from reliable sources and include transparent citations. Perplexity is the world's first answer engine, redefining search with answers to all your questions.
Recently, Arc Browser also released a separate app called Arc Search, introducing a new approach to search results. When you search, a results page and additional links are provided, and the experience itself is very refreshing. In particular, I was impressed that Search only released a mobile app so that it could be used at any time in accordance with the bathroom theory. I can't move my hands very well...
In this context, GPT-4o, recently released by OpenAI, also made artificial intelligence lighter and easier to use. Now, if we reduce the hallucination here and make it possible to give more professional answers, it will become an answer engine. Were we all hoping for a magic lamp genie to get the right answer? Could it be that I wanted an employee who would share my work with me? A thought suddenly occurred to me.
