SEARCHENGINES
Google Begins Slow Rollout Of Google Bard
Yesterday, Google began to slowly roll out Google Bard to some initial reporters and also Google opened up a waitlist to users in the US and UK. I personally gained access to Bard after writing most of this article but I did gain access to Bard yesterday at 1pm ET. But you can sign up for the waitlist at bard.google.com (it does not yet work with Google WorkSpace accounts).
Below you will find out more information on how Bard looks, how it works, how the citations/sources work, limitations, early impressions and more. There is a lot here – and it is super early.
My early impressions is that Google is clearly positioning Bard to be very different from Google Search. In addition, Google is also making sure Bard feels and works differently than Bing Chat. Bing Chat, to me, feels way more thought out in terms of the user experience and all the tiny details in how it works with Bing Search. Google is making it super clear right now that Bard is not Search and only putting a “Google It” button in the Bard results so that you are taken out of Bard and into Search.
Bard does not do a lot of what Bing Chat and ChatGPT does but Bard is way faster. Bard has no ads, Bing Chat does have ads. Bard rarely show citations/links, Bing Chat shows citations and links in a much more prominent way. Bard and Bing Chat are just very different, while being similar in purpose.
Bard is Google’s experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, where Google can answer questions that might not have one right answer. Google said, “Bard is powered by a research large language model (LLM), specifically a lightweight and optimized version of LaMDA, and will be updated with newer, more capable models over time. It’s grounded in Google’s understanding of quality information. You can think of an LLM as a prediction engine. When given a prompt, it generates a response by selecting, one word at a time, from words that are likely to come next. Picking the most probable choice every time wouldn’t lead to very creative responses, so there’s some flexibility factored in. We continue to see that the more people use them, the better LLMs get at predicting what responses might be helpful.” In short, it will get better over time, so don’t be too harsh on Google…
As a reminder, Google said Bard is not Search we have quotes from Google’s Bard lead who said, “It’s an experiment that’s a collaborative AI service that we talked about,” Krawczyk said. “The magic that we’re finding in using the product is really around being this creative companion to helping you be the sparkplug for imagination, explore your curiosity, etc.” But he added, “we can’t stop users from trying to use it like search.”
What Bard Looks Like
Here are some screenshots and videos of Bard from Google:
Citations/Links to Publishers Are Hard To Come By
It is hard to find sources, citations and links in Google Bard but they do come up if you try hard enough. Gary Illyes from Google did say publishers will get traffic from Bard, maybe that is what he meant when we see the “Google it” button in Bard?
I asked Areej Abuali and Billie Geena – who has access already, and she was unable to find Bard giving any links to any source. But some, including in my tests, were able to see some sources and links. Google Bard also has a “Google it” button…
Nope, zero citations in all prompts I’ve done so far
— Areej (@areej_abuali) March 21, 2023
No I can’t see any – I can take a screenrecord for you
— Billie 🦕 (@BillieGeena) March 21, 2023
Actually got a short answer for asking about search engine roundtable – here is all the information it currently provides. pic.twitter.com/332tgKQ3c4
— Billie 🦕 (@BillieGeena) March 21, 2023
If you really work hard to get a citation, you kind of do but not link:
No citations, just a link to “Google it”. Hilarious answer when asked point blank about its sources. pic.twitter.com/98lM4HbB6X
— Simon Lesser (@simonlesser) March 21, 2023
And sometimes not:
I have seen it source the books I asked it for, but the Source was just a Google search for Google Analytics Books pic.twitter.com/SVneA6BP2d
— Marc Agate (@MJAgate) March 21, 2023
When I gained access, I asked Bard why exactly it refused to give sources and citations, it said:
I cannot show you the URL of where I came up with this answer because I did not come up with this answer from a specific URL. I am trained on a massive dataset of text and code, including the Google Search index. This allows me to access and process information from the real world through Google Search and keep my response consistent with search results.
Why Google Bard cannot cite sources, give citations or link to content creators/publishers pic.twitter.com/3hMjKNkEsb
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 21, 2023
Oh wait, maybe you can force a link if you try hard enough and specific enough but this is not good enough:
Source link at the bottom of the query:
What is iPullRank? pic.twitter.com/yy1rItzItb
— Garrett Sussman ☕️🔎 (@garrettsussman) March 21, 2023
I am starting to see sources listed now pic.twitter.com/DX1x2g2UCV
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 21, 2023
Just not the best experience:
Well, this would suck for me if people used Bard to search for this query. No citations, but when you click “Google it”, Bard provides a link to a fresh SERP where I have the featured snippet. I still can’t believe there aren’t more citations… pic.twitter.com/ho37Dhunjm
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 21, 2023
Here is why Google Bard is less likely to provide citations, “Bard is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, and it can be difficult to determine which sources were used to generate a particular answer.”
Why Google Bard is often not going to link or source or provide citations… pic.twitter.com/oP6MWYwc8u
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 21, 2023
Early Impressions
The folks at The Verge played with Bard in a limited way and they said:
In a demo for The Verge, Bard was able to quickly and fluidly answer a number of general queries, offering anodyne advice on how to encourage a child to take up bowling (“take them to a bowling alley”) and recommending a list of popular heist movies (including The Italian Job, The Score, and Heist). Bard generates three responses to each user query, though the variation in their content is minimal, and underneath each reply is a prominent “Google It” button that redirects users to a related Google search.
Bard’s interface is festooned with disclaimers to treat its replies with caution
As with ChatGPT and Bing, there’s also a prominent disclaimer underneath the main text box warning users that “Bard may display inaccurate or offensive information that doesn’t represent Google’s views” — the AI equivalent of “abandon trust, all ye who type here.”
As expected, then, trying to extract factual information from Bard is hit-and-miss. Although the chatbot is connected to Google’s search results, it couldn’t fully answer a query on who gave the day’s White House press briefing (it correctly identified the press secretary as Karine Jean-Pierre but didn’t note that the cast of Ted Lasso was also present). It was also unable to correctly answer a tricky question about the maximum load capacity of a specific washing machine, instead inventing three different but incorrect answers. Repeating the query did retrieve the correct information, but users would be unable to know which was which without checking an authoritative source like the machine’s manual.
Billie Geena gained access to Bard right away, here are some of her tweets:
I got early access to Bard so the first thing I had to do is ask about myself
And ok this is exciting pic.twitter.com/qAmR0rExdO
— Billie 🦕 (@BillieGeena) March 21, 2023
I’m finding playing with this really exciting – however it does now cite it’s sources. But it’s very easy to switch your question into a Google search
— Billie 🦕 (@BillieGeena) March 21, 2023
Areej Abuali said OpenAI’s ChatGPT beats Google Bard in her early tests:
Okay, I spent 5 minutes on Bard and ChatGPT clearly wins – no thread, no analysis, nothing, that’s it, that’s the tweet.
— Areej (@areej_abuali) March 21, 2023
Some more tweets in the wild:
Google Bard can’t write a function that adds two numbers pic.twitter.com/t1B1WHRPrr
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) March 21, 2023
Oh hey, Google Bard. pic.twitter.com/w1ENWRObAM
— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) March 21, 2023
Hacking #Google #Bard pic.twitter.com/5pS7sIXtRH
— Justin Chen (@ch3njus) March 21, 2023
Well, ChatGPT and MidJourney don’t have anything to worry about, anytime soon. Ladies and Gentleman, I give you, Googles Bard! 😂🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/KFSwvZV4GT
— Lee リー (@YodasMyDad) March 21, 2023
Hmm I take it back. GPT3.5 is still much better than Bard. @GoogleAI #bard #chatgpt
I asked Bard and ChatGPT-3.5 to derive time dilation. Bard doesn’t quite derive it whereas GPT-3.5 went into all the details, and got the answer correct. pic.twitter.com/tGXrHpQV55
— Ben Athiwaratkun (@ben_athi) March 21, 2023
Bard vs ChatGPT4, milk and a hat in a safe on a hill. pic.twitter.com/DXv2VDcKL3
— Andrew Riley (@_happyKC) March 21, 2023
Google bard can’t code or even hold context of previous conversations..
Guess ChatGPT still has no serious competition lol #bard #Google #ChatGPT #googlebard pic.twitter.com/i9PN7id3Uf
— Moe (@MoeX003) March 21, 2023
I guess Google is okay with buying links now? 🙂
— Dean Cruddace (@DeanCruddace) March 21, 2023
Straight from the source ya’ll (as if our Google search liaisons haven’t been saying this forever)#seo #bard pic.twitter.com/sHO0a75Uso
— Danielle Rohe (@d4ni_s) March 21, 2023
My very first use of Bard. What do we think?
Prompt:
“Create an analogy for search engine optimization based on the career of Allen Iverson” pic.twitter.com/SGeYipWRAA
— Garrett Sussman ☕️🔎 (@garrettsussman) March 21, 2023
Local:
I asked #BARD for the best breakfast place near where I live. Gave me three different lists with limited overlap. Interesting. pic.twitter.com/2MQgIYzTTE
— Greg Sterling 🇺🇦 (@gsterling) March 21, 2023
Asked for “handyman in 94118” and again got different lists (one is default) with some overlap. Then I “Googled it” and the results were completely different. None of the Local Pack results appear in the #BARD lists. There are also no URLs in the Bard lists. pic.twitter.com/WrNEeufoc3
— Greg Sterling 🇺🇦 (@gsterling) March 21, 2023
But Bard does not always get it right, like Google said:
But Bard gets it wrong, I never worked with Coca-Cola, Disney, Nike, Oracle, IBM etc – at least not that I know of pic.twitter.com/gOy4vdQbNj
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 21, 2023
Can Bard tell you if your content meets EEAT?
interesting pic.twitter.com/q9CBDbcimL
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 21, 2023
Run a health and medical site? You’re safe from Bard for now. 🙂 Bing Chat crushes Bard on this one (clearly)… Prompt: “What are the symptoms of strep throat?” Bard can’t answer (at least yet). Bing Chat with a strong answer + citations. Winner: Bing Chat pic.twitter.com/hDgIzjj3aW
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 21, 2023
Here is a good comparison tweet:
Google Bard areas for improvement
⚠️ No coding capabilities 🚫👨💻
⚠️ Multi-language not at the level of competitors 🌍
⚠️ Fails on common understanding of the world 👶See below prompts and comparisons with Bing, GPT-4 and GPT-3.5. #google #bard #workinprogress pic.twitter.com/Bax9jNo6t5
— ᐸGerardSans/ᐳ🤣🇬🇧 (@gerardsans) March 21, 2023
And yes, Bard is a kiss up:
— Greg (@PPCGreg) March 21, 2023
The most important feature:
Most important feature of Google Bard for me… pic.twitter.com/40VNGSN2Hr
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 21, 2023
I am looking forward to testing out Bard and letting you know what I find, until then, we wait. You can read the other coverage on this announcement on Techmeme.
Forum discussion at Twitter and WebmasterWorld.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 18, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Ads notified advertisers that some ad customizers will stop working soon. Google discontinued the limited use video carousel markup. Google Maps has new directions and travel features, plus a bunch of new EV features. Google Notes on Search might not end in May 2024 despite what people suggest. Google Business Profiles asked businesses to register their defibrillators, their AEDs.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google Notes On Search Won’t Necessarily Go Away In May
There have been some people noticing that the Google Notes On Search labs experiment has an end date of May 2024 and thus they are expecting Notes on Search to be turned off by then. Just because it has that end date listed, it does not mean the labs experiment will end on that date. -
Google Maps Releases New Directions, Travel & EV Features
Google has announced a number of new travel features with Google Maps and Travel around driving alternatives, trains and buses, travel impact mode and then some new EV driving direction features. Google says these features are to give you more “sustainable choices.” -
Google Ads Reminds Advertisers Some Ad Customizers Will Go Away May 31st
On August 31, 2021, Google notified advertisers it would drop support for expanded text ads for responsive search ads. Google is now reminding advertisers that Ad customizers for text ads, expanded text ads and Dynamic Search Ads will stop serving after May 31, 2024. -
Google Drops Video Carousel Markup
Google has discontinued its support for video carousel markup and has thus removed it from its video structured data help documentation. Initially, Google tested video carousel on a limited number of sites and is now saying that it “ultimately found that it wasn’t useful for the ecosystem at scale.” -
Google Business Profiles Register Your Defibrillator (AED)
Google sent out emails a couple of days ago to businesses asking them to register their Automated External Defibrillator (AED) with Google Business Profiles. Google said, “you could save lives” if you do it. -
Google NYC Earthquake Reaction Video
A couple of weeks ago we had an earthquake in the New York region and I finally found a video from the Google NYC office of the reaction of some Googlers while the earthquake happened. These Googlers were recording a video and felt it but were unsure if that was a real earthquake.
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 17, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
The Google March core update still is causing volatility and it is deepening. Google may make changes to the crawl stats report in Search Console. Google Search Console now shows unused ownership tokens. Google Maps will drop the review drafts. Google Add added generative AI for image generate for Demand Gen campaigns. Google Search is testing more sitelinks designs.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Deepening Google Core Ranking Volatility Hits Yesterday & Today
I know we just reported on more volatility this Monday, possibly related to the Google March 2024 core update, but we are seeing even more volatility over the past 24 hours related to this update. This volatility shows deepening movement for those who were hit, which is incredibly sad in many cases. -
Google Search Console Adds Unused Ownership Tokens
Google Search Console has a new security feature under user and permission management to help you manage your unused ownership tokens. Basically, it helps you manage who has permissions to your Search Console profiles and who should not, maybe some legacy verifications. -
Google: Should We Explain The Crawl Stats Report in Search Console
Martin Splitt from Google posted a one-line question asking, “Should we do something to explain the crawl stats report in GSC?” This was posted on Mastodon, which has a small audience, but the responses were pretty good. -
New Google Ads AI Generated Image Tool For Demand Gen Campaigns
Google Ads announced that Demand Gen campaigns are getting generative AI tools to create image assets. This is rolling out to advertisers around the world in English with more languages to come later this year, Google said. -
Google Tests Horizontal Lines For Sitelinks & People Also Ask
Google Search is testing horizontal lines under the sitelinks and the people also ask elements in the search results. This is a long horizontal line that goes across the while search result snippet. -
Google Maps No Longer Will Support Draft Reviews
Google Maps will soon stop supporting drafting reviews for local business listings and Google Business Profiles. Google said that starting July 16, 2024, review drafts will no longer be supported. -
Doogler In Google Play Area
Some of you love photos of dogs, so here is another one of a Doogler, a Google dog, in a play area, at the Google office. This was shared by the Life at Google Twitter account.
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 16, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google will fight the site reputation abuse spam both algorithmically and with manual actions. Google is testing thumbs-up and down in product carousels. Google Ads similar product carousel is being tested. Google Search updated its image documentation. Google AdSense has a new ad format named ad intents.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google Will Fight Site Reputation Abuse Spam Both With Manual Actions & Algorithms
Google’s new spam algorithm update also introduced new spam policies including the upcoming site reputation abuse policy that won’t go into effect until May 2024. Google has confirmed it will fight site reputation abuse spam using both manual actions (humans) and algorithms (machines). -
Google Search Tests Thumbs Up/Down Buttons In Product Grid Results
Google launched the style recommendations with thumbs up and down buttons not long ago after testing it in January. Now Google is showing this thumbs up and down buttons in the product grid search results, so Google can see what you like or dislike and then show you more products that you do like. -
Google Ads “Similar Product” Carousel
Google has a similar products section and carousel for Google Ads sponsored listings. We have seen similar products and similar shopping related results from the organic / free listings but now I am seeing examples of a search ad carousel for “similar products.” -
Clarification: Google Search Supports Images Referenced From src Attribute
Google has clarified in its image search help documentation that images are only extracted from the src attribute of img tags in Google Search. This is not new, but Google decided to update its documentation based on some questions it received about the topic. -
Google AdSense New Ad Intents Formats – Links & Anchors In Content
Google AdSense announced a new auto ads format named “Ad intents.” Ad intents places links and anchors showing organic search results with ads into existing text and pages on your site related to your content. Yea, it takes your content, and hyperlinks it to the Google search results. -
3-Wheel Tricycle At Google
Google’s Ann Arbor office has this 3-wheel tricycle that some Googlers have used over the years to get around the office. This one looks like the hot pink Huffy brand. I spotted this recently on Instagram but the photo is from 2016.
Other Great Search Threads:
- I don’t have an update to share at this time, but you should continue to use classic GMC for rules and supplemental feed support. Here’s how to switch back if needed, AdsLiaison on X
- In this case, I’ve been introducing a new metric; “likelihood to get search traffic” to see what we should add to XML sitemaps. Some pages might do incredibly well on other metrics, but simply, Joost de Valk on X
- It does have a title, and it loads a HTML page – so this seems normal. The JavaScript doesn’t seem to be loading well, so if you’re the site owner, I’d suggest reading ou, John Mueller on X
- News! Google Ads removed in some accounts the possibility to hover over a daily budget to edit it. You need to hover now and then click on “Edit budget”. Why changing things to less user-friendly ones, Thomas Eccel on X
- The time has come! Registration for the Zürich Product Experts Summit has now opened for eligible PEs in Europe. Virtual registration will follow in May. Check your inboxes and the KB for more details., Google’s Product Experts Program on X
- When I want to add positive search terms as exact match, I first add them quickly as broad, then bulk switch them over to exact match. lately I’ve been getting this error and the only way I can switch the keywords is by using Ads Editor., Greg on X
- Yeah, quantity says nothing about quality and even less about user value or business value. Sometimes the solution to a “crawl budget problem” is not to make the server faster & search engines, John Mueller on X
- Which the best method to link to the alternative language of a website, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
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