SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Bard, It’s ChatGPT Feature, To Trusted Testers

Well, we knew it was coming and here it is, Bard – Google’s answer to ChatGPT. Google is now having its trusted testers test out Bard and will soon roll it out more widely to users in Google Search and others products in the coming weeks, Google announced. It is not called Apprectice Bard but rather Bard.
I covered this when the news broke at Search Engine Land and as I pointed out, right now, Google does not have an answer for how to attribute or link to answers Bard generates – yet. But I do suspect Google will have some answer for it. I also mentioned that Google has been writing knowledge panels using AI and other methods since 2018 and said then it is not stealing. So it will be interesting to see what Google ends up doing here.
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 they will roll this out more widely in the coming weeks but for now, only trusted testers (who is outsourced to a third-party company) will be able to play with it.
Google said, “Soon, you’ll see AI-powered features in Search that distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats, so you can quickly understand the big picture and learn more from the web: whether that’s seeking out additional perspectives, like blogs from people who play both piano and guitar, or going deeper on a related topic, like steps to get started as a beginner. These new AI features will begin rolling out on Google Search soon.”
Here is a screenshot they shared of how it might look in Google Search:
This is how it might look like in Google Search (without the attribution part…).
This is the Bard direct interface, not in search:
I am super excited to see how this evolves at Google, Bing and others.
It is not too far off from the leaks of the Bing ChatGPT interface.
Here is Sundar Pichai’s tweets:
2/ Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models. It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. Today we’re opening Bard up to trusted external testers. pic.twitter.com/QPy5BcERd6
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 6, 2023
4/ As people turn to Google for deeper insights and understanding, AI can help us get to the heart of what they’re looking for. We’re starting with AI-powered features in Search that distill complex info into easy-to-digest formats so you can see the big picture then explore more pic.twitter.com/BxSsoTZsrp
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 6, 2023
5/ Developers can soon try our Generative Language API, initially powered by LaMDA with a range of models to follow. Over time, our goal is to create a set of tools and APIs that will make it easy for others to build more innovative applications with AI.
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 6, 2023
Here is some of the SEO community reaction:
Yeah you would think that making statements like “some say this” and “others say that” would be substantiated with, IDK, a link to the source. Just an idea. https://t.co/P5xvGvAv1V
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) February 6, 2023
Bard sounds like 🤮
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) February 6, 2023
Bard: What you get when you let AI name itself. https://t.co/todOZBbnCE
— Greg Finn (@gregfinn) February 6, 2023
Oh, bizarre. When the ChatGPT buzz began, I remarked that we’ll never get the Irish bards again with robots doing the thinking for us. How glib is Google naming this after humans who spent 7 years training to recite hundreds of poems + stories? And how weird for me to see it.
— Miriam Ellis (@Miriam_Ellis_) February 6, 2023
Attribution is a must – I hope this is not where Google is heading – this is not the way https://t.co/PRH2LSKjR7
— Mordy Oberstein 🇺🇦 (@MordyOberstein) February 6, 2023
ESPECIALLY if the AI model charges for its services.
No, you can’t have my written work to use as you see fit for your paid service.
Or even to train your models. It’s my work? My written words?
The tech moves so fast this stuff takes time to catch up, but it’s important.
— Julie F Bacchini (@NeptuneMoon) February 6, 2023
It’s a little concerning to see that the screenshots Google shared do not show websites as sources used for the AI generated answer.
This is likely because the answer is generated from “the breath of the world’s knowledge.”
Drawing from the knowledge graph perhaps? pic.twitter.com/OVwuWScnDt
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) February 6, 2023
Content creators that monetise via page views might be the biggest losers
— @[email protected] (@davidiwanow) February 6, 2023
Feel sorry for the dude who wrote the great in-depth article on what’s the easiest to learn, the guitar or the piano!
— Matthew Marley👨🏻💻 (@matthewmarley) February 6, 2023
Why would anyone want to publish blogs after that?
What’s the point of publishing original articles ?
Google will crawl my article, learn from it , serve the solution to its customers as its own. https://t.co/wSwTld3qRJ— Fardun (@FardunRahman) February 6, 2023
In a world of AI search engine wars, the brand, unique perspective and insights & quality fact checking with references are becoming key to survive. Structured data & information have now become a commodity https://t.co/IpcRQFy56e
— Dennis Goedegebuure (@TheNextCorner) February 6, 2023
Google Bard – a rival to ChatGPT
The end of SEO websites maybe. https://t.co/ZWowpV5DUg
— Liaqat Hussain 🇵🇰 (@Edwardian842) February 6, 2023
And from now on, whenever I hear “Google Bard,” I’ll think of the OG. #LegendOfVoxMachina #Criticalrole https://t.co/PuYfJaHaAE pic.twitter.com/SCr1YWsUZO
— Ian Lurie 🇺🇦 @[email protected] (@IanLurie) February 6, 2023
Going to be a busy few months… #GoogleBard https://t.co/aEKFLlmMeF
— Will O’Hara 👨🏽💻 (@willohara) February 6, 2023
I think Bard is just an iteration of Lambda and at last year’s Google product expert summit the product manager of Google brain did a presentation of lambda and it was awesome. It was like Google maps times 10
— Molly Youngblood (@mygeigermeister) February 6, 2023
Brain buzzing with all the search news and announcements this week! SEOs cannot sleep. What a time to be alive! The future is bright 🚀
— Fabrice Canel (@facan) February 7, 2023
It’s too early to say, and your feedback can help to shape the next steps. What would you find useful and appropriate?
— johnmu is a ranking factor and so are you 🐀 (@JohnMu) February 7, 2023
Make sure to send feedback. With bigger changes like this, it’ll probably take a few iterations before things settle down.
— johnmu is a ranking factor and so are you 🐀 (@JohnMu) February 7, 2023
Also, make sure to check out the roundup at Techmeme.
Forum discussion at Twitter, WebmasterWorld.
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
Google Testing One Star Icon In Local Pack Results

Google is testing showing only one star in the local pack in the search results. This is instead of showing five stars with some of those stars filled in with yellow. I am not seeing the single star partially filled up, but all those businesses may have 5-star reviews and not 3 out of 5 stars.
This was spotted by Jason Parks over the weekend who posted this screenshot on Twitter:
This is what I see, in comparison, to the screenshot above:
This has to be a test and I doubt it will stick, but it is cool to catch these tests.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Says Keyword Stuffing Alone Does Not Make A Page Unhelpful

Google’s John Mueller said that keyword stuffing alone would not make a page be deemed unhelpful. John added that Google is good at ignoring tactics like keyword stuffing, so that alone likely won’t be the reason for ranking issues in Google Search.
This conversation came up on Mastodon when someone pointed to a specific page that as ranking well even though they think the page has keyword stuffing on it. John replied saying, “we tend not to evaluate the quality of other people’s pages — it’s not really that useful, if you can’t change something there.”
But the SEO responded, “they are not other people. That’s my client. We are trying to figure out if there is any chance Google bot identified unhelpful content on our website. Because we were hit by helpful content update. My theory is since we are adding too much content on one page, it may appear as unhelpful content. Any inputs from your end will be appreciated.”
So John replied again saying, “I don’t think keyword stuffing alone would necessarily make a page unhelpful. Usually keyword stuffing is easy for search engines to ignore, it was one of the first things that people did to manipulate the results back in the 90’s.”
“I’d recommend going through the questions in our blog post, and ideally with someone who’s not associated with your site,” John added.
In 2018, John Mueller said something similar, saying that keyword stuffing alone wouldn’t result in a penalty and then last year saying keyword stuffed URLs doesn’t lead to a penalty either.
Forum discussion at Mastodon.
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