Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Search’s AI Overviews is now generating phone comparison lists.
- As one would expect, the information Google bases its results on comes from sites like Android Authority.
- Google doing this makes it less likely that we’ll make this kind of content, and then where will AI Overviews get its information?
When you’re looking for the best smartphone you can get at the moment, one of the natural questions you’ll ask yourself is, “How does [new phone] compare to [my current phone]?” Usually, you’ll go to Google and ask that very question. When you do, you’ll find a long list of digital publications, YouTube videos, and even podcast episodes going over the nuances between Phone A and Phone B. This has been one of the core ways many tech outlets — including Android Authority — keep the lights on.
Today, though, via Search Engine Land, we learned that Google is rolling out AI-generated phone comparisons right in Google Search. Now, when you search for something like “galaxy s24 vs galaxy s23,” the AI Overviews system will create a comparison list for those two devices, giving you the core information you need to know about how each stacks against the other.
You can see what this new system looks like by visiting Google yourself or checking out the screenshot below:
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Since Google is trying to be transparent about where generative AI pulls its information from, you can see a list of 21 different sources that helped to create the table above. You’ll undoubtedly recognize many of them, including Tom’s Guide, PCMag, Phone Arena, and more.
While this new system seems convenient for the user, it is actually a terrible idea.
AI Overviews phone comparisons: Why this is bad for us, Google, and you
If you’ll allow me to, I’m going to get a little inside baseball with you for a second. Most people visiting Android Authority understand that your visit earns us revenue, whether through ad impressions, affiliate linking, or other typical methods. In a nutshell, you hanging out on our pages earns us money. Historically, “versus” content — such as an article going over the Samsung Galaxy S24 vs the Samsung Galaxy S23 — has been one of the best ways for us to earn revenue. The content is not complicated to create, has long-lasting value, and one phone can spawn off many different articles (Galaxy S24 vs Galaxy S22, Galaxy S24 vs Galaxy S23 FE, Galaxy S24 vs Pixel 9, and on and on). This is why Google’s AI Overviews system is able to pull data from so many publications: the whole industry is making this kind of content because it’s a money-maker.
With this new phone comparison system in AI Overviews, though, Google is making it less likely that people will visit outlets like Android Authority to get this information. Obviously, this hurts our bottom line and the bottom lines of other outlets like ours. That’s why this is bad for us, but stay with me; this gets bad for Google and for you, too.
Given enough time, Google’s system will kill off the creation of this kind of content. Where will AI Overviews get it when that happens?
If Google sticks with having AI-generated summaries of versus content appear right in Search, that kind of content will make less money. Thus, the outlets that create that content will stop prioritizing it — or stop making it altogether. Now, instead of pulling information from 21 outlets, AI Overviews will pull it from fewer sources. Given enough time, this becomes a vicious cycle, until the AI Overviews results are thin on information or even downright wrong. Even today, the results you see in the screenshot above are dubious (the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S23 have the same exact rear camera system, so why does it say the S24 has a 12MP camera and the Galaxy S23 has a 50MP camera?).
Finally, now you — the person who simply wants to know what’s better about the Galaxy S24 when compared to the Galaxy S23 — will have a more challenging time finding that information. AI Overviews isn’t giving you what you need, and all the outlets that previously made versus content don’t do it anymore.
In a nutshell, in the long term, everyone loses.
I understand entirely that generative AI is changing things. Here at Android Authority, we have been and will continue to alter our strategies in response to AI systems. So please don’t think that I’m boo-hooing about how this change hurts us, and now I want sympathy. Things change, and we need to change with them, which is just part of the business. However, the way Google has made this system is bad. It’s definitely bad for us, but in the long term, it’s also bad for everyone else, including Google. Hopefully, the company figures that out sooner rather than later.
