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In a blog post today, Google said it will make AI Overviews in Google Search available to users living in more than 100 countries. Google says people like AI Overviews, so the company plans to reach 1 billion users each month. Additionally, Google is expanding language support now, users in any country where AI Overviews can get them in any available language. For example users in Japan are no longer limited to Japanese. If you arent familiar with AI Overviews by now, its a feature found in Google Search. Googles Gemini AI model will generate a summary for most things people search for, or at least when Google's systems detect a query where generative AI can be useful. This summary appears at the top of the page. Besides answering questions, it can also act as a meal planner, vacation organizer and brainstorming tool, among many other things. This update follows several released over the last few months since the introduction of AI Overviews in May. The most recent update before this one allowed users to visit websites by clicking on links within the AI Overview text. Google says that this has resulted in a traffic increase to supporting websites. However, some publishers and sites fear that the overviews are destroying their traffic by being the first thing people see. News like this isnt surprising, as Google has been stuffing as much AI into Search as it can. AI Overviews have also generated some controversy after the AI gave people inaccurate information for searches for example, it recommended putting glue on pizza for a bit. In response to those issues, Google put some protections and guardrails on AI overviews to avoid similar strange issues. Correction, October 28 2024, 1:30PM ET: This story originally stated that Google was adding local language support to AI Overviews. That feature was already available, so we've clarified that any supported language can be displayed in any country where AI Overviews are available. We apologize for the error.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-is-expanding-ai-overviews-in-search-to-more-than-100-countries-170925933.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Stung from the hit it took from an Apple privacy feature three years ago, Meta is reportedly looking to decrease its dependence on Google and Microsoft. The Information said on Monday that Meta is developing a search engine for its chatbot. The company also recently partnered with Reuters to help its AI answer news-related questions. Meta has reportedly been working on indexing the web for at least eight months. The companys goal is said to be to integrate the indexes into Meta AI, giving the chatbot an alternative to Google Search and Microsoft Bing. Meta publicly disclosed its web crawler tech this summer, only saying it was for training AI models or improving products without stating outright that it was building a search backend. Senior engineering manager Xueyuan Su is reportedly leading the search engine project. The Information says the move directly results from dependence on other Big Tech companies that have stung the company in the past, like Apples App Tracking Transparency (ATT). Meta previously said the iPhone privacy feature introduced in 2021 would cost over $10 billion in lost ad revenue. (It was so concerned about the feature it was sued for allegedly evading its rules.) The thinking is that CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants Meta to be as autonomous as possible to avoid a repeat of that if Google or Microsoft were to cut off its access to web searches. Its unknown if Meta currently pays either company for that access. Engadget reached out to Meta for comment. Well update this story if we hear back. The companys AI investments appear to be paying off. Zuckerberg posted on Threads in August that Meta AI has over 185 million weekly active users and more than 400 million monthly. Growing quickly, and we havent even rolled out in UK, Brazil, or EU yet, the Facebook founder wrote. OpenAI said early this month that ChatGPT had 250 million weekly users.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-is-reportedly-developing-a-search-engine-for-its-chatbot-172505704.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Whoever said that no publicity is bad publicity hasn't seen some of the worst-ever tech ads. According to Coherent Market Insights, the TV ad spend last year was worth $212.27 billion and is on pace to expand to $298.12 billion by 2030. That suggests a compound annual growth rate of 5% from 2023 to 2030. The research firm adds that TV advertising has long been a cornerstone of the ad sector. However, some tech firms fall short with their ads. Keep reading to see three of the worst-ever tech ads -- ads that should have never aired. 1. Palm Pre Commercial (2009) Do you remember the Palm Pre? Designed and marketed by Palm, it was a smartphone combining a sliding keyboard and multi-touch screen. The smartphone featured webOS, which was Palm's Linux-based operating system. Hewlett-Packard bought the Palm brand in 2010 for $1.2 billion but discontinued the Palm product lineup in 2011. But you probably want to hear about the ad. The ad ran in 2009. It was a time when the iPhone and Android were growing into the dominant behemoths they have become in the smartphone space. But the Palm Pre commercial, part of a bid to challenge the market leaders, blew it big time. The 2009 ad featured Tamara Hope, an actress, who was positioned in front of a backdrop. She talked about reincarnation and other things unrelated to smartphones. Rather than leaving consumers wanting more, the ad left people wondering what in the world they had just watched. Maybe the commercial turned them off the Palm Pre and onto the iPhone and Android. 2. "What's a Computer?" (2018) Another super-weird commercial in the tech space was the "What's a Computer?" ad in 2018. While Apple usually has a knack for good ads -- everyone remembers the "There's an app for that" line -- but it has a few stinkers, too. One of them was the 2018 commercial where a youngster asks the question: "What's a computer?" It's an innocent question, but neither the question nor the ad was well received. In the commercial, the young boy used an iPad Pro, a keyboard case, and an Apple Pencil. The ad pushed the narrative that the tablet era was such that nobody used -- let alone knew about -- computers. But who was Apple trying to fool? Tablets are great and all, but they still can't replace full-fledged computers, especially laptops for gamers. At least not yet anyway. 3. What "HTC" Stands For Commercial (2013) The 2013 ad featured Robert Downey Jr. explaining what "HTC" stood for. For the record, "HTC" stands for "High Tech Computer." Because the meaning of "HTC" wasn't widely known, HTC retained the services of Mr. Iron Man himself to answer a question nobody asked. The actor appeared in various ads. They were lighthearted ads where the actor offered fictitious answers for what "HTC" stood for. He offered responses like "Hold This Car" and "Hot Tea Catapult." It was silly -- maybe humorous for small children -- but was not an ideal way to sell phones. These are three examples of some pretty awful tech commercials over the years. But the good news is there are some good ones, too. When in the mood for some tech ads, past and present, head to YouTube. That's where ads go to live forever -- the good and the bad.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
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