Businesses & Google SGE, Google Goes All in On Interstitials, Where is Bard Going?

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What Should Businesses Do About Google SGE?
Google has not yet announced any concrete plans for the future of Search Generative Experience (SGE), and it is unclear how it will evolve in the coming years. SGE is still in its early, very crude stages and it is not yet known how it will impact search traffic. Many SEOS reacted with fear and loathing but in the end the impact of SGE may in fact be minimal. However, businesses can start to experiment with SGE by:

• Triggering SGE to appear by default.
• Optimizing the content on their websites to appear in SGE results.
• Monitoring the rankings of their websites in SGE results to see how they are affected.

Businesses should be cautious about heavily investing in or relying on SGE until it's more developed. The uncertainty surrounding its development and Google's missed deadline indicates a need for businesses to stay informed and adaptable.

Google Goes All in On Interstitials on the iPhone:
Google, has long penalized interstitials as bad for user experience particularly when used on the mobile web to get people to convert to an app. There is no little irony that Google has now started doing just that on the iPhone when a user has Google search set as the default - nagging the user to switch to the Google App or Chrome for the iPhone. The fact that Google has been reduced to doing what they have long criticized implies that they think they will lose the DOJ Default Search Engine case and are running scared about losing iPhone market share.

Where is Bard Going?
A Bard product manager asked Reddit users for feature suggestions for Bard, leading to numerous responses. Participants noted that some requested features, such as document upload and image generation, are already available in ChatGPT. They anticipate these features will be added to Bard in 2024. The types of features requested by users—ranging from specific functionalities like coding assistance to more nuanced content moderation—sheds light on the diverse and evolving needs of users.

The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.
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