Ads pressured to evolve as AI changes Google search
As Google races to lead in artificial intelligence, it faces the challenge of making sure the technology doesn't slow its profit-pumping advertising engine.
The internet giant is dabbling with ads in its new AI Mode for online search, a strategic move to fend off competition from ChatGPT while adapting its advertising business for an AI age.
'There's no question that AI is becoming more commonplace as a source for answers,' IDC advertising and marketing technology research director Roger Beharry Lall told AFP.
'That will inevitably result in a shift in terms of search and the opportunities to promote a brand.'
The integration of advertising has been a key question accompanying the rise of generative AI chatbots, which have largely avoided interrupting the user experience with marketing messages.
However, advertising remains Google's financial bedrock, accounting for more than two-thirds of its revenue.
'Google certainly needs to find a way to monetize AI search in the way that it has monetized its past versions of search,' Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart told AFP at the tech giant's annual developers conference this week.
AI-fueled ads
A new AI Mode enables conversational interaction with Google during search queries, providing answers in diverse formats, such as video, audio or graphs.
The internet giant said it is testing integrating ads into AI Mode responses, building on insights gained from AI-generated summaries, or 'Overviews,' introduced to search results a year ago.
These Overviews display comprehensive AI-generated summaries of results above traditional website links and ads.
'The future of advertising fueled by AI isn't coming - it's already here,' stated Vidhya Srinivasan, Google's vice president of Ads & Commerce.
'We're reimagining the future of ads and shopping: Ads that don't interrupt, but help customers discover a product or service.'
Google is extending ads in AI Overviews to desktop in the US, following successful mobile implementations.
More than 1.5 billion users see AI Overviews monthly, according to the company.
'Google's doing very good job of adapting,' Beharry Lall said.
'The move right now is to experiment and to gain traction, just as they have.'
Google's aggressive push into generative AI intensifies its competition with OpenAI's ChatGPT, which added search engine capabilities to its popular chatbot.
AI ad tools too
Google announced it is making AI tools available to streamline the creation of online ads, mirroring similar initiatives by Facebook-owner Meta, Google's primary rival in online advertising.
New features, available in the United States, will enable merchants to leverage AI for effective marketing campaigns and to 'power an algorithm capable of targeting new searches and generating additional conversions,' Google said.
'AI helps a lot in advertising as far as targeting customers more precisely,' Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi told AFP.
Google should have opportunities to charge for AI tools for ad campaigns, and even for insights from data the tech firm has about its users' lives.
'When you have AI agents doing things for you, those agents are going to need data,' Milanesi said.
'To get access to that data, you're going to have to pay.'
For example, Google knowing the kinds of restaurants or places someone has searched for online would have value for targeting ads, she said.
Making money from AI tools and data could help Google diversify revenue sources at a time when its ad business is under pressure from regulators, according to Milanesi.
'There could be entirely new business models around how a brand connects into those AI results,' said Beharry Lall.
'In the long run, it's going to be additive and beneficial to Google.'
How Google and other platforms make clear the difference between paid messaging and organic results generated by AI 'is going to be the $64 million question,' Beharry Lall said.
'It'll be incumbent on regulatory bodies to develop guidelines,' the analyst said.
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The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
Europeans ditch US tech over trust, turn to local options
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Wirths said the type of people coming to the stall had changed: 'Before, it was people who knew a lot about data privacy. Now it's people who are politically aware and feel exposed.' Tesla chief Elon Musk, who also owns social media company X, was a leading adviser to the U.S. president before the two fell out, while the bosses of Amazon, Meta and Google-owner Alphabet took prominent spots at Trump's inauguration in January. Days before Trump took office, outgoing president Joe Biden had warned of an oligarchic 'tech industrial complex' threatening democracy. Berlin-based search engine Ecosia says it has benefited from some customers' desire to avoid U.S. counterparts like Microsoft's Bing or Google, which dominates web searches and is also the world's biggest email provider. 'The worse it gets, the better it is for us,' founder Christian Kroll said of Ecosia, whose sales pitch is that it spends its profits on environmental projects. Similarweb data shows the number of queries directed to Ecosia from the European Union has risen 27% year-on-year and the company says it has 1% of the German search engine market. But its 122 million visits from the 27 EU countries in February were dwarfed by 10.3 billion visits to Google, whose parent Alphabet made revenues of about $100 billion from Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2024 - nearly a third of its $350 billion global turnover. Non-profit Ecosia earned 3.2 million euros ($3.65 million) in April, of which 770,000 euros was spent on planting 1.1 million trees. Google declined to comment for this story. Reuters could not determine whether major U.S. tech companies have lost any market share to local rivals in Europe. DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY The search for alternative providers accompanies a debate in Europe about 'digital sovereignty' - the idea that reliance on companies from an increasingly isolationist United States is a threat to Europe's economy and security. 'Ordinary people, the kind of people who would never have thought it was important they were using an American service are saying, 'hang on!',' said UK-based internet regulation expert Maria Farrell. 'My hairdresser was asking me what she should switch to.' Use in Europe of Swiss-based ProtonMail rose 11.7% year-on-year to March compared to a year ago, according to Similarweb, while use of Alphabet's Gmail, which has some 70% of the global email market, slipped 1.9%. ProtonMail, which offers both free and paid-for services, said it had seen an increase in users from Europe since Trump's re-election, though it declined to give a number. 'My household is definitely disengaging,' said British software engineer Ken Tindell, citing weak U.S. data privacy protections as one factor. Trump's vice president JD Vance shocked European leaders in February by accusing them - at a conference usually known for displays of transatlantic unity - of censoring free speech and failing to control immigration. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened visa bans for people who 'censor' speech by Americans, including on social media, and suggested the policy could target foreign officials regulating U.S. tech companies. U.S. social media companies like Facebook and Instagram parent Meta have said the European Union's Digital Services Act amounts to censorship of their platforms. EU officials say the Act will make the online environment safer by compelling tech giants to tackle illegal content, including hate speech and child sexual abuse material. 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Berlin has also paid for Ukraine to access a satellite-internet network operated by France's Eutelsat instead of Musk's Starlink. But with modern life driven by technology, 'completely divorcing U.S. tech in a very fundamental way is, I would say, possibly not possible,' said Bill Budington of U.S. digital rights nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Everything from push notifications to the content delivery networks powering many websites and how internet traffic is routed relies largely on U.S. companies and infrastructure, Budington noted. Both Ecosia and French-based search engine Qwant depend in part on search results provided by Google and Microsoft's Bing, while Ecosia runs on cloud platforms, some hosted by the very same tech giants it promises an escape from. Nevertheless, a group on messaging board Reddit called BuyFromEU has 211,000 members. 'Just cancelled my Dropbox and will switch to Proton Drive,' read one post. Mastodon, a decentralised social media service developed by German programmer Eugen Rochko, enjoyed a rush of new users two years ago when Musk bought Twitter, later renamed X. But it remains a niche service. Signal, a messaging app run by a U.S. nonprofit foundation, has also seen a surge in installations from Europe. Similarweb's data showed a 7% month-on-month increase in Signal usage in March, while use of Meta's WhatsApp was static. Meta declined to comment for this story. Signal did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment. But this kind of conscious self-organising is unlikely on its own to make a dent in Silicon Valley's European dominance, digital rights activist Robin Berjon told Reuters. 'The market is too captured,' he said. 'Regulation is needed as well.'
The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
Europeans seek ‘digital sovereignty' as US tech firms embrace Trump
BERLIN: At a market stall in Berlin run by charity Topio, volunteers help people who want to purge their phones of the influence of U.S. tech firms. Since Donald Trump's inauguration, the queue for their services has grown. Interest in European-based digital services has jumped in recent months, data from digital market intelligence company Similarweb shows. More people are looking for e-mail, messaging and even search providers outside the United States. The first months of Trump's second presidency have shaken some Europeans' confidence in their long-time ally, after he signalled his country would step back from its role in Europe's security and then launched a trade war. 'It's about the concentration of power in U.S. firms,' said Topio's founder Michael Wirths, as his colleague installed on a customer's phone a version of the Android operating system without hooks into the Google ecosystem. Wirths said the type of people coming to the stall had changed: 'Before, it was people who knew a lot about data privacy. Now it's people who are politically aware and feel exposed.' Tesla chief Elon Musk, who also owns social media company X, was a leading adviser to the U.S. president before the two fell out, while the bosses of Amazon, Meta and Google-owner Alphabet took prominent spots at Trump's inauguration in January. Days before Trump took office, outgoing president Joe Biden had warned of an oligarchic 'tech industrial complex' threatening democracy. Berlin-based search engine Ecosia says it has benefited from some customers' desire to avoid U.S. counterparts like Microsoft's Bing or Google, which dominates web searches and is also the world's biggest email provider. 'The worse it gets, the better it is for us,' founder Christian Kroll said of Ecosia, whose sales pitch is that it spends its profits on environmental projects. Similarweb data shows the number of queries directed to Ecosia from the European Union has risen 27% year-on-year and the company says it has 1% of the German search engine market. But its 122 million visits from the 27 EU countries in February were dwarfed by 10.3 billion visits to Google, whose parent Alphabet made revenues of about $100 billion from Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2024 - nearly a third of its $350 billion global turnover. Non-profit Ecosia earned 3.2 million euros ($3.65 million) in April, of which 770,000 euros was spent on planting 1.1 million trees. Google declined to comment for this story. Reuters could not determine whether major U.S. tech companies have lost any market share to local rivals in Europe. DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY The search for alternative providers accompanies a debate in Europe about 'digital sovereignty' - the idea that reliance on companies from an increasingly isolationist United States is a threat to Europe's economy and security. 'Ordinary people, the kind of people who would never have thought it was important they were using an American service are saying, 'hang on!',' said UK-based internet regulation expert Maria Farrell. 'My hairdresser was asking me what she should switch to.' Use in Europe of Swiss-based ProtonMail rose 11.7% year-on-year to March compared to a year ago, according to Similarweb, while use of Alphabet's Gmail, which has some 70% of the global email market, slipped 1.9%. ProtonMail, which offers both free and paid-for services, said it had seen an increase in users from Europe since Trump's re-election, though it declined to give a number. 'My household is definitely disengaging,' said British software engineer Ken Tindell, citing weak U.S. data privacy protections as one factor. Trump's vice president JD Vance shocked European leaders in February by accusing them - at a conference usually known for displays of transatlantic unity - of censoring free speech and failing to control immigration. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened visa bans for people who 'censor' speech by Americans, including on social media, and suggested the policy could target foreign officials regulating U.S. tech companies. U.S. social media companies like Facebook and Instagram parent Meta have said the European Union's Digital Services Act amounts to censorship of their platforms. EU officials say the Act will make the online environment safer by compelling tech giants to tackle illegal content, including hate speech and child sexual abuse material. 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Berlin has also paid for Ukraine to access a satellite-internet network operated by France's Eutelsat instead of Musk's Starlink. But with modern life driven by technology, 'completely divorcing U.S. tech in a very fundamental way is, I would say, possibly not possible,' said Bill Budington of U.S. digital rights nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Everything from push notifications to the content delivery networks powering many websites and how internet traffic is routed relies largely on U.S. companies and infrastructure, Budington noted. Both Ecosia and French-based search engine Qwant depend in part on search results provided by Google and Microsoft's Bing, while Ecosia runs on cloud platforms, some hosted by the very same tech giants it promises an escape from. Nevertheless, a group on messaging board Reddit called BuyFromEU has 211,000 members. 'Just cancelled my Dropbox and will switch to Proton Drive,' read one post. Mastodon, a decentralised social media service developed by German programmer Eugen Rochko, enjoyed a rush of new users two years ago when Musk bought Twitter, later renamed X. But it remains a niche service. Signal, a messaging app run by a U.S. nonprofit foundation, has also seen a surge in installations from Europe. Similarweb's data showed a 7% month-on-month increase in Signal usage in March, while use of Meta's WhatsApp was static. Meta declined to comment for this story. Signal did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment. But this kind of conscious self-organising is unlikely on its own to make a dent in Silicon Valley's European dominance, digital rights activist Robin Berjon told Reuters. 'The market is too captured,' he said. 'Regulation is needed as well.'
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Cambodia's Hun Sen warns Thailand on oil export suspension
PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen has strongly responded to a recent proposal by Thailand's opposition party calling for the Thai government to halt oil exports to Cambodia. In a Facebook post on Friday (June 20), Hun Sen rejected the idea, firmly stating that Cambodia would not collapse if it ceased receiving oil from Thailand. He also warned that such a move could backfire on Thailand, particularly affecting Thai companies, such as PTT, which operates gas stations in Cambodia. "This is a dangerous game that may end up backfiring," Hun Sen wrote. "Today, the Thai opposition party has suggested that the Thai government stop selling oil to Cambodia, hoping to pressure us into submission. "We want to make it clear that Cambodia will not fall apart just because we stop buying oil from Thailand. In fact, PTT, a Thai company operating in Cambodia, may feel the impact first." Hun Sen further cautioned that if Thailand implemented this measure, it could force PTT to rely on oil imports from other countries to maintain its operations in Cambodia. He also suggested that the Cambodian government consider diversifying its oil sources and reducing dependence on Thailand for other goods. "I advise the government to seriously consider reducing imports from Thailand. "If the border issues remain unresolved, Cambodia should suspend imports of all canned products from Thailand, including alcoholic drinks, energy drinks, canned fish, and meat, and turn to domestic products or goods from other countries," he added. Hun Sen also highlighted that energy was not the only area of contention. He recalled how Thailand had previously used internet access, electricity, and Cambodian labour as political tools. He remarked that Thailand had once used Cambodian workers as leverage, but now seemed to be more conciliatory, recognising the severe impact it would face if Cambodian workers were sent back. "If you truly dare, try sending all Cambodian workers back and see how Thailand's economy fares," he challenged. Finally, Hun Sen called on the Cambodian people to look beyond the present and plan long-term, especially with regard to economic influence being used as a political tool. He urged the country to prepare for future challenges and the potential misuse of economic power in regional geopolitics. "Let us plan for the future, beyond 2030, and be ready for any situation where economic influence is used as a political weapon," Hun Sen concluded. - The Nation/ANN
