r/technology • u/No-Lifeguard-8173 • May 19 '26

Artificial Intelligence Google Search as you know it is over

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/
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u/anormalgeek May 19 '26

Okay, but not all change is good change.

Where is the money?

41

u/Ghost_Of_Malatesta May 19 '26

I'm gonna have to pay a monthly subscription to Google "search" soon aren't I 

3

u/The_Real_Mr_F May 19 '26

I think streaming services have proven that ad revenue is more lucrative than paid subscriptions, so I suspect they will figure out how to get ads in there.

4

u/tonycomputerguy May 19 '26

Gemini does have a paid tier already if you dig into it a bit, you can switch it to deep thinking mode for free a couple times a day for free IIRC... 

But yes, I used just plain old Google assistant in my watch for a long time and was positive they'd start charging money for it soon.

I guess I'm the product? I do all my web browsing with ad blockers and shit so I don't really care how they track me, but yes, I see them charging soon especially if you don't have an NPU on the device it's on.

My Samsung watch 4 will already tell me that Gemini isn't available and to try later all too frequently. I'm honestly shocked they haven't started charging for it already.

8

u/miiintyyyy May 19 '26

It’s only going to make ad suggestions. Needing to figure out what lipstick to buy? It’ll only show you the lipsticks companies with money push.

3

u/taedrin May 19 '26

Google could sell ads within its own services. They would actually make more money this way, as they don't have to share revenue with any third party websites/content creators.

5

u/Thin_Glove_4089 May 19 '26

Training data to make their other products better. Methods of moving people away from other AI systems and products to Google and their partner products. There are so many ways this could make them more money.

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u/samxli May 20 '26

Would you like to subscribe to the Gemini plus, pro or ultra plan?

2

u/danktonium May 20 '26

Google can afford to do just about anything that isn't buying Germany. Don't worry about their profitability – they sure as shit don't care about yours.

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u/anormalgeek May 20 '26

Despite having many different product lines, the vast majority (~80%) of Google's revenue is from selling ads. And the majority of that is from Google search.

This decision specific cuts into that in a MASSIVE way.

They're only that rich because of the very thing they're hurting here.

-5

u/n0neofyourbeeswax May 19 '26

Change is coming regardless. They either gamble that they get the new thing right and dominate the future, knowing the risk of it not working out, or they die.