Google’s AI-powered Search Experience is Way too Slow

A review in The Verge.  Speed mentioned.    I am examining. Look to see a response. 

Google’s AI-powered search experience is way too slow      in The Verge by Jay Peters

Why wait for an AI-generated summary when I can just scroll down the page?

The worst thing about Google’s new AI-powered search experience is how long you have to wait.

Can you think of the last time you waited for a Google Search result? For me, searches are generally instant. You type a thing in the search box, Google almost immediately spits out an answer to that thing, and then you can click some links to learn more about what you searched for or type something else into the box. It’s a virtuous, useful cycle that has turned Google Search into the most visited website in the world.

Google’s Search Generative Experience, on the other hand, has loading animations. Loading animations!

Let me back up a little. In May, Google introduced an experimental feature called Search Generative Experience (SGE) that uses Google’s AI systems to summarize search results for you. The idea is that you won’t have to click through a list of links or type something else in the search box; instead, Google will just tell you what you’re looking for. In theory, that means your search queries can be more complex and conversational — a pitch we’ve heard before! — but Google will still be able to answer your questions.

If you’ve opted in to SGE, which is only available to people who sign up for Google’s waitlist on its Search Labs, AI summaries will appear right under the search box. I’ve been using SGE for a few days, and I’ve found the responses themselves have been generally fine, if cluttered. For example, when I searched “where can I watch Ted Lasso?” the AI-generated response that appeared was a few sentences long and factually accurate. It’s on Apple TV Plus. Apple TV Plus costs $6.99 per month. Great.

A screenshot of Google’s Search Generative Experience showing results for the query: “where can I watch Ted Lasso?”

But the answers are often augmented with a bunch of extra stuff. On desktop, Google displays source information as cards on the right, even though you can’t easily tell which pieces of information come from which sources (another button can help you with that). On mobile (well, only the Google app for now), the cards appear below the summarized text. Below the query response, you can click a series of potential follow-up prompts, and under all of that is a standard Google search result, which can be littered with additional info boxes.

That extra stuff in an SGE result isn’t quite as helpful as it should be, either. When it showed off SGE at I/O, Google also showed how the tool could auto-generate a buying guide on the fly, so I thought “where can I buy Tears of the Kingdom?” would be a softball question. But the result was a mess, littered with giant sponsored cards above the result, a confusing list of suggested retail stores that didn’t actually take me to listings for the game, a Google Map pinpointing those retail stores, and off to the right, three link cards where I could find my way to buying the game. A search for a used iPhone 13 Mini in red didn’t go much better. I should have just scrolled down.   .... '