News about online search

Speakers in this discussion examine how companies are finding ways to get AI chatbots to disparage their competitors. They note that as users shift from Google Search to chatbots, firms including financial advisers are trying to optimize their messaging so chatbots surface them, a practice called GEO as the counterpart to SEO. The panel argues that using chatbots to trash rivals could backfire on a company's reputation and turn an answer into an ad rather than an objective search result. They also warn that many users accept chatbot answers verbatim, unlike traditional search results that display multiple source links.

Alphabet (GOOG) shares rose 1.85% to $285.01 at 9:40 a.m. ET on November 2, after Wells Fargo cut its price target to $365 from $371 while keeping an Overweight rating. Wells Fargo attributes much of the search slowdown to AI Overviews and expects that pressure to last another two quarters. In Alphabet's October 28 results, Search and other revenue was $63.350 billion versus $30.709 billion for Cloud, and Cloud generated $11.121 billion in operating income, a 36.2% operating margin, though its revenue equals just 48.5% of Search's. The article says investors should watch Cloud's operating margin and Search's revenue growth, since holding the first while improving the second would offer stronger evidence that the AI push is boosting earnings.