Local Memo: Google’s SGE Launching Sooner Than Expected?

In this week’s post, learn about hints and rumors that Google will launch SGE at its annual I/O event; OpenAI making links more prominent on ChatGPT’s paid versions; and the ability to use ChatGPT instantly without an account.

Google’s SGE Launching Sooner Than Expected?

Rumors are circulating that Google might launch its Search Generative Experience (SGE) across the U.S. and other regions at Google I/O on May 14. 

There are a few hints that suggest this possibility:

1. Past Google I/O Event: 

The I/O event is Google’s most notable annual event. At last year’s event, Google announced SGE for U.S. users and opened Bard (now Gemini) more widely for the public. 

2. SGE Automatic Opt-Ins:

Last week’s Local Memo noted that a subset of U.S. users who didn’t opt into SGE are now seeing AI results. Google told Search Engine Land they wanted feedback from searchers who hadn’t opted into SGE and wanted to learn from a more general population.

3. Liz Reid promoted to VP, Search:

Elizabeth (Liz) Reid was promoted to VP of Search at Google a few weeks ago. In her LinkedIn announcement, she acknowledged that she “joined Google in 2003 as one of the first engineers building Google Local…I focused on solving the technical challenges of surfacing high quality, accurate local information in our products.” 

In her LinkedIn post, Reid transitions from discussing her early days in local search to SGE.

“In fact, people have already issued billions of queries with SGE since we introduced it as a feature in Search Labs last year…With SGE, we are able to serve a wider range of information needs and answer new types of questions, including more complex questions, like comparisons or longer queries. More coming soon!” 

Perhaps we’re reading too much into Reid’s statements, but there’s little doubt SGE isn’t playing a prominent role in her and Google Search’s minds.

We can’t say for certain that SGE will launch at I/O, but historical trends and recent moves point to the possibility.

OpenAI Making Links More Prominent on ChatGPT

Last Friday, OpenAI announced via an X post that they’re “making links more prominent when ChatGPT browses the internet. These links give more context to its responses and make it easier for users to discover content from publishers and creators.”

We’re making links more prominent when ChatGPT browses the internet. This gives more context to its responses and makes it easier for users to discover content from publishers and creators. Browse is available in ChatGPT Plus, Team and Enterprise. pic.twitter.com/1ChlZvVMUy

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) March 29, 2024

As you can see, sources are directly linked with anchor text in ChatGPT, giving users more confidence and trust in the generated results. However, these citations only appear in the paid versions, ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise.

This update and news comes after a recent viral interview, where Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, hinted at OpenAI helping reimagine the search experience. Altman stated, “The intersection of LLMs plus search, I don’t think anyone has cracked the code on [it] yet. I would love to go do that. I think that would be cool.”

You Can Use ChatGPT Instantly Without an Account

OpenAI announced on Monday, April 1 (no, this wasn’t an April Fool’s joke) that people can use ChatGPT instantly without signing up. 

Courtesy of OpenAI

OpenAI is rolling this update out gradually with the aim to make AI accessible to anyone. 

That said, OpenAI will automatically use these quick-start conversations to train its large language models (LLMs). You can prevent your chats from being used to improve OpenAI’s models in the settings, but the system won’t prompt you to do so automatically.

Furthermore, OpenAI has enabled additional content safeguards, including blocking prompts and generations in a broader range of categories than they do for account users.