Earlier this week, Google rolled out a completely new Search experience, foregrounding AI summaries and kicking the traditional “10 blue links” far down the page. But the sheer scale of Google Search means there are lots of edge cases that the company doesn’t seem to have considered.
For instance, this is what you’ll now get if you type the word “disregard” into Google Search.
Google has been catching some flack on social media for this, and it’s easy to see why. As you’ll notice, the Merriam-Webster link is still in there, but you have to scroll past a huge block of empty space. For most users, that single reply is the only thing you’ll see. And crucially, the AI response serves no conceivable value to a user searching the word “disregard.” It’s just a broken tool.
For context, here is the same search in Bing, which has been less aggressive about its AI summaries. It’s not perfect, but there is some useful information to be found here.
I have been a professional tech journalist for nearly 15 years, and before today, I cannot think of a single time when a Bing search result was more valuable than the Google equivalent. There really is a first time for everything!