The AI field was quite boring that it rarely send ripples that disrupt other industries, until OpenAI kickstarted a hype.
When it introduced ChatGPT, it quickly wowed pretty much everyone who uses it. With the ability to respond like a human being, but with the knowledge of the entire internet, the technology sent other tech companies into frenzy.
In response, Google created Bard.
While it botched at first, the company managed to make it a worthy competitor, especially after it was relaunched as Gemini.
On one side, Google knows that Gemini can help users in various ways and make the company earn a substantial amount of money through subscription. However, Google also knows that its main product is still Google Search.
This is why it quietly introduced a feature to make people use Google Search a lot more, but a way that some may find it annoying.
This is because Google has introduced a new feature that injects links on third-party websites that take users back to Google Search.
Before this, Google announced what it calls the "Page Annotations" feature, which according to Google, "extracts interesting entities from the webpage and highlights them in line."
Interacting with the links will automatically forward users to a Google Search page, performing a search for that subject.
The search result pops up in its own window on top of the third-party website.
And if users interact with one of the links in that floating window, Google will show them additional information taken from its Google Knowledge Graph, which compiles factual data from public entities, other website owners, and other sources.
"When a user clicks on a highlighted entity, the application balance will open, so you can easily find out more information, just when curiosity appears," Google said.
Google explained that the Page Annotation feature is a quick way to get additional contexts about many things, from people, places, or objects. The goal remains the same, namely fast access to information without the need to leave the platform.
"You can easily shift to close the application balance and you will return to the page where you started. Web publishers can select the website they manage to exit this feature by sending this form," Google explained.
With an increasing number of people realizing that they can 'bypass' Google Search using internet-capable Large Language Models, Page Annotation allows Google to close the loop it opened.
By creating links, Google can users of Google to do what they want and seek what they wish, but make them stay at Google Search.
"This new experience allows people to quickly get additional context about people, places, or things -- without leaving the site they're on," said Ashwarya of the Google Search Support Team on the support page. "And when you're done, you can easily swipe to close the app tray and you're right back on the page where you started."
The thing is, Page Annotation is able to automatically create links on third-party websites, even when the websites didn't allow Google to do such a thing.
In other words, Page Annotation is literally an 'unauthorized link injection' method.
For web wanderers, Page Annotation can be appealing. But for website owners, maybe not as much.
This is because the feature essentially moves visitors from their website to a Google Search page, and from there, the visitors may not find their way back to their site again.
Google did say that it's offering an opt-out for website owners through a form. But as pointed by various publishers, opting out can take about 30 days.