AI Mode Subtext, Link Quality, Google Ad Labeling, Gemini Success

AIOs & AI Mode: The Subtext

Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google, was recently interviewed by Lenny Rachitsky on his podcast. Among other places, Stein has worked at Google, Meta and Yahoo. This is his second go at Google, following a consumer product leadership role at Instagram, where he oversaw Stories and Reel (both clones of rival products). Stein is now responsible for multiple search features including AI Overviews and AI Mode. It's a lengthy interview and Stein says lots of things. Among them, he remarks that AI hasn't impacted core Google usage. What he probably means is Google still has lots of traffic, but search usage is changing. Stein says that AI is "expansionary," – something Liz Reid has repeatedly said – and growing the search query pie overall. There's an implication that that top-of-funnel questions are going to AI features and "core search" is increasingly about navigation, brand queries and last clicks. Here are some inferences from the conversation: AI Overviews (AIOs) were rushed out to respond to ChatGPT and AI Mode is the better version of what Google is seeking to build. The two features will thus eventually be consolidated. Stein touts Google's entity graphs (products and local structured data) as major differentiators vs rivals. Finally, he sees Gemini, the direct ChatGPT competitor, and AI Mode as distinct. Gemini is for creativity/productivity, he says, whereas AI Mode is for information and more search-like. But this distinction feels a bit forced.