Meta is reportedly working on an artificial intelligence search engine that will crawl the web looking for information, which could disrupt the way advertising is sold online.
Currently, the Meta AI chatbot gets information about news, sports, stocks and other current events from Google and Bing, a situation the company is trying to change, according to a report that appeared in The Information on Monday.
By removing chatbot interactions outside of search engines, Meta hopes to sell hyper-targeted ads that it can sell at premium prices.
Having complete control over the chatbot interaction is also likely to keep users in the Meta app longer, giving them more time to serve them more ads.
“As Meta enters the AI Search arena, more of the data they’re sourcing will come from first-party data without relying on third-party reporting and data from other sources,” explained Amanda Robinson, CEO of The Digital Gal. , a digital marketing agency in Toronto.
“I see this as having the potential to replace past tracking methods like website pixels and move us closer to more relevant ads that are shown to the right people,” she told the E-Commerce Times. “It’s a win-win for both users and advertisers.”
It would also be a win for Meta. “Ad rates could be higher,” said Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology consultancy in New York.
“Today, you already know something about someone who has searched because of their previous search history, but you can understand a lot more about an AI based on how they create their challenges, how they follow and other things they do,” said E- Commerce Times.
Conversational advertising
Making Meta’s search engine more robust would allow Facebook or Instagram to reach more online users, explained Chris Ferris, senior vice president of digital strategy at Pierpont Communications, a public relations agency in Houston.
“Google Ads works as well because they’re driven by people who search with great intent,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “Ads on Facebook and Instagram are based on assumptions about what people like. If I like a bunch of football content, I see ads for football boots. But I’m 55. I don’t play football anymore. If Meta can layer search data on top of its other information about its users, it could be very powerful.”
However, he added: “Color me skeptical that Meta is good at developing new technologies. I suspect it will go the way of their mixed reality headsets: a lot of money spent with very little return.”
Kaveh Vahdat, founder and president of RiseOpp, a fractional CMO agency in San Francisco, noted that the development of Meta’s search-enabled AI chatbot signals a potential shift in online advertising and search dynamics.
“Unlike Google’s fact-based search model, Meta’s AI aims to provide conversational responses that integrate current events with personalized recommendations,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “This approach could change user engagement and potentially impact online advertising spending as businesses adopt a more dialog-centric advertising model. By integrating AI with existing social data, Meta could target ads more dynamically, making ads less intrusive and more part of users’ online journeys.”
“While Google has a strong position in search with around 90% market share, Meta’s entry could challenge that dominance, especially as user preferences shift towards conversational and integrated search,” he added. “Meta’s AI could use real-time data from its social platforms to create highly personalized and targeted ads – something traditional search engines don’t currently offer in the same way.”
Google search dominance will continue
As formidable a challenge as Meta might pose to Google’s search dominance, it’s unlikely to happen. “Meta’s journey to search is a long shot, and I don’t see it changing the industry in any meaningful way,” said Jordan Stevens of Jordan Stevens Digital Marketing, a consulting practice in Toronto.
“Consumer behavior is behind Google’s huge lead, and it’s hard to change,” he told the E-Commerce Times.
Malik Ahmed Khan, technology equity analyst at Morningstar Research Services in Chicago, pointed out that the reported search feature is aimed at people searching in the Meta ecosystem. “I don’t believe Meta wants or has a long-term vision to create a standalone search product,” he told the E-Commerce Times.
“Could this mean lower search volumes because people are searching more within Meta’s FoA (family of apps)? Sure,” he continued. “But we don’t see this as a significant threat to Google’s search dominance.”
“The primary case we should make for this is that search as a standalone product is still responsible for the vast majority of online searches,” he said. “It’s unlikely that Meta’s search product—whenever it launches, which, by the way, could take some time—could take a significant portion of monetizable searches away from Google.”
“Building a Google Killer isn’t really the goal here,” added Dev Nag, CEO and founder of QueryPal, an enterprise chatbot in San Francisco.
“The idea is to make their platforms more capable and self-sufficient while reducing dependence on potential competitors,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “The real battle is not about traditional web search, but about being the primary interface through which people discover and interact with information in their digital lives.”
Prelude to Everything app?
The development of the web crawler could be the beginning of Meta’s larger plan, said Baruch Labunski, CEO of Rank Secure, a web development and search engine optimization firm, in Toronto.
“It’s an open secret that the bigger social media platforms, namely Meta and X, want to take over the web with ‘platforms of everything,'” he told the E-Commerce Times.
“That means you would go there to search, use the chatbot, go on social media, buy and ship products and do all kinds of transactions,” he said. “It could even evolve into a financial system for every platform with cryptocurrencies as the primary exchange. Such a development would significantly cut Google’s share of the Internet pie, because people would no longer need it.”
“Google could become Ask Jeeves if it doesn’t offer something more to get customers to stay in search,” he added.
Anthony Miyazaki, a marketing professor at Florida International University in Miami, argued that Google might be wise to give up market share on purpose to avoid government intervention that could destroy its dominance.
“That’s where Meta comes into play,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “Facebook and Instagram’s Meta search features have been substandard for years. In fact, TikTok’s impressive search capabilities are what seemed to wake up Met recently to its search shortcomings, with TikTok being the primary search platform — even over Google — for younger audiences.”
“Zuckerberg is starting with an advantage, as integrations of artificial intelligence into search have already been tested by Google and Bing,” he continued. “Starting with AI as the foundation for search will create a more connected search that is likely to reach Meta’s Instagram and Facebook audiences.”