Google had planned a practical strategy on Apple users. They thought ‘ what if we make them feel lonely, perhaps they will jump to using our browser instead.’ This led to them coming up with a plan that revolved around the cool AI features.
Significance of artificial intelligence
Google has a tremendously powerful search engine. They keep on improving the search engine features so that we do not switch to other search engines. One such improvement was AI Overviews – one of the latest developed tricks by the professionals. Think of yourself using a search engine where you always have a company of a smart friend who offers you answers alongside your results. This smart friend, however, tends to go to the extreme and create new scenarios which are not so accurate. These small ‘hallucinations’ have made the AI Overviews unpopular.
Blocking Safari Users – The plan
Thus, Google came up with this logical next move: “Let’s keep these cool AI Overviews to Google Chrome only. That way Apple users will feel jealous of those who use Chrome because they are languishing on Apple’s Safari.”Also, Google pays up to $20 billion to be default search engine of Safari.That is a lot of money for sure.
The Unseen Obstacles
Convincing viewers to jump from browser to browser is not exactly a walk in the park. I suppose it is like trying to convince a cat to move its sleeping area to a different place of the house. It’s not urgent for them to do so because they are quite content where they are. Google managers and engineers truly understood that if they hindered Safari users from accessing the new Overviews, these users would get the sense of deprivation and switch to Chrome.
The Outcome – Was It Effective?
Now here comes the turn in the tale. Unfortunately for Google, their plan did not pan out as they had intended it. Everyone did not run to download Chrome simply because they could not find the AI Overviews in the Safari web browsers. In fact, many Safari users literally continued going about their daily business oblivious to what they were missing out on.
However, Google got tired of all the negative feedback from users and made the AI Overviews open to everyone, including those who use Safari.
In the long run, Google came to understand that there is no easy way to change people’s behavior. Safari users did not switch just because there was an AI feature that could have made their life easier. Google still has to contribute to Apple’s revenue, and it seems that the situation is not going to change soon.
Conclusion
Therefore, what can one learn from Google’s somewhat devious experiment? At other times, the best approach is not to force change on individuals and make them feel like they are missing out on something. The best method would be to work on enhancing the ‘chrome’ browser so much that it surpasses the capabilities of all other browser, and only then people will want to switch to chrome.
Google’s recent experiment of forcing Apple users to leave the comfort of Google’s browser and get a glimpse of AI in Safari didn’t get it perfectly right. This may be due to the fact that people enjoy the type of food they are used to, and altering their behavior is always challenging. Finally, Google has agreed to release its AI features to the public. Thus, if you are using Safari — do not worry, you are not losing out on anything new that Google has on its plate.
