Google's SGE: How It Affects Travel & Tourism

Google, the world's most used search engine, has been slowly improving its search function to adapt to AI.

Its new Search Generative Experience (SGE) is set to be a revolutionary change for the way people search. 

While still in its prototype and testing phase, SGE works in a similar way to ChatGPT's function does. The shift in how people search from simple queries to more complex, conversational search has been steadily competing with Google's colossal search market value. But, with the introduction of SGE, things are starting to take a turn with Google through various beta tests and rollouts.

A Quick Introduction To Google's SGE 

Dubbed as a new way to revolutionise search, SGE is set to create an innovative search experience for users in its hopeful, eventual rollout on a global scale. Essentially, it's a feature that allows AI-generated answers to more complex queries directly in search results. 

According to Google itself, SGE - much like its competitor ChatGPT and other AI-based search platforms - provides an answer that delivers a richer result than a traditional answer given by Google. 

Below are provided images by Google on how the search engine results pages (SERPs) looks as a concept with SGE. 

 Google displays a conversational answer onto the SERPs, with additional information on the searcher's query, links, recommended questions to follow up and a prompt for asking a "follow-up" question.

SGE on mobile. The image shows the SGE function on the Google App where a user searches for a query, a prompt for "converse" appears (left) which then brings the user to another screen for conversational search (right).

What can users expect with SGE once it's accessible? 

At this time, Google's SGE is not released as its being tested, so we still don't know what the end product will look like. That being said, the convenience of AI has left a mark in the digital world, where less work and richer results via searches are becoming more preferable. There's already a discussion on the value of two titanic AI chatbots and which one's are more efficient (Gemini vs ChatGPT, for example!). 

An exciting, yet curious time for search users. But, how will this affect travellers searching for queries in terms of their travel plans? 

How SGE Will Affect User Behaviour In Travel

As discussed, SGE provides a comprehensive tool for searchers, allowing them to shift the usual "best travel destination in 2024" to literally creating a tailored itinerary for a specific destination at a specific date. 

The amount of value driven by SGE also works in favour of travellers. A faster result regarding a query, followed by conversational follow-ups creates an entirely helpful search result that Google seems to be going for. 

(Google's overview of SGE)

To put it simply, instead of browsing through what marketers call "organic results" on the SERPs (commonly underpaid ad results), users should be able to get a much better answer they want through a simple query, and some interaction without sifting through the myriad of links found on Google's results.

Below are some examples on how SGE can be applied to travel search

Taking advantage of conversational mode

One of the new features of SGE is its conversational mode, where once users acquire the results prompted by Google, they can click on predefined questions to follow-up on their query. 

Example:

Local search result upgrades 

When asking SGE for hotels, three instead of five slots are now present on SERPs (as seen on Travel Boom Marketing's page).

Traditionally, when searching for a nearby hotel, three slots were present and results were shown based on where the user was - provided they allowed Google to read their location. 

From Travel Boom Marketing. 

What's different with SGE is the five slots determined before and other additions that make the SERPs more user-friendly. This includes a short snippet of text to describe the hotel, image link cards for official websites and OTAs, and hotels' Google Business Profiles appearing when clicked. 

"AI-powered overview" function

AI-powered overview is yet another quick method of acquiring information about a topic, place, person, and other subjects that a user may want an overview of. 

For example: 

 Vertical experiences in search 

The way that SGE is structured consists of three areas; the AI snapshot, conversational mode and vertical experiences. We've covered the AI snapshot as a summary of the information acquired from the user's query, and conversational mode which allows users to follow-up with questions they may have regarding the current conversation. 

Vertical experiences, however, are for transactional queries that detail the provider's information. This includes comparisons based on Google's Travel ads, ratings, and a knowledge panel that users can use to go to a direct website, other booking sites, or Google Travel itself.

Search Behaviour With SGE 

In general, the promised product of SGE seems to be an evolution from the standard search experience that we know today from the likes of Google, Bing, and other known search engines. 

But will this affect how searchers look for hotels, search destinations, or create plans in their journey? As of April, 2024, it's still too early to tell. We still need to understand whether hotel searchers (as an example) will use the new features by Google, or turn to other channels to find out more information about your hotel.  

Regardless, we're still interested in