【Nanda van Bergen】

Google recently launched a personalized news feed on Nanda van Bergenthe company's flagship app, and it will soon rollout to browser versions of google.com.

The update is a huge deal for a couple of reasons: First, it will be the most radical change to Google's famously simple home page since 1996, or at least since its big push behind Google+, which began in 2011 and has since been deemed a failure. It also positions Google to compete directly with the Facebook News Feed, which generally provides the same type of information like sports scores, viral videos, and news.

SEE ALSO: Google is using your entire search history to create a personalized news feed

But most importantly, the takeaway from this is that Google is trying to protect itself from larger shifts in the way people spend time online. Digital services are becoming increasingly more reliant on artificial intelligence to predict what you're looking for in that exact moment. Google is no exception.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Take, for example, how companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Uber have all recently introduced artificial intelligence into their core products, working to predict your requests before you even type them in or say them.

This is a major problem for Google, a company that is still heavily reliant on search traffic for its revenue. Even though Google has launched plenty of other products besides search, few of them make any money.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

In the first quarter of 2017, Google still made 99.9 percent of its total revenue from search, display, and video advertising. This is one of the major reasons the company reorganized and became Alphabet in 2015. It was time to start holding the company's other products accountable for making money. The newly formed company Alphabet even organizes its quarterly earnings in two columns: "Google" and "Other Bets." That is just how important search is.

But predictive artificial intelligence is slowly eating away people's need to search for information online, and that trend will only grow over the next few years.

In about a decade, experts predict artificial intelligence is going to perform better than humans in many complicated tasks, and it's easy to imagine how Google Search could become a casualty of this seemingly unstoppable trend.

The search bar as we know it might soon look like an old relic from the past. Instead, we will likely be fed pertinent information based on our location, the time, and our general usage habits. Search will always be available — but its relevance will fade over time as artificial intelligence becomes stronger.

Google knows its search and advertising business can't last forever, especially in its current form. Its parent company Alphabet desperately seeks a more diverse revenue stream, and ideally, someday, it could make money from all of its various products.

This doesn't mean that Google Search will be wiped off the face of the planet -- but search as we know it will die. The new update to the Google app is a rather small, iterative update, but it will quickly spread to other products (if we're to take Google's word for it). It's easy to overlook, but in my eyes, it marks the beginning of the slow demise of Google Search.

The question now for Google is, will the new "feed" be the beginning of something else?

---

Featured Video For You

---

'Forest Bathing': How steeping yourself in nature could help with stress

---

Topics Artificial Intelligence Facebook Google

• Social Good
• Shopping
• Deals
• Digital Culture
• Games
• Science
• Entertainment
• Life

• The 10 Most Anticipated PC Games of 2016
• Peter Thiel told Mark Zuckerberg not to change political ad rules, report says
• The tech that changed us: A decade in review
• This burnt Christmas tree is a stark symbol of Australia's devastating bushfires
• Wordle today: The answer and hints for April 14, 2025
• Heinz actually uses the ad campaign pitched by Don Draper in 'Mad Men'
• Grounded teen gets stuck in her room and records her thrilling escape
• What to remember about 'The Last Jedi' before 'The Rise of Skywalker'
• Against Fear
• Nifty machines use rocks to play perfect cover of 'Here Comes the Sun'

• People can't decide if this monkey is cute or if it looks like Lord Voldemort
• Dramatic dash cam footage shows bystanders rescuing woman from burning car
• 'SpongeBob SquarePants' creator Stephen Hillenburg dies at 57
• Some babies look like old people, and they have their very own subreddit
• Christine Blasey Ford will donate remaining GoFundMe money to help trauma survivors
• 'Darksiders III' review: Basically just a super
• Chinese facial recognition system catches jaywalker, turns out to be a bus
• Grandma spends third Thanksgiving with the teen she accidentally invited to dinner
• Amazon's international stores are shipping to Australia again
• Amazon workers strike on Black Friday over working conditions

• Best soundbar deal: Save $300 on the Sonos Arc
• Move over Gigi, Tweety the canary is modeling's new fresh face
• Taylor Swift's birthday cake is both cute and concerning
• Trump never has to buy sunglasses again because Obama's photographer will shade him forever
• Today's Hurdle hints and answers for April 17, 2025
• 'The Mandalorian' Chapter 7 shows just how powerful Baby Yoda is
• Look! No hands (or feet) needed to fly this autonomous helicopter.
• TikTok got an 'F' in our data accessibility rankings. Facebook got an 'A.'
• How to Reboot and Reset Android Devices
• There are many great Obama

• The State of 5G: When It's Coming, How Fast It Will Be & The Sci
• Books from 2019 that can teach kids about identity
• Mischa Barton is the latest celebrity to become a victim of revenge porn
• Heinz actually uses the ad campaign pitched by Don Draper in 'Mad Men'
• Against Fear
• Instagram expands fact
• Ryan Reynolds explains that shocking Spice Girls moment in '6 Underground'
• This hilarious parody nails the double standards women face when reporting sexual assault
• Bomb Envy
• 6 big hopes and wishes for 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'