AI Overviews Dominate Search, Taking 48% of Mobile Screen Space

Analysis of 120,000 keywords across 22 websites conducted by DemandSphere and Botify found that AI Overviews are present in almost half of the search results. Not only this, AI Overviews also take 48% of the screen on mobile results. AI Overviews can appear 60% of the time in a regular search and may take 76% of mobile screen which makes access to other websites and listings hard. 75% of the AI Overviews are from the top twelve ranked pages so in order to get features on AI Overviews, it is important to increase the page rank on Google.

The study also found a new trend among users where they find what they were searching for without clicking on the links 60% of the time. This is called zero-click search and it seems that many businesses are going to be affected by it. There were also some unique search patterns found by the study. One of those was that 55% of the AI Overviews are triggered when keywords under 1,000 monthly searches are searched on Google. Keywords with more than five words cause AI Overviews to appear 73.6% of the times which queries with commercials intent triggered AI Overviews 19.4% of the times. 58.7% of the times, AI Overviews appeared as a result of informational queries.

No matter how well optimized your websites are, if they are not under Google Index box, the chances of them appearing on AI Overviews are very low. About 50% of pages on Google have crawlability issues, while 20% of pages on Bing have the same problem. If your content is of higher quality that can closely match AI generated summary, it can lead to better visibility in AI search results. Businesses can check their content quality and relevance by using cosine similarity analysis.

The study is quite useful for businesses who want to design their strategies around AI Overviews. They should closely measure SERP to measure their true organic visibility as well as analyse similarity between their page’s content and AI Overviews summary. The top priority of pages should be to get ranked in top 12 on Google search results so they can get featured on AI Overviews. Strong SEO is a big game changer for organic performance and developing a stronger AI search strategy will help your page grow a lot. Don't compromise on the content and quality of the page and deeply study Google’s policies of website ranking and AI Overviews.

Read next: VPNs Struggle as Russia Advances Internet Censorship in Key Regions
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

VPNs Struggle as Russia Advances Internet Censorship in Key Regions

According to reports from Russian and European news outlets, Russia has restricted web services in some regions of the country for a day because they are trying to develop their own sovereign internet. Institute of the Study of War (ISW) reported that Roskomnadzor, Russian communication authority, blocked the internet access of regions like Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia and residents in those areas couldn't access apps like Telegram, YouTube, Google, WhatsApp and some other apps and websites even with VPN. These regions have muslim majority and are located southwest of Russia and share borders with Azerbaijan and Georgia.

A digital rights NGO in Russia called Roskomsvoboda said that some VPNs were working in internet restricted regions but most of them were not. It was unclear which VPNs worked and which didn't but there are reports that at least 197 VPNs are blocked in Russia currently. As Russia is making efforts for censorship, Apple stepped up to help the country by taking down VPN apps from their Russian Apple App Store. Russia plans to make its own sovereign internet so it can have full control over it. $648 million have been invested for projects related to internet and power restrictions in Russia.

Russia seemed to be testing slowing down websites and internet speeds in the country which made most apps like YouTube almost unusable. ISW also said that Russia is also planning to block services like HostGator, Amazon Web Services and other web hosts in the future. The Russian government is already telling the residents to switch to Russian apps and stop using other foreign services. There are also many companies who have stopped providing services in Russia like GoDaddy that stopped supporting Russian domains after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Notion and Wix also stopped their sites in Russia because of US sanctions.

Another country with internet censorship is China that has its own Great Firewall. China has also censored some words or letters that it deemed unsuitable or unacceptable for the internet and there are a lot of foreign apps that have been restricted in the country. People are moving to VPNs but governments can also restrict them. Countries like Myanmar, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Vietnam are also known to be countries with no internet freedom, and VPNs are not the permanent solution to access the internet. It is still unclear how far Russia is going for internet restriction and censorship and there is no news about its latest internet policies.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Say Goodbye to Copy-Pasting: WhatsApp's MetaAI Now Handles Your Message Sharing Automatically
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Say Goodbye to Copy-Pasting: WhatsApp's MetaAI Now Handles Your Message Sharing Automatically

WhatsApp Beta for Android 2.24.26.8 update is here and the new feature that has been introduced in it is forwarding your messages and media to MetaAI. So now, users will be able to forward texts, videos, photos, documents and GIFs to MetaAI on WhatsApp, which will make content sharing easier. Channel owners can have more immediate interaction within their channel because the need to save media to their devices will be eliminated and they won't have to manually upload it themselves.

Right now, users aren't able to forward their messages to MetaAI but from this update that will be available in the upcoming days, it will become possible to forward all types of messages to MetaAI. WhatsApp will also allow users to add context to the messages they are forwarding MetaAI and this way users can ask AI questions about the message they just shared with it. If the user doesn’t give any context or input, MetaAI will just analyze the content and share it with the user.

The new feature is going to be useful for many users as it will save their time because there will be no need to copy paste texts manually any longer as well as no download of media will be required. Overall, it is a convenient feature for users who use MetaAI regularly.

At the moment, this feature is under development so it's not even available to beta users yet. But soon, it will be available for all users and then they can make use of this feature to interact with MetaAI. Once the feature is available, users can update their WhatsApp from Google Play Store to share messages with MetaAI directly.

WhatsApp's MetaAI forwarding feature saves time by eliminating manual uploads, allowing easy sharing with added context. However, critics argue that forwarding personal content to MetaAI raises privacy and security risks, potentially exposing sensitive data. They also highlight the potential for inaccurate AI message analysis, questioning the growing dependence on AI for daily interactions.

Read next: Small Businesses Prioritize Social Media Ads and AI, But Struggle with Online Presence and Customer Growth
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Google Launches Gemini 2.0 Flash With Real Time Conversion and Image Analysis

Google just launched its updated version of the Gemini 2.0 family of AI models.

Called Gemini 2.0 Flash, this is up for grabs in an exciting chat version that users around the world can experiment with. Meanwhile, developers were also treated with another trial of its multimodal version. This features both text-to-speech conversion and features for image generation.

As per CEO Sundar Pichai, Gemini 1.0 was more related to keeping data organized and comprehending information. This latest model on the other hand features more useful offerings. It’s also seen outperforming previous models in terms of user request and code generation. It can also provide more factually correct replies. However, one weak point where it’s subpar in performance to Gemini 1.5 Pro is comprehending longer contexts.

To attain access to chat-optimized variants of experimental Gemini Flash 2.0, users get the chance to choose it by seeing the model’s drop-down menu available on the mobile web as well as the desktop. It’s going to be up for grabs on the Gemini mobile app soon, the firm adds.

The latest multimodal variant of Gemini Flash 2.0 is going to be found on Google’s AI Studio as well as Vertex AI developer apps. Overall availability of Gemini 2.0 Flash’s multimodal variant will appear in January. This is where users will find different Gemini 2.0 model sizes. More plans for expansion to other Google domains are on the horizon by early next year.

This is clearly Google’s main effort in the tech world’s highly competitive AI race. There are plenty of archrivals including Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta who have similarly robust offerings.

Alongside this release, Google did tease about other models that are solely designed to assist with the likes of research and hence are more agentic AI systems. They comprehend more of the real world, plan several steps ahead, and even take action on the user’s behalf. Of course, supervision is necessary.

• Related: Microsoft's AI Leader Challenges OpenAI's Quick AGI Predictions

Last week we saw Google’s CEO speak about challenging Microsoft’s latest AI advancements. This includes a side-by-side competition to determine who has the best model. This just goes to show how confident he is about winning over the software giant.

However, not all things are as smooth as they appears from the above, as Google's Gemini for Google Workspace, integrated into tools like Gmail and Docs, faces challenges in competing with rivals such as Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT. Despite offering features like email rewriting and document summarization, internal data shows Gemini lags in brand recognition and usage, particularly in the US and UK. However, the model performs better in markets like Brazil and India. Google has seen improvements since transitioning from "Duet AI" to "Gemini" and remains optimistic about growth in 2025, despite leadership changes within the Workspace team.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Microsoft's AI Leader Challenges OpenAI's Quick AGI Predictions

Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft's AI leadership voice, struck a measured tone during his Verge Decoder interview. Challenging Sam Altman's swift predictions about technological acceleration, the CEO outlined a more deliberate perspective on artificial intelligence's trajectory. Where Altman envisions rapid transformation, Suleyman sees a complex, gradual path of technological development that resists simplistic narratives of overnight breakthroughs.

Suleyman spoke in detail about artificial general intelligence (AGI) and thinks that AGI is not possible in the near future. But on the other hand, Sam Altman has said that they can achieve AGI with their current hardware. Sam Altman didn't define what he meant by current hardware but people think it's meant one or two generations of technology that many AI models are based on.

Mustafa Suleyman says that according to him, AGI may be achievable within two to five generations of technology. It is a probability that AGI can be achieved within the next two years, but the best possibility is within the next five to seven years. He added that people define AGI in different ways and his definition of AGI is a type of system that can work with all human training level environments. Physical labour is also something artificially general Intel should be able to perform.

The definition of artificial general intelligence(AGI) on OpenAI’s website says that it's an autonomous system that can perform human tasks even better than humans. Suleyman says that many people have also exaggerated and dramatized AGI so we are not focusing on what capabilities it can have and we are going on about what it should do instead. There are also some reports that OpenAI is removing a clause from its contract with Microsoft that will prevent the company from misusing artificial general intelligence. Mustafa Suleyman said about this that in any partnership between companies, there are some tensions but both these companies are going strong and are confident in the investment of Microsoft in OpenAI.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: The Hosting Habits of Hypergrowth Businesses: What Every Growing Business Should Know
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

The Hosting Habits of Hypergrowth Businesses: What Every Growing Business Should Know

Scalable businesses grow fast, and their challenges are pretty unique, above all when considering digital infrastructure. Liquid Web surveyed the latest and greatest on hosting practices of hypergrowth businesses, showing how they adapt to scalability needs and ensuring reliable performance. The result provides a number of interesting insights on how to keep the engine running hot in the competitive pace of today's digital economy.

Operational Challenges in Hosting Prevalent among Expanding Enterprises

Hosting and server management are especially common pain points for many hypergrowth businesses with rapidly growing sales and revenue. In fact, according to research by Liquid Web, 61% of hypergrowth businesses faced at least one issue with hosting or servers in the last year, and these issues usually create discontinuity that has adverse implications for user experiences, operational efficiencies, and, bottom line, revenue.

The effect of these challenges is that 40% of the total number of respondents migrated to cloud hosting to keep up with growing rates. Cloud hosting, characterized by scalability and flexibility, lets any business manage increased traffic, ensure uptimes, and improve general performance without needing to constantly upgrade hardware.

Increased Budgets Reflect Hosting Priorities

No surprise, then, that many companies are investing more than ever in hosting services to support their growth. In fact, fully two-thirds of hypergrowth organizations report that they plan to increase their budgets for hosting services in the next year, reported Liquid Web. On average, they anticipate increasing their budgets by 23%.

This trend shows that reliable and high-performance hosting is not a technological concern alone but a big corporate investment as well. As the budget increases, so does the business's ability to afford modern hosting solutions, implement redundancy, and scale up infrastructure to meet future needs.

Return on Investment of Upgrading Hosting Solutions

It's really about better returns on investments more than solving problems. In fact, 88% of the hypergrowth businesses that upgraded their hosting this year realized a positive ROI as a result.

Whether increasing uptimes, site load times, or handling surges above and beyond site traffic, these upgrades directly translate into better user experiences and high conversion rates, setting them on a path for strong customer retention. For a hypergrowth company, it's the kind of advantage that will keep them ahead of the competition.

1. Strategies for Hosting Success in Hypergrowth
   Liquid Web's study throws light on how successful hypergrowth businesses implement their hosting practices. Here are some actionable insights for companies facing similar challenges:
2. Scalability first.
   Hypergrowth comes with spikes in unpredictable traffic and scaling demands on infrastructure. Cloud hosting solutions are preferred due to their ability to scale resources dynamically with the flux of traffic.
3. Invest in managed hosting.
   With managed hosting services, organizations can outsource management-related tasks to experts and provide resources for their in-house teams to work on growth initiatives. More often than not, they also provide additional levels of support and performance optimization.
4. Continuously monitor performance.
   Regular performance monitoring enables an organization to identify and resolve bottlenecks before they worsen. Tools such as real-time analytics and load testing can be helpful in monitoring the performance of the website and strategizing for future bottlenecks.
5. Budgeting for Growth
   As the survey shows, increasing hosting budgets is not just an expense but an investment. Spending on infrastructure upgrades can avoid expensive outages and ensure business operations continue running smoothly during critical growth periods. Apply backup and redundancy measures. Greater growth also means greater stakes in case of some downtime or loss. Using backup systems and redundancy strategies facilitates minimal disruption in case such unforeseen situations do arise.

The Consequences of Overlooking the Hosting Requirements

For hypergrowth businesses, poor hosting infrastructure can have serious consequences. Downtime and slow performance can cause lost sales, damaged brand reputations, and disgruntled customers. In addition, reliance on obsolete or inadequate hosting solutions limits the ability of a business to expand and thus inhibits future growth.

By contrast, companies that proactively deal with their hosting providers-whether it's through cloud solutions, managed services, or infrastructure upgrades-are setting themselves up for success in this continuously fighting competitive digital landscape.

A Glimpse into the Future

The demand for robust hosting will keep rising while businesses expand. In an interview, Liquid Web said, "Investments in hosting infrastructure aren't just a reaction to the current need; it's one sure way of continuing to grow.".

Every second of uptime and every millisecond of load time counts when it comes to a hyper-growth business. Paying attention to scalability, reliability, and performance allows you to handle growth and rise to the top of your industry.

Final Thoughts

Indeed, the hosting practices of hypergrowth enterprises build off a basic tenant: growth and infrastructure go hand-in-hand. That leaves the research by Liquid Web as an important, end-to-end guide for any organization that wishes to scale with assured, high performance.

From early addressing of hosting challenges to ensuring only ROI-driven upgrades, the strategies shared in this study will form a necessary foundation for any company to thrive in the digital era. Indeed, as hypergrowth businesses have proven, the right hosting decisions can provide the foundation upon which future success will be built.

Read next: Digital Ads to Make Up 82% of Global Revenue by 2025, GroupM Report Reveals

by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

ChatGPT Reigns Supreme as Rival AI Chatbots Scramble to Compete in Global Markets

Ever since the emergence of ChatGPT, it has become the world's most downloaded AI chatbot. Now that OpenAI has released the updated versions of GPT-4 model, the popularity and usage of ChatGPT has increased a lot in the past year. Right now, ChatGPT is dominating in the US market, but in other markets, many AI chatbots are taking the lead. In India, 50% of the AI chatbot downloads are for Google Gemini, while smaller LLM-based models are emerging in Latin America.

According to Sensor Tower data, ChatGPT is the most popular AI model globally, with 90 million app downloads recorded in Q3 2024 — a 100% year-over-year increase. In the US, ChatGPT’s market share increased 3% from 2023 to 2024. 11% of the market share in the US is of Google Gemini. Character AI saw the most boost in downloads (86%) in Q3 of 2024 in the US, followed by ChatGPT (81%), Microsoft CoPilot (71%) and Perplexity (68%). Google Gemini saw 53% of share of organic download penetration in Q3 of 2024 in the US.

The mobile revenue of ChatGPT in the US in Q3 2024 increased ninefold, with 60% starting from May 2024. Other AI apps that saw a rise in mobile downloads were ChatBox, ChatOn and Chat and Ask AI in the US. In the third quarter of 2024 the monthly active users on ChatGPT app in the US were 160 million and it reached the milestone of 50 million MAUs in just five months. Temu and Disney+ were also among the fastest apps to reach 50 million monthly active users and took 8 and 12 months respectively. The app that reached 50 million MAUs the fastest in the US was Threads, which did it in just one month, followed by Capcut that did it in four months.

ST found that Perplexity users in the US are also using Lyft (28%) and Uber (42%) which shows that Perplexity has a large urban base. This rate was lower in users of CoPilot and ChatGPT. Perplexity has advertised its app to Uber One members by offering them free subscriptions. Most of the AI platforms focused its ad spending on California in 2024, with Claude leading with 18% of its ad spend, followed by 15 ad spend by Perplexity. CoPilot focused on New York, while Perplexity and Claude focused on San Francisco for ad spending in 2024. Gemini also gained good expressions from its advertisements on digital outlets and newspapers, while CoPilot advertised on OTT’s that gained 130 million impressions.

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• Forget Privacy: 59% of Users Don’t Trust Their Data Is Safe—Here’s Why
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World