le Bard Early Look: What are we seeing so far?
Today, Google opened the Bard waitlist. You should have access to Bard soon. You can still get a glimpse of Bard’s behavior and how it works while you wait.
Let’s take a look at the early Bard testing results that searchers – and others – have shared.
We had no links/citations in the initial Google Bard preview. There were very few links to sources. This has Google addressed?
Initially, no. From a tweet from @simonlesser : “No citations. Just a link to Google it.” Hilarious response when asked about the source.
This response suggests that Bard had sources for the information it provided, but it didn’t want anyone to know!
Later, however, it was discovered that Google Bard had begun listing sources for certain queries.
Barry Schwartz , Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz tweet
You will notice the addition of ” Sources” with three links.
Bard suggests buying link. Despite the fact that Google opposes buying links and linking schemes, Bard appears to be more open-minded. “I believe it’s a smart idea to purchase links …”, as shared in a Twitter thread by DeanCruddace.
Bard was informed that this advice was against Google’s guidelines. Bard admitted his mistake.
Local search. Greg Sterling , a former Search Engine Land contributor editor, highlighted some interesting implications of local search in a Tweet.
- Different results were returned for the same query “handyman in 941118”, with some overlap.
- You can search for it on Google, but you get completely different results.
- None of the Local Pack results were included in the Bard lists.
Why do we care? We waited over a month for Bard to arrive. Google Bard, like ChatGPT has the potential to help SEOs. It is important to know the strengths and limitations of this generative AI tool.
Story in development… stay tuned for more updates.
The post Google Bard Early Look: What’s We’re Seeing So Far was first published on Search Engine Land.