As a chatbot overall, I think Google’s Gemini is less-than-helpful than its competitors (namely Claude and ChatGPT). If you’re looking for something to actually help you with personal productivity or work-related tasks, Gemini probably isn’t it.
But as “better Google search,” Gemini really shines. Google search results have become completely overrun with sponsored links (ads) or search results that are overrun with pop-ups. In recent years, I’ve come to view Google search results as “the websites with the best search engine optimization (SEO)” rather than “the result that best matches what I need.”
I get that’s how the game was played for many years. Travel websites and recipe blogs make money from the traffic from Google Search by selling ads on their sites. Companies with money pay for the sponsored links to make sure they’re at the top, no matter the search query. But as someone trying to find information on The Internet, it’s a poor user experience.
I also write this knowing that some businesses have been fundamentally harmed by the changes to Google Search, like bloggers or online publications. Things are breaking for their existing business models in ways that are outside of their control.
But expecting people to continue to use Google Search the old way is asking for an experience that is better for businesses and worse for humans.
I don’t know what the end result will be, and it will probably take several years to sort itself out. But I had a delightful shopping experience with Gemini and thought to myself, “This is the way it should be.”
What I was looking for
I have a metal display piece on my kitchen table that I’ve owned for many years, and it holds some wicker balls.
I’ve also always had cats, and — for whatever reason — they’ve left the balls alone. Then I adopted a 5-year-old cat about a year ago. She was much more daring than my other cats. She routinely hops up on the table to steal food, pieces of paper, and the wicker balls in my centerpiece.
So I needed something different if I didn’t want to spend the rest of my days retrieving wicker balls from underneath the couch.
I turned to Gemini because this wasn’t a simple Google Search. I needed to explore options and wanted AI to “see” exactly what I was trying to do.
Shopping process with Gemini
I started with a very simple prompt, with a photo. I wasn’t even very elegant in my description: I’m trying to fill this “metal thing” on my kitchen table with something my cats can’t get into.
Gemini immediately came back with multiple options for ceramic and porcelin orbs.
I didn’t like these, and thought glass might be better, so I asked Gemini for glass options. The specific results Gemini came up with in the next search weren’t my style (gold and silver). I asked Gemini for blue or green options. Gemini delivered.
One result caught my eye, from an Etsy seller. Now here’s where it gets interesting. I clicked over to Etsy and looked at multiple options from the seller. The one I liked best wasn’t even one Gemini had suggested.
But I also know that Etsy takes fees for sales on its site, so I popped over to the seller’s main website, Worldly Goods Too. I checked a few reviews and then bought directly from the seller. Free shipping and fast. I was delighted.
Would I have even found this seller if it weren’t for Gemini trying to hard to meet my specific search intent and the back-and-forth? I’m not sure. Because even if I’d known what I wanted from the beginning — glass orbs — it took a few follow-up interactions to narrow down.
Would I let Gemini, or another AI, shop autonomously for me? No, at least not with today’s capabilities. It took human judgment and my human initiative to go to the seller’s website directly rather than make an Etsy purchase.
But overall, it was a better experience than endless scrolling in Google Search results or on Etsy’s site directly, which still might not have surfaced what I was looking for.
I’m sure that AI search will eventually become flooded in various ways as companies work hard to ensure AI can find and recommend their products overall. But for now, it feels like the early days of Google search, when the results were much more pure.
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