TECH NEWS – Alphabet, Google’s parent company, seems to be getting a little greedy as it is rumored to be charging for a feature that we wouldn’t have believed it could make paid, but it’s worth a closer look.

Over the past two and a half decades, searching on Google has become a household word in the English-speaking world. (Just Google it!) The search engine is used almost every day (although there are alternatives, such as Microsoft’s Bing or DuckDuckGo), but Alphabet could change the model by focusing on premium features powered by masterful intelligence. These could be paid services.

Google already has a few subscription services. These include Gemini Advanced (speaking of artificial intelligence; this was formerly known as Bard) and Google One, and these could be joined by a paid version of Google Search, which would still be loaded with ads! There are also no plans to discontinue free search (which is fair enough, because if the company decided to do that, a lot of people would be significantly annoyed).

Google has already put a lot of money into AI, and you could see AI-powered features on several of their platforms, but so far there has been no talk of it being integrated into their search engine. There’s no word yet on when the so-called premium search will be available, but Google is reportedly already working on the technology, so there’s a chance we could get a sneak peek at it during Google I/O 2024 in May.

There’s nothing wrong with companies charging for the best versions of their services, but if there really are ads for users who subscribe to search, it’s really just greed, because while it’s understandable that they would appear in the free version, they shouldn’t be in the paid version. Just don’t let it end up in the digital graveyard like Google Podcasts did last time.

Source: WCCFTech, Financial Times