Chapter 233 The Power of Inertia
“Pichai, relax, it is very difficult to change user habits. Even Samad, who is omnipotent in the field of cryptocurrency, cannot do it. .
If you think they can do it, think about Newbing." Google executives said lightly, not thinking that hornbill might threaten Google's dominance in search engines.
The artificial intelligence search engine earlier than hornbill is Microsoft's Newbing.
Microsoft integrated OpenAI’s artificial intelligence capabilities into bing and launched a product called Newbing.
Microsoft has high hopes for Newbing. According to Microsoft's own internal assessment and analysis, it believes that more than 50% of online search business can be replaced by generative AI.
However, the results were disappointing for Microsoft. Newbing's traffic and page views increased by 15.8% in the first half month after its launch, while Google's traffic and page views decreased by 1%.
Newbing’s growth does not satisfy Microsoft. An increase of less than 20% cannot be considered a success in any case. The decline of its old rival Google is even more insignificant. You can’t even say that their decline is due to Newbing. caused.
What will happen in the future will make Microsoft even more disappointed. Six months later, Newbing's market share in the Amerikan market has not only failed to increase, but has even declined compared with 2022.
In July 2023, Newbing's market share in Americen dropped from 7.82% in July 2022 to 6.47%.
You must know that Microsoft has invested a lot of computing power in Bing to integrate GPT, and these computing power are all costs.
You have increased costs and used the latest technology, but the revenue is zero. This result will undoubtedly disappoint Microsoft.
There is even suspicion within Microsoft that Microsoft does not have the genes to be a search engine.
Of course, Microsoft has not given up and continues to invest resources in Newbing. After all, it still has 6% market share. Maybe a miracle will happen one day.
Search engines are really too big a piece of cake, and advertising costs are too expensive.
Pichai is obviously not as optimistic as the executives. "No, hornbill and Newbing cannot be compared together.
Although they have so many similarities.
But the underlying logic of Newbing It is still a question-and-answer artificial intelligence, and it still has shortcomings that question-and-answer artificial intelligence cannot get rid of. Whether it is response speed or answer accuracy, it actually seizes ChatGPT's market, not Google's market.
Hornbill is different, its underlying logic is similar to Google, and it provides accurate information that users want to know.” The search engine is based on a layer of content, which is very similar to the introduction on the Google homepage
We don't need to worry too much.
With its current capabilities, it does not have the power to change user habits. ”
“What if it could continue to evolve?
This is just version 1.0 of Hornbill, just like Bing continues to enhance their user experience through visual effects. ”
Bing’s artificial intelligence optimization did not start after ChatGPT. It can be traced back to March 2021, when they updated a large number of functions.
"Once it shows a stronger ability, it shows a stronger ability on search engines, then it will be over if we want to do anything."
After the U.S. stock market opened the next morning , Google's stock price opened sharply lower, with a maximum drop of more than 6 points. Then the drop narrowed by the afternoon close, and the final closing drop was less than 1%.
It shows that the capital market did not take Samad’s words on Twitter seriously, and even fell sharply before rising, which shows that some institutions took the opportunity to withdraw chips from unsteady investors.
“Who does he think he is? So many companies want to replace Google’s position in search engines, why does he think that the artificial intelligence he casually launched can do this?
It’s inevitable I underestimate Google.”
"If it were Wright who said this, I would reluctantly believe him. He is a Malaysian, so he is a bit too arrogant to say this.
Do you really think you are a god?"
"Wright can't do it even if he comes. The White House will naturally take action to prevent American people from using the Internet services launched by Wright.
There is no doubt about this."
"Okay, I Forget that the White House still exists, so even if one day in the future, Hornbill has the potential to subvert Google, Washington will find ways to make it happen.
Just like Alpha Technologies’ quantum computer had to be packaged and sold to Goldman Sachs. ”
A large number of investors on Wall Street are not optimistic about Alpha Technology and believe that Samad’s remarks about sweeping the search engine into the trash heap of history are alarmist. They do not believe that Hornbill can shake Google’s position.
On the contrary, various digital self-media on the Internet have high praise for Hornbill:
“Everyone, the most explosive news in the field of artificial intelligence this weekend comes from Malaysia’s Alpha Technology, which is an encryption company. Founded by Samad, a great figure in the currency field.
At ten o'clock on Friday night, they launched the question-and-answer artificial intelligence-Hornbill, which claims to sweep search engines into the dustbin of history.
After seeing Samad's arrogant statement, like everyone in front of the screen, I didn't think they had the ability to do it, because this is something that Microsoft has not done.
Microsoft can’t do it, so why can an unknown artificial intelligence company from Malaysia do it? Is it just because its founder is Samad?
However, after I experienced Hornbill for a long time over the weekend, I can clearly tell the audience in front of the screen that Hornbill can perfectly defeat Google.
Its biggest advantage is the accuracy of the information. It can accurately read what kind of information you are looking for, summarize and deliver this information to you, and submit the source page of the information to you.
For example, if I want to find NASA documents, in addition to a lot of advertising content from companies, the page Google gives me will also have a lot of popular science articles. It will search based on keywords.
The content Hornbill gives you is closer to the answer you want. There are maybe four or five pieces of information I want to get. These four or five pieces of information are in the Google search engine. I need to change different search terms and then search in the first five columns. Find it on the page.
But using Hornbill search, up to two columns, all these five contents are covered.
Hornbill seems to really understand what I mean.
Google seems too dull compared to Hornbill, do you understand? The gap between Hornbill and Google is as obvious as the gap between Yahoo and Google. Yahoo is not bad, but Google is too good in the search engine field.
Similarly, in today's era of artificial intelligence, it's not that Google is bad, but that Hornbill is too good. He has achieved a substantial lead in intelligence.
As a practitioner of artificial intelligence, I would like to know how Alpha Technology can achieve both efficiency and accuracy, and achieve such an outstanding level of intelligence.
Of course, if you ask me now if Hornbill can replace Google's global position, I will still say I don't know, because inertia is too powerful a force. Hornbill has its own advantages. Can this advantage be able to replace Google? I'm not sure about changing user habits.
One thing I'm sure of is that Hornbill is better than Google. ”
Many bloggers on YouTube have come to a similar conclusion, that is, Hornbill is better to use than Google.
The number of Hornbill users is increasing worldwide, in just one week At that time, the number of daily active users exceeded 5 million, and the largest source countries of users were Amerikan, China and Malaysia.
This number is incomparable with Bing's monthly daily active users of over 100 million and Google's 88 billion monthly visits, but it is already a remarkable breakthrough for Malaysia.
You will often see in the news what Internet companies in the Lion City have launched products that are sweeping across Southeast Asia, but you can hardly see news about Malaysian technology products. Therefore, even if Hornbill only has 5 million daily active users, it is already a phenomenal Internet company in Malaysia.
“The most powerful search engine in history is coming soon”
“The artificial intelligence search engine from Malaysia will cause a major reshuffle in the search engine industry?”
Even on the Internet in China, you can often see various news about Hornbill
Although Hornbill is blocked, you can still use it as long as you have a ladder.
In just one week, more than 30% of Chinese users have switched from Google to Hornbill. Because the experience of using a ladder to access Google is not good, and the problem of network instability cannot be solved, I have to do that robot from time to time. test.
Hornbill does not have these troubles, and the user experience is far superior to Google.
China’s domestic technology giants have also noticed this Malaysian company that has suddenly emerged in the field of search engines. Companies such as Qiandu, Goosechang, and Ali all have ideas, and their strategic investment departments are all trying Contact Alpha Technology to discuss acquisition matters.
In the past, Chinese technology giants frequently acquired Internet companies in Southeast Asia.
Most of the objects they acquire are mirror versions of Chinese Internet companies abroad, such as Uber’s Southeast Asian version of the taxi company Grab, Goose Factory’s Southeast Asian version of Garena, etc. You can find them in the list of investors behind them. See figures from Huaguo Technology Company.
The one who is most eager to acquire Hornbill is undoubtedly Baidu. Hornbill’s business is in direct competition with Baidu. Once Hornbill enters the Chinese market, Baidu will face unprecedented challenges.
More importantly, with the help of Hornbill, Baidu can enter the Southeast Asian and even global search engine market.
It is very hot in Yandu at this time, and the air conditioner in Robin Li's office in the Qiandu Building is turned on very high.
Robin Li was wearing a thin shirt and was discussing the acquisition of Hornbill with his chief technology officer Wang Haifeng.
Li Yanhong pretended to be relaxed, and the reserved smile on his face never broke: "Wang Haifeng, what do you think of Hornbill?"
"Very scary technology, can I say it is worthy of Samad?" ?
Although the search engine is a very old technology, it has a history of more than 30 years. It only needs to crawl web pages, build indexes, and search and sort.
In fact, it is just fine. It can be said to be one of the most difficult technologies in the IT industry.
The daily growth of the Internet has reached the order of about 10 to the 18th power, and its stock is unimaginably huge.
If you want to make a search engine for a small database, it is indeed not difficult.
But it can be said that it is difficult to build a search engine that can face a large number of users and all Internet content.
Not to mention the combination with artificial intelligence, which can not only analyze user needs, summarize them after analysis, accurately find the relevant content from the ocean of the Internet, and quickly sort it.
What’s more important is that Hornbill compresses time to the millisecond level. In a sense, their technology is even more powerful than OpenAI.
Let OpenAI do it, but it can't do it to this extent. We have tried, and the feedback time can be up to seconds. To this day, I still can't figure out how Alpha's underlying algorithm is designed to have such a short delay.
This cannot be solved by stacking computing power. This must be related to the optimization of the underlying algorithm. "Wang Haifeng had to admit that his competitors were technically powerful.
"From a technical perspective, if we acquire Alpha Technology, we don't have to worry about being replaced in the next ten years.
If we understand its underlying logic, we can even create an AI+ mobile operating system based on this algorithm.
For Baidu, this is even related to our development in the next few decades.
I don't think it's worth paying any price. "Wang Haifeng concluded.
As the chief technology officer, he stood in his own position and gave the other party his judgment.
After listening, Li Yanhong sighed: "Based on what I got News, they rejected Google’s $1 billion acquisition application. "
Wang Haifeng sneered: "A billion dollars for this kind of technology? Just kidding.
If there was only Google in the entire market, then this price would still be possible.
The problem is that Microsoft is still watching, so how can it win a billion dollars?
Even if we can buy it for 10 billion US dollars, I think we will all make a profit. ”
Baidu should be considered to have the healthiest cash flow among these major Internet companies. It has more than 30 billion US dollars in cash flow on its books, relying on search engine advertising revenue.
一Ten billion US dollars is not a price that Baidu cannot afford.
“Is ten billion US dollars really worth it? This price still frightened Robin Li: "Their user growth is not optimistic." ”
Wang Haifeng nodded and said: "It's worth it. Their user growth is not optimistic because they have no marketing capabilities at all.
Relying entirely on founder Samad's Twitter promotion, the marketing effect produced by this is very limited.
He can only rely on the tap water brought by users' word-of-mouth effect to achieve steady growth in the number of users.
Hornbill can have millions of users in just one week, which is fully demonstrated. The product itself is powerful.
Baidu has no shortage of marketing capabilities and marketing channels. Even on the Internet, we have a lot of public relations resources to use.
I think the acquisition of Hornbill will be beneficial to Baidu without any harm. ”
Baidu has not yet negotiated the specific details of whether to acquire Hornbill and the purchase price. Internet giants such as Goosechang, Ali, and Byte are ready to make a move, and the fast ones have already arrived in Johor Bahru.
Hornbill launched its first content revision: "Global Access Membership.
$4.99/month”
“I’m right, Hornbill has launched its first product iteration. ”
"Paid service, this is a good thing. No user can accept that search engines have to pay."
"Yes, no user can accept that search engines have to pay. The problem is that they are question-and-answer artificial intelligence, and ChatGPT is paid Didn’t it happen not long ago?”
(End of this chapter)