Meta's Bold Move - Creating Its Own Search Index

30 Oct 24

3 minutes

If you’ve been following tech news or are just curious about artificial intelligence, you might have heard some buzz about Meta (you know, the company behind Facebook) making moves in the search engine space, just like Google.

Meta’s New Search Adventure

Imagine you want to find out about the latest soccer match or what’s popular on TikTok right now. Usually, you’d go to Google and type your query, and voilà, all the info you need. But what if you could ask Meta’s AI chatbot instead? Yup, Meta is working on making that possible!

Meta’s been using something called Meta-ExternalAgent to crawl all over the internet. This might sound like little feet running across the web, gathering information, but it’s actually a bot doing all the hard work. The idea is to create their own search index. An index is like a giant library catalog, where everything on the internet is organized and easy for a bot to find. This means Meta wouldn’t need to rely as much on Google’s search index to provide you with information.

Why is Meta Doing This?

The big goal here is to provide AI-generated summaries of current events right inside Meta’s AI chatbot. When you ask about what’s happening in the world, the chatbot can give you a quick, concise answer without needing to check in with Google first. Handy, right?

Is Meta a Google Competitor Yet?

Not entirely. Right now, if you were to ask Meta’s AI about something really current, you might still end up getting links to Google search results. So, Meta is still using Google’s search index for certain queries. But just the fact that Meta is building its own index is a pretty big deal.

“The search engine would reportedly provide AI-generated search summaries of current events within the Meta AI chatbot,” says The Verge, citing The Information. And according to Search Engine Journal, “It may be possible that this is indeed a prelude to a challenge to Google (and other search engines) in AI search.”

What Could This Mean for Us?

What does all this mean for you? Well, more players in the AI search game could be a win for users like us. It means potentially more options, more features, and maybe even cooler, more diverse search experiences in the future. Plus, having competition often pushes companies to improve their tech, which means better tools for us.

Waiting for the Verdict

Of course, it’s still early days. It’s like Meta is testing the waters to see how its search index works out. We’re not sure yet how good it will be compared to trusty old Google. Will Meta dive into making a full-blown search engine? Only time will tell, so stay tuned!

In any case, it’s exciting to see how companies like Meta are experimenting and potentially changing how we find information online. So, keep an eye out—big things might be on the horizon!