Hello Indiana, Lately, I've noticed a shift. More and more, I'm turning to Chat GPT for answers instead of Google. At first, it seemed kind of amusing, watching a titan like Google being nudged off its perch. It felt like déjà vu, bringing back flashbacks of Blockbuster's fall.
Reading about ChatGPT replacing Google while on Google? Oh, the irony! Better switch to our audio version before your browser gets jealous!
The more I used Chat GPT over Google, though, the more it hit me. If I'm not googling, I'm not visiting websites; I'm getting answers straight from Chat GPT.
"Surely, this is just impacting informational sites, right?" you might wonder. Maybe not.
Why visit a website when you can just ask AI?
Consider this: why trawl through marketing sites for products or services, when ChatGPT can instantly recommend the top-rated solutions for my needs?
And purchasing? With ChatGPT plugins, adding an item to your cart and buying it is as easy as one click.
Plugins allow you to purchase directly from ChatGPT.
Web apps might not be safe either. Why fiddle with new interfaces when I can simply ask Chat GPT in plain English to do the job using plugins?
"But Chat GPT needs websites to pull all that data from!" you object. True, but it needs content, not necessarily a user interface. A database of documents accessible via a site map could do.
Companies won't like it, but that won't help
Will companies embrace this? Likely not. They lose control over brand presentation and ChatGPT responses. But they may not have a choice. Chat GPT shot to 100 million users in just two months—a feat that took mobile phones 16 years to achieve. They can't afford to block Chat GPT.
What happens now?
So, what's the future of the websites and apps we create? Apps might see slower changes. There are limits to Chat GPT's capabilities, and folks might not want to trust their data to a single company.
Ecommerce might succumb to Chat GPT sooner. Ecommerce sites aren't disappearing, but once Amazon drops a Chat GPT plugin, others will follow.
Informational and marketing sites will feel the effects first. In fact, they might already be feeling it.
We can expect a traffic drop, especially organic traffic. But it won't dry up. People will still click through for deeper insights beyond quick answers.
I foresee informational websites shifting, moving away from traditional information architecture towards standalone, interconnected documents. More like the original web concept.
Each page will be a landing page with a mission: keep the user engaged until they act. Because once they're gone, they're likely not coming back.
This will inevitably affect page design. We might see long-form landing pages with a ton of content and striking visuals. Or perhaps stripped-down documents designed for Chat GPT, not users.
Get over your grief fast!
In all honesty, we're in uncharted territory. How you respond is up to you. It's like the stages of grief. Denial, anger, and depression might be your first reactions. But it's better to accept the change quickly. Because no matter what, the future will be different.
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