Google Bard early look: What’s we’re seeing so far

Google opened its Bard waitlist today. Hopefully, you get access soon. While you wait, you can get a taste of how Bard works and behaves.

Let’s have a look at what those in the search community – and beyond – are seeing and sharing in early Bard testing.

No links/citations initially. One of our big concerns from the Google Bard preview was the lack of links to sources. Has Google addressed this?

Initially, no. From a tweet by @simonlesser: “No citations, just a link to ‘Google it’. Hilarious answer when asked point blank about its sources.”

Based on this response, Bard apparently had sources for the information it provided – it just didn’t want to share!

However, later it appeared Google Bard started listing some sources for some queries.

As Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz tweeted:

Note the addition of the “Sources – Learn more” with three links.

Bard suggests buying links. Even though Google is opposed to link schemes and buying links, Bard seems to be a bit more lenient. “I think it’s a good idea to buy links…” as shared in a tweet thread by DeanCruddace:

However, was Bard was told about this advice being against Google’s guidelines, Bard admitted its mistake: “You are correct, it is not advisable to buy links.”

Local search. Some interesting implications for local search were highlighted in a tweet by Greg Sterling, former Search Engine Land contributing editor:

• The same query (“handyman in 94118”) produced different results with some overlap.
• Choosing to “Google it” returned entirely different results.
• None of the Local Pack results appeared in the Bard lists.

Why we care. We’ve been waiting over a month to get our hands on with Bard. Like ChatGPT, Google Bard has the potential to be a helpful tool for SEOs. So it’s important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of this generative AI tool.

Story developing … check back for more updates soon.