Apple's Intelligent Search Now Provides Webpage Summaries and Content Removal

Apple's Intelligent Search is a new feature in Safari 18 that provides users with the ability to generate brief summaries of webpages in response to search queries. This built-in AI software analyzes keywords and phrases within a webpage or document to create a concise summary containing the most important information. The goal is to offer a quick understanding of the content without having to read the entire page.

The Web Eraser feature in Safari allows users to permanently remove unwanted content from webpages. This includes elements such as banner ads, images, text, or even entire page sections. Once a user 'erases' a block of content, it stays erased for that site visitor on subsequent visits. This feature builds upon existing privacy features within Safari and is designed to give users more control over their browsing experience.

Apple's AI search summarizer has the potential to disrupt the search optimization and publishing industry in several ways:

• It could change how iOS consumers access, view, and interact with content, potentially altering consumer behavior.
• If Intelligent Search prioritizes summaries over linking out to websites, it may lead to less traffic from search queries, affecting website analytics and monetization strategies.
• The industry may need to adapt to a new paradigm where search engine optimization (SEO) strategies are less focused on driving traffic through search engines and more on being featured effectively within AI-generated summaries.

The text summarization feature in Safari 18 is powered by a technology called Ajax that resides on the mobile device itself. Ajax extracts keywords, entities, and uses the data to identify the topic and create a loose summary of a webpage. This summary is then presented to the user as a text summary. The software considers all relevant information, classifying entities such as companies, people, and locations, to generate an accurate and useful summary.

Apple's strategy with Intelligent Search might be to replace traditional search engines because it could offer a more integrated and efficient way to access information directly within the iOS ecosystem. By summarizing web content and potentially reducing the need to visit external websites, Apple is positioning itself as a direct competitor to Google Search. This approach aligns with Apple's history of innovation, similar to how the iPhone disrupted the digital camera market. Apple may believe that the best way to challenge Google is not by creating another standalone search engine but by offering a technology that redefines the search experience itself.