[LoginTech] Naver vs Google, Battling with 'AI Search'... A Comparison

Naver launches AI Briefing... AI optimizes search content
Google also offers AI Overview since 2023... Korean support added late last year
Google excels at summarizing information with AI
Naver integrates AI into daily information and diverse services

What results appear when you enter the search term ‘dwaejikkum haemong’ (pig dream interpretation) on Naver and Google respectively? As of the morning of the 1st, Naver showed meanings symbolized by pig dreams and interpretations by situation based on artificial intelligence (AI). In contrast, Google only displayed web page search results.

This time, when typing ‘yangja computer gwallyeonju’ (quantum computer-related stocks) into the search bar, Google provided AI-based information on stocks grouped under quantum computers, stock price trends, and investment precautions, while Naver only showed general search results.

Naver and Google, considered the two major domestic search engines, have actively integrated AI into their search services this year. Google's ‘AI Overview’ specializes in organizing search results clearly with an emphasis on information. Naver’s ‘AI Briefing’ excels in daily life searches such as closely related lifestyle information and place recommendations.

Naver launched the ‘AI Briefing’ service on the 27th of last month. The core is to provide the optimal answer to the user’s search query using AI. Google started its ‘AI Overview’ service earlier in May 2023 and began supporting Korean from December last year. Similar to Naver, it optimizes search results using AI.

Both services, given their nature as search engines, appeared to focus on enhancing the accuracy and credibility of results. Both introduced the sources of information as links at the end of sentences. The sources prioritized were highly credible, such as official government websites, encyclopedias, and online articles from major media outlets.

Since generative AI models learn from diverse data, hallucination phenomena that deliver incorrect information are unavoidable. Both platforms seem to have improved accuracy by prioritizing highly relevant or trustworthy information. Google explained when announcing the AI Overview service that it is "designed to perform Google’s core ‘search’ tasks, such as identifying highly relevant and high-quality results from the index."

However, when entering the same search terms, AI-generated answers appeared more frequently in Google’s search results than Naver’s. Since Naver’s AI Briefing is in its early stages, the proportion of search results applying AI Briefing was low. Instead, results applying the previously operated ‘Knowledge Snippet’ appeared. Knowledge Snippet is a service that automatically extracts and provides the information users want from web pages.

Naver’s AI Briefing was ahead in organizing search results in a visually appealing way. For example, when searching ‘passport photo specifications’ on Naver, AI summarizes the photo specifications and precautions in writing and displays example images together. When entering the same query on Google, AI organizes information focused on photo specifications and presents it by category.

Search results for 'passport photo specifications' on Naver.

Search results for 'passport photo specifications' on Google.

AI Briefing was also convenient when searching for lifestyle information. When searching for lifestyle-related terms like ‘how to tie a necktie’ or ‘dwaejikkum haemong’ (pig dream interpretation), Naver cited blog posts and other sources to show summarized AI Briefing results, whereas Google showed general web page search results.

Beyond search, Naver’s AI Briefing also demonstrated strength. The AI Briefing function was applied to the Naver Plus Store app officially launched this month, helping users choose desired products. When entering the search term ‘notebook’ in the Plus Store app, it suggested related keywords such as ‘portable,’ ‘good for college students,’ and ‘optimized for gaming,’ assisting users in selecting products suited to their purchase purpose. Google only allowed simple price comparisons in its Shopping tab.

However, since AI searches and displays information based on online documents, some inaccurate results were also observed. When searching ‘gongmaedo jaegae sijom’ (short selling resumption timing), a keyword related to the resumption of short selling in the domestic stock market since the previous day, Naver’s AI Briefing incorrectly stated that ‘the timing and scope of resumption have not been decided.’ This was because AI Briefing cited a Financial Services Commission press release from February last year. In contrast, Google accurately answered ‘short selling will resume from March 31’ by using the Snippet function instead of AI Overview.

Search results for 'gongmaedo jaegae sijeom' on Naver.