New and improved answer styles are rolling out for Google Assistant, including more visual and interactive elements. The update comes with one change that’s not an improvement, though: depending on your query, the Assistant might answer with ads like the ones you see in normal Google searches.
The announcement post for the more feature-rich Assistant results touched on this, saying that the new results “may include the existing ads that you’d see on Search today.” And sure enough, some answers, like results for nearby hotels, now return ads for things like booking sites.
Google seemed to test this approach in February, when at least one user saw sponsored results in his Assistant answers. When asked about it, Google gave a non-answer: “We’re always testing new ways to improve the experience on phones, but we don’t have anything specific to announce right now.” More ads doesn’t necessarily seem like an improvement to the experience, but that’s subjective. You can let Google know how you feel about it by tapping your profile picture in the Assistant app then Send feedback.
