Google Labs traffic topped 17 million visits in May after access to the search experiment began, compared with less than 13,000 in previous months. In September, it drew 10.6 million visits
Search engine optimization professionals and others with a keen interest in the future of search are flocking to labs.google.com to turn on the Search Generative Experience (SGE). SGE is Google's prototype of how the same kind of generative AI tech that powers ChatGPT and Google's own Bard (bard.google.com) might be incorporated directly into search results.

Microsoft has already incorporated OpenAI's GPT-4, the latest generation of the technology behind ChatGPT, into its Bing search engine, and other generative AI startups like Perplexity (perplexity.ai) also position the technology as a new kind of search and knowledge discovery experience.

SGE is Google's competitive response. It's not a separate product at a different subdomain, like Bard, which makes it harder to track how much traffic and usage it's getting. However, we can see how the arrival of SGE as the main attraction at the Google Labs website has lit its traffic on fire.