We are living through a search evolution. And just like living through any big change, we’re getting conflicting information.
We learn that Google handles 5 trillion annual searches at the same time we learn that Google’s market share slipped below 90% for the first time since 2015. We read that AI chatbots are exploding while learning that their market share is still less than 1%. We hear predictions like “search engine traffic will drop 25% by 2026” and that “42% of people say Google is becoming less useful” in the same breath that we hear studies found Google Search grew 20% in the past year.
All of this is true. Search is contracting as it expands, and we’re living through the growing pains.
Two main factors are driving this evolution—and asking which one drives the other is like asking whether the chicken or the egg came first, so let’s agree that both are on even footing:
- AI is contracting.
- User behavior is expanding.
The AI explosion is permanently changing the search landscape. As AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini continue to learn, search engines like Google are incorporating AI in new and evolving ways. Google continues to test and iterate on their AI Overviews and has expanded into AI Mode, their new AI-driven search tab. AI search engines like Perplexity continue to have steady usage, even if the market share is a paltry fraction of Google’s.
The advent of AI in traditional search spaces is contracting the available search real estate for brands. Brands who previously depended on informational, high-funnel traffic are being hit hard by AI Overviews as they contract page 1 of Google, creating more competitive search results with less real estate, fewer links, and potentially less visibility.
But user behavior is expanding—or more accurately, blowing up—our idea of search. 76% of consumers have used a social media platform to search, and 52% of people say they go to non-Google platforms for information. Part of this is because of smarter, faster, more personalized platforms (*ahem* TikTok), and part of it is because people are sick of sifting through the traditional Google search results. Case in point: 54% of people look through more search results than they did five years ago—not because they love the experience, but because it’s harder to find the information they want.