Google Search is Dying, Something New is Coming
I couldn’t imagine Google taking any competitor seriously except maybe a zombie or nuclear apocalypse. For years, typing in a single word or phrase was enough to grant access to immediate and accurate results — untangling complex topics with agility never before seen.
Now all of that is dying.
Google search has thrown specificity completely out the window.
Search engines have stopped behaving like databases and are giving suggestions instead of results because an algorithm believes it knows your intentions and objectives better than you. For example:
- Why does my co-worker get different results when searching for the same thing?
- Why are top Google search results 5000-word SEO monsters outsourced to an agency in India?
- And why is it that almost 30% of people have to redo their Google searches, either by refining their query or by visiting a different website entirely? (according to research published last year by SEMRush, an online marketing software company)
Google Search is in its death throes, and something new is coming.
It is Reddit.
I Append Reddit to 75% of my Search Results
This article was inspired because I was searching “How to fix a broken laptop spacebar” on Google, and all I could get were articles written by people who clearly did not know what they were talking about.
So I tried adding “Reddit,” and voila! — a discussion thread on the subreddit “Laptops” with people sharing their experiences and solutions for fixing a broken laptop spacebar.
It was so pain-free:
“You may not be able to get that spacebar back on easily. Luckily, you can get a replacement keyboard on Amazon or eBay for less than $20 typically. They are usually pretty easy to install too, just go to your local PC fix.”
With all that said, let’s give Google its flowers.
As of January 2023, online search engine Bing accounted for 8.85% of the global search market, while market leader Google had a share of around 84.69%, according to Statista.
And in 2022, Google’s ad empire totaled an astounding $279.8 billion U.S. dollars — a staggering figure fueled by search ads as the primary money-maker of its vast advertising armada.
The problem, however, isn’t where Google is at; it’s where it’s going.
For Gen Z, TikTok Is the New Search Engine
Why does Reddit ask you to create an account before accessing some of its content?
Why does Medium do the same?
Because the internet is about keeping you away from Google searches and inside that walled garden of who, what, where and why.
For Gen Z, the new search engine isn’t Google: it’s TikTok and Instagram — and top executives at Google are finally acknowledging it:
“In our studies, something like almost 40 percent of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram,” Prabhakar Raghavan, a Google senior vice president, said at a conference in July.
I wouldn’t say I like Reddit, TikTok or Instagram (I’ve written several articles criticizing each), but even I have to admit they give better, more idiosyncratic results than Google.
I now use Instagram to find interesting hole-in-the-wall restaurants in New York City; TikTok is good for seeing hiking trails and mountain spots; Reddit is great for finding uber-specific advice and information that Google was once good for.
Instagram: brettcconti
The internet is increasingly a visual medium.
Google’s search result looks more like a phone book while the new search engines are more like IMAX movies.
If Apple Drops Google, it’s All Over
Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, is a genius.
He convinced the company that Google needed a “default bias” by becoming the default search engine for Apple devices. He knew that once Google was the default, people would keep using it even if there were better options available.
That partnership doesn’t come cheap, however.
Google pays $20 Billion+ annually to be the default search engine for Apple devices. It’s more than the entire GDP of Jamaica.
But that partnership is in danger — Apple has reportedly been working on an online search engine to rival Google since 2020. It would use Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, to power searches.
Apple is the proverbial 800-pound gorilla in the room. Google would lose default access to more than 1.5 billion active iPhone users if Apple created its own search engine. It’s kind of like when Netflix lost “The Office;” in fact, the entire streaming wars are a microcosm of the search wars.
It won’t just be Bing, ChatGPT, and DuckDuckGo leading the charge — social media giants like TikTok and Reddit will join the fight, as well as Apple.
It’s a Brave New World
I’m nonplussed. It seriously blows my mind how bad Google is nowadays; if I ever want to look for real answers to questions I have to end my query with “Reddit,” everything else is SEO 5000-shit articles about nothing.
And I already can’t tell if half the results I’m seeing are AI-generated or just a $5-paid Fiverr worker that doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
If companies like Reddit, Quora, Medium, and Instagram improve their built-in search features, it could throw another wrench into this.
Maybe they will?
This isn’t even mentioning Google’s blatant censorship of certain topics. As a history buff, it’s very difficult for me to conduct research without getting “clean” results. It’s almost as if Google is “Brave New Worlding” the internet and filling it with so much garbage that you’re forced to use whatever they approve of.
The writing is on the wall.
The 2020s will be the “Search Engine Wars,” and Google may not be the victor. With powerful new players such as Apple and TikTok entering the fray, it’s anyone’s guess who will emerge victorious. Only time will tell.
Get unlimited access to ALL of Medium by signing up for a Medium subscription through my referral link.
I couldn’t imagine Google taking any competitor seriously except maybe a zombie or nuclear apocalypse. For years, typing in a single word or phrase was enough to grant access to immediate and accurate results — untangling complex topics with agility never before seen.
Now all of that is dying.
Google search has thrown specificity completely out the window.
Search engines have stopped behaving like databases and are giving suggestions instead of results because an algorithm believes it knows your intentions and objectives better than you. For example:
- Why does my co-worker get different results when searching for the same thing?
- Why are top Google search results 5000-word SEO monsters outsourced to an agency in India?
- And why is it that almost 30% of people have to redo their Google searches, either by refining their query or by visiting a different website entirely? (according to research published last year by SEMRush, an online marketing software company)
Google Search is in its death throes, and something new is coming.
It is Reddit.
I Append Reddit to 75% of my Search Results
This article was inspired because I was searching “How to fix a broken laptop spacebar” on Google, and all I could get were articles written by people who clearly did not know what they were talking about.
So I tried adding “Reddit,” and voila! — a discussion thread on the subreddit “Laptops” with people sharing their experiences and solutions for fixing a broken laptop spacebar.
It was so pain-free:
“You may not be able to get that spacebar back on easily. Luckily, you can get a replacement keyboard on Amazon or eBay for less than $20 typically. They are usually pretty easy to install too, just go to your local PC fix.”
With all that said, let’s give Google its flowers.
As of January 2023, online search engine Bing accounted for 8.85% of the global search market, while market leader Google had a share of around 84.69%, according to Statista.
And in 2022, Google’s ad empire totaled an astounding $279.8 billion U.S. dollars — a staggering figure fueled by search ads as the primary money-maker of its vast advertising armada.
The problem, however, isn’t where Google is at; it’s where it’s going.
For Gen Z, TikTok Is the New Search Engine
Why does Reddit ask you to create an account before accessing some of its content?
Why does Medium do the same?
Because the internet is about keeping you away from Google searches and inside that walled garden of who, what, where and why.
For Gen Z, the new search engine isn’t Google: it’s TikTok and Instagram — and top executives at Google are finally acknowledging it:
“In our studies, something like almost 40 percent of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram,” Prabhakar Raghavan, a Google senior vice president, said at a conference in July.
I wouldn’t say I like Reddit, TikTok or Instagram (I’ve written several articles criticizing each), but even I have to admit they give better, more idiosyncratic results than Google.
I now use Instagram to find interesting hole-in-the-wall restaurants in New York City; TikTok is good for seeing hiking trails and mountain spots; Reddit is great for finding uber-specific advice and information that Google was once good for.
Instagram: brettcconti
The internet is increasingly a visual medium.
Google’s search result looks more like a phone book while the new search engines are more like IMAX movies.
If Apple Drops Google, it’s All Over
Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, is a genius.
He convinced the company that Google needed a “default bias” by becoming the default search engine for Apple devices. He knew that once Google was the default, people would keep using it even if there were better options available.
That partnership doesn’t come cheap, however.
Google pays $20 Billion+ annually to be the default search engine for Apple devices. It’s more than the entire GDP of Jamaica.
But that partnership is in danger — Apple has reportedly been working on an online search engine to rival Google since 2020. It would use Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, to power searches.
Apple is the proverbial 800-pound gorilla in the room. Google would lose default access to more than 1.5 billion active iPhone users if Apple created its own search engine. It’s kind of like when Netflix lost “The Office;” in fact, the entire streaming wars are a microcosm of the search wars.
It won’t just be Bing, ChatGPT, and DuckDuckGo leading the charge — social media giants like TikTok and Reddit will join the fight, as well as Apple.
It’s a Brave New World
I’m nonplussed. It seriously blows my mind how bad Google is nowadays; if I ever want to look for real answers to questions I have to end my query with “Reddit,” everything else is SEO 5000-shit articles about nothing.
And I already can’t tell if half the results I’m seeing are AI-generated or just a $5-paid Fiverr worker that doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
If companies like Reddit, Quora, Medium, and Instagram improve their built-in search features, it could throw another wrench into this.
Maybe they will?
This isn’t even mentioning Google’s blatant censorship of certain topics. As a history buff, it’s very difficult for me to conduct research without getting “clean” results. It’s almost as if Google is “Brave New Worlding” the internet and filling it with so much garbage that you’re forced to use whatever they approve of.
The writing is on the wall.
The 2020s will be the “Search Engine Wars,” and Google may not be the victor. With powerful new players such as Apple and TikTok entering the fray, it’s anyone’s guess who will emerge victorious. Only time will tell.
Get unlimited access to ALL of Medium by signing up for a Medium subscription through my referral link.
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