There was a time not all that long ago when Google was the undisputed king of online search. No other company could come anywhere close to the level of dominance it held in this space, until TikTok came along. Social media platforms in general threaten to supplant the careful balance that Google has created, and changing search patterns threaten to do the same.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Google continues to be popular among members of Gen Z. According to a study published by Axios (originally conducted by YPulse), 46% of people who are between the ages of 18 and 24 use Google as their primary resource for online searches. While this is less than the 58% of people between 25 and 39 who said this, it still shows that Google’s control over the search market isn’t going away anytime soon.
On top of all of that, just 21% of Gen Z survey respondents stated that they started their online searches on TikTok. It bears mentioning that TikTok is more popular than YouTube, which just received 5% of responses, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, it is still far away from Google at this current point in time.
Another thing that is allowing Google to stay at the top is its integration of AI into the user experience. The Search Generative Experience also includes results from Reddit that are highlighted, and this makes the SERP more informative than might have been the case otherwise. Google claims that its users are more than satisfied with these search results, although many users have complained about them with all things having been considered and taken into account.
At the end of the day, Google continues to hold a lot of sway in the search engine space. It will be interesting to see where things go from here on out, since TikTok has definitely made some headway and Gen Z are at least somewhat less likely to use Google than their older counterparts of which Millennials are just one example.
Image: DIW-Aigen
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