Social Search & AI: Is Google Becoming Passé?

Intro

Google has been an undisputed search king for over a decade. The child of Larry Page and Sergey Brin became a Big Tech tycoon, and it might seem to be irresistible. But this paradigm is no longer so certain. It’s because of challenging the most important factor that has made Google so spectacularly successful - online search.

The first contester of the existing status quo became social media platforms. Whereas Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks have been existing for years, Google has been having time to adjust to this search threat. But then, quite unexpectedly, the new serious menace appeared - the AI. Will the combination of these two forces break the monopoly and overturn Google’s reputation? Should we expect the king to be overthrown?

Let’s take a look at the social & AI search and try to find the answer to the question if they can really shake the throne.

User-centered algorithm became Google’s superpower

We should start our analysis by discovering what made Google successful for all these years.

Obviously, there are a lot of reasons that brought Larry Page’s child to the top. But there is one essential thing without which Google would not dominate the search engines. This thing is the user-centered algorithm. Google has understood that people are not only looking for answers to their questions - they are looking for the most appropriate answer in the shortest possible time.

The best specialists in the world (that’s another reason for Google’s unprecedented success) have been working for years on developing an algorithm that will meet this goal to the greatest extent. And they’ve done an amazing job!

The algorithm that Google has created is built on the concept of relevance. It looks not only at the words in your query but also at other contextual factors - such as the user's location, search history, device type, and so on. This gives them much more information to work with when determining which results will be most relevant for the user.

But is it enough in 2023?

Social media have a huge search potential

Social media platforms tend to be spaces to connect people around the world. Their rapid growth over the last decade gave them resources to serve as the main sources of information, inspiration, and motivation for many of us. Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised by the revelation of the so-called social search (that means, as the name suggests, using social media for searching). And, however social media and SEO often go hand-in-hand, social search is a completely different beast.

This is how and what we use social search for

The TINT’s “State of Social & UGC 2023” report suggests an even more radical approach. According to it, the majority of consumers use social networks as a search platforms. Their study proves that almost 76% of consumers use social media to discover new products and brands, while 69% have made a purchase thanks to social media search results.

(Source)

All right, and what about the platforms themselves?

Search Engine Journal has shared some interesting social-search-related stats. For example, the daily number of searches via Facebook may exceed 2 billion. Two billion searches a day! What’s more, 2 out of 5 Gen-Zers prefer searching by using Instagram or TikTok over Google.

Speaking about the younger generation - according to ePassport Photo's latest study, almost 37% of Gen Zers find themselves using social media to look for information often or very often. Comparing, among Gen Xers, the percentage is 27%, and for Baby Boomers, it’s “only” 22%.

(Source)

What kind of information do we search for through social platforms? Among the top three topics, we have those related to education and learning (according to 16.93% of respondents), entertainment and activities (16.12%), as well as fashion and beauty (15.71%).

The most frequently pointed social networking sites used for searching for information are Instagram (indicated by 37% of respondents), YouTube (34%), and Facebook (almost 28%).

Social media’s search advantages

Obviously, the rising popularity of social searching is for a reason. Or even multiple reasons.

The first one is the emergence of short video forms. Let’s be honest - the real game-changer in that matter became TikTok. The Chinese company has experienced unprecedented growth, from 65 million users in 2017 to 1 billion in 2021 (and still growing). And short-form videos are what TikTok really mastered and inspired others, with Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts as examples.

The second advantage is the human factor. As we’ve mentioned, one of Google’s key advantages has been its user-centered approach to algorithm development. Social platforms can take it even further - as they are based on interaction and trust between people, which provides us with a much more personal search experience.

Not to mention the selling potential of social media. Among many pros, social platforms have five undisputed advantages over traditional search engines:

1. They have more accurate patterns of activity from their users;
2. It’s easier to build brand awareness on social media;
3. Some social media allows to make a purchase directly through them;
4. It’s way easier to create brand loyalty thanks to social platforms;
5. You can build a community.

AI emerged as the (un)expected challenger

The emergence of AI tools has been an earth-shaking event for the search industry. The unprecedented success of ChatGPT (it seems it's the fastest-growing app in history!) gave Alphabet sleepless nights. What made a company with 93% of online searches feel so threatened?

(Source)

Well, if you have no idea what something is about, then it is about money. It's not a secret that one of Google's income sources is online advertising. And AI-powered search tools - not only ChatGPT but also Bing AI and numerous other constantly emerging products and startups - can easily take away a big piece of Google’s pie.

How? It's easy. AI tools can precisely respond to your search query or prompt without trying to sell you anything (at least, not for now). And this threat is not only virtual.

In April, a lot of serious media outlets informed about the fact that South Korean Samsung was considering replacing Google with Microsoft Bing. That potentially could lead to a $3 billion annual revenue loss for Alphabet Inc. Ultimately, Samsung backed down from this decision, but the signal was clear - Google, you're not the monopolist anymore.

Google realized the risk quickly and decided to develop its own AI-powered search tool. Hence, the company allocated significant resources to issue their Bard AI as soon as possible (they issued it in March).

ChatGPT's limitations and weaknesses

As ChatGPT is the most famous generative AI model, let's take a closer look at its main limitations and weaknesses in the context of using it as a search tool.

Firstly, you should know that ChatGPT can generate incorrect or biased information sometimes. So, it's important to have limited trust in the AI's suggestions. The chatbot can struggle with admitting when it doesn't know something and may come up with a plausible-sounding answer instead. It tends to prioritize providing what it thinks is a more "complete" answer over being completely accurate. Therefore, fact-checking is a must.

Secondly, ChatGPT doesn't have something we could call common sense. The answers it gives are often too wordy, the chatbot takes questions too literally (without "reading between the lines"), plus it doesn't have the emotional intelligence elements - such as understanding irony or joking.

What's more, ChatGPT's database is limited up to 2021, so it's impossible to get information about events and phenomena that happened after that date.

Social search and AI can't shake the throne - at least for now

Even though social media and AI tools are getting more and more popular, they still can't beat traditional search engines like Google. The main perks of good old Google - accurate and relevant results, a huge and up-to-date database - are still more important than the advantages of social search or AI-based tools.

And guess what? You don't even need to switch to a new tool to get an AI-powered search experience. Google itself integrated AI algorithms to make its results more precise. So, while social search and AI-powered tools have their merits, they haven't quite toppled traditional search engines yet. Maybe a combination of all three approaches is the future. Who knows?

Right now, what really matters is that each of them has its own unique advantages, so your choice depends on what kind of search experience you're after. Oh, and don't forget to double-check your sources - whether it's AI or not. We'll never know for sure if a human or an algorithm made the final call.