Search is entering a new era.

People used to search with text. But search has come a long way; Social, Mobile, Voice, AI and beyond.

The way people search is completely changing. The output, more than ever, is hyper-accurate, personalised answers.

Below are just some of the ways search is evolving like never before and why it matters for all brands:

Retail 📦: Users are no longer starting their search for products on search engines, a study conducted by eMarketer shows that 61% of consumers now begin their product hunt on Amazon.

Social📱: According to Google, nearly 40% of Generation Z prefers using TikTok and Instagram for search over Google. The emergence of these platforms and short-form video is completely changing the way Gen Z consume content.

AI 🤖: Google declared a “Code Red” over the threat to the company after the emergence of ChatGPT. It’s very early day’s but we’ve already seen how a better way to search will be made possible. An immediate, single answer where the information is easily accessible and for the most part, accurate. Microsoft and Bing have already shown what’s possible (in the demo, not the rollout). And from personal experience... with the Chrome ChatGPT extension, my searches get made on both platforms. 40% of the time, ChatGPT provides me with a better answer. And with every search, these bots will get better, and more reliable.

Visual Search 🖼️: Everyone on their phones live in visual feeds. You no longer need to Google the best restaurant in town, you ask TikTok. If you want to learn to play the Guitar or fix a car tyre, you ask YouTube. You don’t receive endless opinions or links, with these platforms, you type in your search term and get authentic, visual answers.

Voice Search 🔊: Google reports that 27% of the population is already using voice search. Three-quarters of all US households were expected to own at least one smart speaker by 2022, with 75% of smart-speaker owners using voice search to find information on local businesses at least once a week.

Google Search fundamentally altered the internet and changed the way we access information.

People don’t search because they want links, people search because they want answers.

And the way people can receive those answers is completely changing.

This will lead to new ways to be discovered, new ways to build brands, and a lot of challenges to consider.

What does it mean for a publisher’s ad revenue when you don’t have to click through onto sites and search engines are scraping data?

What does it mean for misinformation and quality journalism?

These are all questions which still need answering.

But it’ll be an exciting journey.