Eric Siu explores whether Google Search is actually dying as ChatGPT grows. They cite data from Kevin Indig and SEMrush showing how generative AI handles research and tasks differently than traditional search, using examples like shopping for Korean skincare and calculating tennis calories.
Everyone's just like, Google search is dead. There was even an interesting article that I just read recently on how Google's traffic is declining by really, really, really small, like a fraction of a percent. So not even 1%. And they were saying ChatGPT is growing really fast, it'll catch up to Google, it's a question of when. And I get it, and they're just like, Google isn't relevant anymore. But yet you're seeing tools like ChatGPT still scrape Google because the results are relevant.
Yep. Yeah. I mean, look, what is it? Google's still at 42% of searches. And then I think ChatGPT is like 0.19% or something like that, but it's growing quickly. But things like this don't die that quickly, even if it was dying, right? I think it's— I do think website traffic slowing down a little bit, but I think search behavior is changing and I think we can all agree with that.
Yeah. And here's another interesting topic. This one's from Kevin Indig, I believe his last name is. I could be wrong on the name. No, you're good. So he wrote an interesting article on Search Engine Journal. And what was interesting is he put something in there and I'm just going to end up reading it. Recent data from SEMrush and Perfrance suggests that 1/3 to 2/3 of user intent when interacting with AI chatbots is generative, meaning users use ChatGPT to do and less to search. Right. And we see the same thing. Like when I use ChatGPT on most cases, I don't know about you, I'm not using it like search. I'm using it to more so help me do stuff.
That's interesting because I'm looking at my— so I'm looking at my ChatGPT log. Okay, so today I have my tennis training calorie burn because I'm on vacation right now. So I was playing tennis this morning for like 2 hours. So I was doing research, I guess. So you can consider that searching. Yeah.
Yeah, but you're trying to get it to analyze and help you figure out how many calories you're burning versus—
Yeah, and then, but I'm asking a lot of questions and I'm dictating a lot and it's not like 1 or 2 queries. And then also, I'll ask calories and macros and then human philosophical things. So, I think I'm doing much deeper research than I normally wouldn't have done before because it would take too long.
But how many of it is transactional when you just look at your history?
What do you mean by transactional?
Leading you to buy a product, learn about a product.
Okay, I got one for you here. No, no, but how many?
Because it shows you your log, right?
I'm looking at the last, let's take the last 10. Okay, so 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. My last 10 searches, maybe only one of them were transactional because that led to me buying something for, I was buying like Korean skincare yesterday.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, but yeah, you know, and I find that most my usage on ChatGPT is to get it to help me do something or become more efficient or save time. I also do use it for deep research. I do not use it for the same purposes I normally would use Google for. It's very different.
