Google dominates the search market imperially, but nonetheless, things are changing for certain segments of the population. A new study shows that the Mountain View search engine now has two serious competitors. Neither was intended as a seeker.

“TikTok is my Google”. A content creator named Chelsea Greber noted on Twitter how the social network TikTok has become its own search engine. “This is how I look for product recommendations, how to get things done, or where to go.”

He’s not the only one who thinks this way: More and more teens are using TikTok or Instagram instead of Google Maps or Google Search, and the trend seems to be on the rise.

Study. A survey of US users aged 18 to 24. While the study has yet to be published, its results were shared by Google executive Prabhakar Raghavan, who stated that nearly 40% of the youth surveyed use TikTok or Instagram as search platforms, rather than traditional engines like Google. Raghavan noted that “the questions they ask are completely different.”

Search for more images. When young people on NBC News were asked why they used these platforms for their searches, they explained that the answer was simple: They prefer visual platforms.

seeing is learning. This way of finding answers is much more powerful for these users. Talia Magee, 24, said, “Me and my friends, we’re the same age… we’re all visual learners and it’s quick and easy to watch a video of something I want to know more about with TikTok.” “.

Amazon, another threat. Google is also starting to stifle certain types of searches: In 2016, 55% of searches for products were on Amazon, not on its own search engine.

And the critics are growing. This fact is combined with the fact that, according to some critics, the Google search engine has been dying for some time. Some analysts say the results are deteriorating or don’t answer our question, but these pages are also full of ads, reinforcing that “echo chamber” that tailors results to our habits and tastes.

alternatives. It also doesn’t help Google improve their content without paying creators directly – something offered by alternatives like Ahrefs – but while there are pure alternatives in the world of search engines -DuckDuckGo, Bing, Brave, Neeva-, more and more users are looking for more visual searches. It leverages platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

There are interesting threats for others, too: We’ve already mentioned Amazon for products, but it’s impossible not to mention Reddit here in many of the other areas Google has already covered. After all, things can get tough for the Mountain View giant.

Image | collabstr