Anyone else using Google way less for search now?
I do a load of research when I’m working with clients, and let’s be honest, Google has been a god-send over the last decade or more.
But now, depending what I’m searching for, I’m finding my self reaching for TikTok and even Chat GPT more.
There has been a lot of coverage about the rise of search on TikTok, “In our studies, something like almost 40 percent of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram,” Prabhakar Raghavan, a Google senior vice president, said at a technology conference in July. – NYtimes
But that just makes sense to me. When it comes to TikTok search you get:
Visual results – the thumbnail tells us a lot about what we might see, as opposed to the text based snippets Google shows us. In fact, the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90 per cent of the information transmitted to the brain is visual, so thumbnails are a great way of displaying certain search results.
Emotion – you get to see people’s reactions and hear their honest opinion when reviewing or talking about things.
Step by step video guides – I mean, why would I google an air fryer recipe now when I can have someone show me exactly what I need to do.
This has been emphasised further by a new product rollout this week of snippets. TikTok has responded to the rise in search on it’s platform and introduced Featured Snippets results
Enter ChatGPT.
I, like many others, have been experimenting a lot with AI this year, and trying to see where efficiencies can be made in work and life with it.
But now, I find myself using it more to help me plan, research and execute tasks. When it comes to search though although it is text based, that in itself has so many benefits.
No ads – providing I’ve phased my question right, I get what I want without any advertisements, pop ups or interference.
Speed and depth of information – Anyone thats used AI will attest to the speed of response and the depth of information. OK, it’s not as fast as Google at finding the results, but in many cases, it serves me THE answer, not many many answers that I need to continue researching.
Conversation with an expert – Google it’s just a search query then a long wandering click-a-thon, with something like ChatGPT I can talk to it about the results in a conversational way, which still blows my mind, as well as being able to assign it a personality and mission so I can keep returning to that expert for more information as time goes on. It’s a no brainer.
Of course, Google is working on Bard to counteract this behaviour and no doubt the way google is now will change dramatically over the coming months but for now, I’m sticking with these new ways of doing things.
What about you? Are you finding yourself changing the way you gather information and search?
