After years of undisputed leadership, Google sees its place as the all-knowing oracle threatened: Younger people are consolidating new online habits and no longer resort to the search engine to clear their doubts but rather They prefer to search on TikTok and YouTube what they need, transforming not only the Internet ecosystem but also creating new risks by incorporating Artificial Intelligence without measuring the consequences.
And although for many the verb “google” is absolutely everyday, made its debut in public discourse more than two decades ago in the TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” when the character Willow asked the protagonist if she had “Googled” a person to find out more details.
What was first a novelty was later adopted as a term so quickly that entities such as the Royal Spanish Academy had to issue a ruling on its correct use. For the organism, It is always preferable to use “search on Google” although few have followed the advice.
21% of young people between 18 and 24 years old ask their doubts on TikTok.
That dispute, however, may soon become obsolete because Generation Z (centennials)), who today are around 20 years old, seems to be leaving the Mountain View giant aside. According to a recent report by the consulting firm YPulse, 21% of young people between 18 and 24 years old clear their doubts on TikTok, while 5% start on YouTube.
This means a true generational change, since it was the Millennials, who today are between 30 and 40 years old, who developed the “Google-Fu”a kind of creed that was inspired by Kung-Fu but instead of optimizing body movements to achieve better blows, it sought to develop incredible skills in Internet searches.
“In elementary school, my generation was introduced to Microsoft Office and floppy disks, while in high school we mixed books with online articles. TOThere we understood that Google was your best friend and at university they recognized him as a hero“, wrote one of the creators of “Google-Fu” a couple of years ago.
A study carried out in Germany shows that trust in the famous search engine is decreasing, even among older people.
The reasons for the change
Today, however, theYoung people prefer to search on social networks to obtain “more authentic” answersespecially as Google increasingly promotes sponsored results in the first results. This may also be a consequence of these people’s own experience, since generation Z was born with social networks already installed and did not know the first days of the web.
This change in habit comes as Google, which relies heavily on advertising revenue linked to search results, expands the use of Artificial Intelligence in its results, creating some uncomfortable situations such as incorrect answers or directly wrong results since it takes data from reviews or comments from the Internet, which are not reliable.
In fact, a study published in Germany indicates that low quality results but optimized to appear in the top positions People’s trust in the famous search engine is decreasing, even among older people.