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Currently, it is unthinkable not to have Google on our electronic devices. Thanks to this tool, everything we need to know is at our fingertips in seconds. We can ask anything from “Where is the nearest vet from here?” to “List the major World War I events” Google has everything for everyone. Still, information searching trends have changed, and people now rely on platforms that were not created to look up information: social media.
For more than 20 years, Google has been the number one search engine, and it’s so commonly used that it’s been used as a verb that has been normalized within our vocabulary. However, due to the changes over the years on Google, people, especially Generation Z, have begun to distrust it and turn to social media such as Reddit and TikTok to search for information.
Concerning Reddit, people usually don’t search directly on that platform. Still, when researching something, they go to the Google search bar and add “Reddit” at the end of their question or statement, for example: “My computer mouse does not work despite being connected to Reddit”. Why does this happen?
As on many other websites, one of Google’s many changes over the years is the inclusion of ads. To find the information, you have to browse through ads and sometimes scroll down to the bottom of the page to find organic results that are the closest to what you seek. Despite the lack of relevance, Google prioritizes ads sponsored by companies, firms, and other paying advertisers; unfortunately, it’s common that search results have no relation to the topic searched. This is due to the misuse of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), in which keywords oversaturate the web page with results in unrelated matters.
This practice by Google frustrates many users. However, by adding the word “Reddit,” users instantly find links to a specific platform with other people’s opinions and experiences. Besides being free and reliable information, these comments are much more human and valuable than those provided by a company where exploring an entire page is required to find the desired requested information, where most likely their goal is to sell a product or service. Due to companies paying to appear at the top of the page, Google may provide biased data instead of showing what’s more relevant to the person’s search.
TikTok
It has been reported that people spend 31 hours and 32 minutes each month on social media. Thus, it is no surprise that many rely on social media as valuable sources of information. With short, updated videos, TikTok has positioned itself as a tool to find the latest and most relevant news, the trendiest restaurants in the city, or the best tips to succeed in a job interview.
TikTok’s incredible algorithm makes the application’s navigation more personalized for its users, so people turn to this platform to answer their questions. Also, instead of using Google, which typically redirects to its own pages first (Google Maps, Google Books, etc.), or other websites that constantly show up, such as TripAdvisor; TikTok and Reddit provide honest user opinions, which are up to date tuned to the taste of internet users.
Generation Z is TikTok’s biggest user. This group prioritizes visual content because their attention span is shorter than other generations. TikTok is their ideal platform as they interact with short videos presenting concise and quick information. On the other hand, they may find a block of text on a web page through a Google search tedious, discouraging them from continuing browsing.
The verdict
So, has Google been overthrown? Not for now. While recent years have marked a change in how people use the internet to find information, Google remains in first place with 92% of the total search engine market; meanwhile, Bing, YANDEX, Yahoo! Baidu, and DuckDuckGo comprise the remaining percentage.
Also, much Google information comes from reliable cited sources, while social media often offer false news unsupported by accurate data. In captivating networks like TikTok, people do not take the time to verify the information they consume, or if they do, they rely on comments or the information’s repetition in other videos, which is not a sustainable way to corroborate its veracity.
Nevertheless, from the information above, as time goes by, signs of Google’s decline are appearing in current search trends due to social media and distrust of younger generations due to the bombardment of ads. Only time will tell if Google’s legacy as the most used digital search engine will fall to new search engines or social media, which daily gain more strength in areas outside of their initial purpose.
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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
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