Don’t know something? Don’t “Google” – “TikTok” it.
Kids these days are abandoning the trusty search engine in favor of social media and other unorthodox online search tools.
Drawing on data from an April 2024 survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by Forbes Advisor and Talker Research, Bernstein reported that 45% of Gen Z users are more likely to use social media search functions instead of Google, while 35% of millennials, 20% of Gen Xers and less than 10% of Boomers did the same, per Fortune.
“New audiences are ‘searching,’ not ‘googling,'” Mark Shmulik, an analyst at Bernstein, wrote in a note Friday, Fortune reports. “And they increasingly turn to social media like TikTok for restaurant recommendations, directly to scalable aggregators like Amazon for retail, and generative AI search like ChatGPT to do their homework.”
On platforms like TikTok, a search for a recipe, DIY project, or restaurant recommendation returns hundreds, if not thousands, of videos. Young people, Google senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan said at a conference in 2022, are looking for “a place for lunch” on social networks — “they don’t go to Google Maps or Search.”
The change is, in part, because Zoomers feel like creators are more authentic, unbiased and trustworthy. On TikTok, “you see how the person really felt about where they ate,” Nailah Roberts, 25, told the New York Times in 2022.
In 2016, only roughly 40% of Gen Z said they used social media as a primary research method, but in 2023, that number jumped to 53%, Fortune reported, citing data from GWI Core.
The younger generation already relies on social apps like TikTok as their main source of news, relying on their favorite influencers to inform them about world events or major pop culture moments, signaling a shift in the way users consume the media.
To keep up with the competition, Raghavan embarked on a new ‘journey’ into ‘visual image forms’.
According to Fortune, Google invested in technology, such as the company’s augmented reality glasses or the “Ask Photos” function that allows users to ask about details in images.
“Gen Zers have also grown up in a relatively mature Internet,” Shmulik said.
“It’s second nature for these users to go straight to the source…This world isn’t big and scary, it’s just home to General Z.”
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Image Source : nypost.com