Goodbye Search, Hello Chat

We are at the low end of the tech food chain, but having spent years using Google search (and huge sums of money on Google Ads), even we can see the writing on the wall for Google and its ludicrously lucrative search and ad business.

Google has been gamely putting AI-generated summaries at the top of its search results. These cannibalise clicks on both ads and organic search results. But Google finds itself in a squeeze - it has to show it is moving in the direction of AI-generated information; however, its heart is not really in it. Traditional search is finally going the way of the Dodo. It has been an incredible run of decades of dominance. But Google is increasingly looking like Microsoft when the internet first appeared. 

However, this time the speed of change will be 10x faster than the good old days. 

Having spent the past 18 months using ChatGPT and the past 12 months using Deepseek daily, we only use Google now as a mistaken reflex action borne from decades of prior use.

Using Google, you get a list of links, some paid, some free. You have to click on them, read the page, and decide whether it is relevant or correct.

Using ChatGPT or Deepseek, you can ask a question and get (the vast majority of the time) accurate and relevant information instantly. Both services are already hoovering up a treasure trove of data from searches and interactions after those searches are provided.

It is not all lost for the big G. They do have decades of data that their AI models can digest, and they still have the best people in the tech industry. 

But the game is up for traditional search. Google must now concentrate all its efforts on moving regular search users over to Gemini, before ChatGPT and Deepseek take them away for good.

Yes, Google can still have "suggested" or "sponsored" links at the end of chat results, but these will probably only be one or two links, not the current six on a search results page. Plus, there is a limit to what advertisers will pay for clicks.

The days of clicking on ads are fast coming to an end. Google advertisers and Google investors need to understand this.

For third-party websites (Google's advertisers), the future looks bleak. Those with reams of free content have already had their IP pillaged by AI bots. If you provide a service that AI can subsume, the future will cut you out. If you sell physical products, you will not be impacted, but you will need to spend more on brand recognition to ensure people come to you directly, as search discovery will decrease. 

Likewise, the internet as we know it now is gradually disappearing to be replaced by the AI chatbots that search, compile and advise us directly. However, people will still want to flock together and connect with those with similar interests, so old-fashioned community forums will still have a place. Perfect chatbots will not replace imperfect human exchanges.