Search trends for 2025: Is a new ecosystem emerging?
Online search has changed. Gen Z in particular is increasingly searching on TikTok and Reddit and using AI-powered search with chatbots to find answers to their queries. Which alternatives to Google are taking off, and how can brands position themselves?
Are community search and chatbots the new Google?
For years, Google has dominated online search more or less unrivaled. To date, search alternatives have gained hardly any notable market share in Germany and internationally. That could change soon. According to a recent survey conducted by Civey on behalf of the German Association for the Digital Economy (BVDW), 82.5 percent of respondents currently use Google or Bing for online searches. Yet only 58.7 percent think that they will still start their research on one of those two search engines in two to three years’ time. In addition, nearly one quarter of users (23.9 percent) are not sure where they will start their online searches in the future.
Community search: The rise of Reddit
Since its official launch in Germany in 2021, Reddit has rapidly gained reach. The website focuses on niche topics, tips for everyday life, and current issues. Unlike Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms, redditors are often searching more actively for tips and user feedback. Which dog food is best for an old Labrador? Which frozen pizza tastes the best? The result is an abundance of clearly communicated target group needs on a vast range of different topics – not surprisingly, growing numbers of brands and agencies are listening up.
With the launch of Reddit Answers in December 2024, the community of communities put Google under even more pressure. The AI-powered search functionality gives users direct answers based on posts from more than 100,000 communities – including the sources. According to Reddit’s own figures, the platform has more than 101 million active users and around 22 billion posts and comments. It’s definitely a platform that marketing managers should have on their radar.
Listening and shaping the conversation
By listening in on Reddit, you can find out a great deal about your target group – and it’s a great place to reach them, too. But as with other networks and forums, professionals should be cautious: There’s hardly anything that annoys users more than a brand trying to sell aggressively in a discussion forum.
Advertising opportunities on Reddit
Reddit offers a variety of advertising options, including Dynamic Product Ads, Free-Form Ads, and Takeover. In 2024, the company also launched Lead Generation Ads, which can be integrated with Zapier and are designed for capturing high-quality leads.
Social search – is TikTok really the new SEO?
Lately, we keep on hearing that TikTok is Google for Gen Z. But is that actually the case? According to a 2022 survey – published by Google, of all companies – around 40 percent of Gen Z starts their search for information on TikTok. At the start of 2024, Adobe published a survey that presented the following findings:
- More than 40 percent of people in the US use TikTok as a search engine.
- Nearly 10 percent of Gen Z searches more frequently on TikTok than on Google.
- 54 percent of companies advertise on TikTok and post nine times per month on average.
- One in four small businesses use TikTok influencers for promotional campaigns or product sales.
TikTok: a Google alternative for recipes, music, and DIY
What people are searching for determines where they search. At least this is what the findings of the Adobe survey indicate. A considerable 36 percent of TikTok searches were for recipes, closely followed by searches for new music (35 percent). In total, 29 percent of searches were for workout routines, and 25 percent for new products and services. In response to the question of why they used TikTok, survey respondents said that they liked the informative short videos, the special storytelling formats, and personalized content in particular.
How to do TikTok SEO
What’s the secret to TikTok search optimization? Unsurprisingly, the company’s answer to this is vague. Users’ feeds are based on personal settings, interactions, search behavior, watch time, the hashtags used, location, and language settings.
To reach users, brands and creators should use all the available options for adding context. This includes the description and hashtags, on-screen and sticker texts, as well as keywords in captions. And then it’s about interaction – the users’ interactions with the videos and the creators’ interactions with the users. Getting these crucial elements right is the key to cracking TikTok SEO.
Chatbot or conventional search engine? ChatGPT vs. Google
More and more people are asking ChatGPT questions instead of researching content using Google. They ask the intelligent chatbot questions about everything from complex work-related tasks to extremely personal issues, such as illnesses and finance strategies. ChatGPT’s web search function has further increased the pressure on Google. But the tech giant is not going to be consigned to the scrap heap that easily: The latest version of Google’s AI, Gemini 2.0, has autonomous decision-making abilities and unrivalled multimodal features. This allows users to integrate data, images, and videos when using Gemini Live, and it can operate different apps with a single prompt.
A new discipline: generative engine optimization (GEO)
Who doesn’t dream of their product or brand being named by a generative AI in the answer to a query? But how do you achieve this? Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the answer. However, while there are reliable data sources for SEO covering search behavior, updates, and ranking criteria, there is a lack of insights into optimization for generative AI.
GEO instead of SEO: How do you appear in AI search results?
Search queries have been getting longer and more specific in recent years. In response to this, editorial search engine optimization has changed significantly. Companies that have already invested in content experience and SEO are well positioned for the shift to GEO. There may not be any information on how users search and chat with ChatGPT that compares to Google’s Keyword Planner, but we can see how information appears in ChatGPT’s responses: as answers.
This means that content needs to:
- Provide answers to the target group’s questions
- Have a good structure
- Be as snackable as possible
Get this right and your content should be all set to perform well in both SEO and GEO.
Search behavior: Have we reached a tipping point?
The changes in search behavior point to the emergence of a new ecosystem for information gathering. The decentralization of search plays a key part in it. Information will no longer be found exclusively via conventional search engines, but via a variety of Google alternatives and platforms. User-generated content in communities such as Reddit and creator content on TikTok and Instagram are becoming increasingly important. We’re also seeing the rise of AI-powered search using chatbots that adapt search results to individual requirements. Going forward, creating more personalized content and embracing multimedia will be crucial to meeting users’ needs. Brands that understand their niche, listen to their community, and know how to reach them at their favorite online hangouts will benefit from the new search trends.
