Social Search

Key Takeaway:

Google has long been the most popular search engine, but it faces competition from social media platforms, especially among younger generations. In 2023, expect social media's dominance to push companies to broaden their search strategies from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) only to Social Search Engine Optimization (SSEO).

Trend Type: Social & Business

Sub-trends: Social Search

April, 2023 • Less than 2 min read

Google has long been the most popular search engine but faces competition from social media platforms. Especially among younger generations, social media is becoming the go-to for finding travel tips, recipes, and news. According to an internal study by Google, 40% of 18-24-year-olds use social media as their primary search engine. The New York Times even declared that TikTok was the new search engine for Gen Z in September 2022.
“In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search,” he continued. “They go to TikTok or Instagram.” Prabhakar Raghavan, Google Senior VP – Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference, July 2022.
Interestingly, social media platforms are now more popular than search engines among internet users aged 16-64, with nearly a third of internet usage time spent on social media. Younger people are also more likely to use social media for brand research, according to Hootsuite, although search engines and TV are still more commonly used for discovery.
In 2023, expect social media’s dominance to push companies to broaden their search strategies from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) only to Social Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Use Cases

Tik Tok Search

Social Search: TikTok has emerged as one of their favourite platforms for Gen Z, in particular, to find products, services and every day information. It’s the quickly-delivered information in the form of highly engaging short-form video content that makes it an ideal search engine for this demographic, whose attention span and tolerance for tedium, is shorter than generations before. What’s more, TikTok delivers information that is more personalized than a traditional search engine, because results are delivered by the smartest social algorithm out there, constantly learning based on users’ content consumption and engagement, which makes the whole experience more entertaining and intuitive. As TikTok continues to beta test search ads, advertisers are expected to jump at the chance to

Use Cases

Tik Tok Search

Social Search: