SearchPulse Q1 2026: An Increasingly Fragmented Search Landscape

The TikTok Takeover is No Longer a Prediction

Generational differences have always existed between platforms, and it’s almost cliché at this point to say that different platforms serve different demographics - but the dynamic of social media platforms as search engines is still a relatively new phenomenon outside of specific platforms like Reddit and YouTube geared towards informational content.

What’s really key from our data is that 54.8% of 18-24s now use TikTok as a regular search tool, surpassing the use of Google (50.7%) within that demographic. That is a generational tipping point where Google Search is no longer the first port of call.

Search is now a visual, social-first experience, leaving often text-heavy traditional search as a bit of a relic. AI Overviews, Featured Snippets, and Image search have broadened what Google Search offers, but unless AI Mode starts to become the default experience, it’s not hard to see this trend continuing and Google becoming an ‘action-based’ platform for booking and buying, although that too is functionality that social platforms are aggressively marketing and capturing.

Google Search is Losing Elsewhere Too

Across the broader population, that dynamic is shifting too - according to our data, Google Search usership has dropped 9% year-on-year since we started this report. That data is statistically significant, even considering the different respondents in each survey. We’ve seen that 26.9% of all respondents now use ChatGPT regularly, mostly driven by a transactional motivation - 61.2% value the ease of use, and 56.9% prioritize its quick results. Combine that with the usership of Gemini growing 12% YoY, and we can build a picture of growing adoption of AI-assisted discovery across the whole population.

We’ve seen that early adopters build hype, and it’s clear that the huge amount of press, social content, and even just the potential of the technology itself has bolstered that initial cohort and formed a critical mass. Early friction and concerns have been partially addressed (hallucination rates have come down significantly since the early days of ChatGPT, for example), but we’re also seeing that forced integration into platforms has helped to get these features in front of users who are time-poor and information-hungry.

What will be interesting to see this year is whether those gains continue - there is a growing discontentment with the huge priority on incorporating AI (particularly LLM) technology into everything people do at work, at home, and even in their leisure time. Forced integrations such as AI Overviews are likely to grow adoption in the short term, but also to harden those who don’t like AI against adopting it in the future. Has the short-term growth of these platforms and technologies potentially come at the cost of future ubiquity?

A “One-Size Fits All” Strategy is fracturing

Our data has helped us identify four distinct search personas based on psychological drivers and platform habits. These are key considerations to help understand how the concept of the ‘Messy Middle’ of the search journey is changing. Bear in mind, this data is a sample of the general population - not a specific audience. Understanding your own audience and how it differs is key to creating an effective strategy.

Traditional Searchers are those who mostly rely on familiar habits like Google Search. Making up 60% of our data, this group is still relatively dominant purely due to the strength of Google’s habit-forming and default bias from the last 20 years. This is the core reason that SEO fundamentals and a good SEO strategy remain so important - those businesses and brands that are getting this right are still seeing huge success over those that aren’t.

Streamlined Searchers are the next biggest group identified in our data at 28% - they jump between Google for information gathering and platforms like Instagram or Facebook for visual and aesthetic validation. If your search and social messaging are siloed and you’re not focused on your cross-channel experience, then you’re likely to lose these searchers in the transitions.

The Multi-Platform Searchers at 10% represent a fast-growing and digital native audience. Using TikTok and Instagram as their primary search engines, they can be entirely blind to brands that ignore these native social search platforms. This is the next generation of buyers and users, so it will continue to be a key player in platform shifts.

Digital Explorers are the smallest proportion of this set at 2%, and they are the early adopters of AI technology. They are not only using AI in partnership with other platforms, but they are even delegating their decisions to AI agents. With the announcements of new standards for agentic interaction with websites, we expect this cohort to grow - and so if websites aren’t optimised for LLMs and AI agents, they likely will never even factor into these users’ decision-making.

Change is Constant, but Humans are Consistent

The changes we see in search behaviour could be interpreted in many ways, but a critical factor is that it highlights what we value as humans in these experiences. The speed, personalisation, and unbiased nature of AI responses are key drivers in their usage, but none of these are new topics for marketers. We’ve always known that users hate slow websites, that personalising what they see on site to what they like gets better results, and that obvious marketing and “shilling” can be detrimental. The behaviour and the motivations haven’t changed; it’s the platforms and the capabilities to provide those things that are shifting. 

Understanding that behind every screen is a real person is the key to navigating the constant ebb and flow of the digital landscape - often, they just want the same things they’ve always wanted.

These are just some of the insights we’ve gathered as part of the Searchpulse report - for the full breakdown, deeper expert insights, and key strategic takeaways, you can find them all in the complete report.

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