Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024

[megri]

In 2024, nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click, meaning users find what they need directly on the search results page. This can be attributed to several factors:

• Featured snippets: Google's featured snippets provide quick answers, reducing the need to click through to a website.

• Instant answers: Google's algorithms can directly answer simple queries, such as weather, definitions, or calculations.

• Knowledge panels: They offer concise information about people, places, or things, allowing users to find what they need without clicking further.

• Mobile optimisation: With the rise of mobile devices, users often find what they need quickly, without needing to click through to a website.

This trend highlights how Google's search results page has become more informative and user-friendly, allowing users to find answers quickly and efficiently.

The narrative that Google is losing out to LLM-powered tools like Chatgpt, Perplexity, or Microsoft's Bing isn't entirely accurate. Here's why ¹ ²:

• Google's Search Dominance: Despite the rise of AI-powered tools, Google's search volume and market share are at an all-time high. According to a 2024 study, Google's search per searcher is rising, and the platform is stronger than ever.

• Zero-Click Searches: While it's true that nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click, this doesn't necessarily mean users are switching to other platforms. Instead, Google's search results page is becoming more informative, providing users with answers directly.

• Competition from AI Tools: Google faces competition from AI-powered tools, but its AI initiatives, like Gemini, are gaining traction. Google's cautious approach to AI development has allowed competitors like Openai to take the lead, but Google's advancements in AI research and development are still significant.

• Microsoft's Bing: Microsoft's partnership with Openai has boosted Bing, but it's still not a significant threat to Google's search dominance. Google's core business remains strong, with billions of searches performed daily.

• Google's AI Strategy: Google's AI strategy focuses on integrating AI into its existing products, like Search and Workspace tools. While this approach may not be as flashy as some competitors, it showcases Google's commitment to innovation and user experience.

In conclusion, while Google faces challenges from LLM-powered tools, its core business remains robust, and its AI initiatives are progressing steadily. The popular media narrative about Google losing out might be exaggerated, and the reality is more nuanced.

[megri]

Google Searches and ChatGPT Prompts
A) Google Searches

• Daily Searches: Over 14 billion searches are run on Google every day.

• Yearly Searches: Google saw more than 5 trillion searches in 2024, indicating a 21.64% growth in searches from 2023 to 2024 ¹.

B) ChatGPT Prompts

• Daily Prompts: ChatGPT receives approximately 1 billion messages per day. ***uming an average conversation length of 8 messages, we can estimate around 125 million prompts per day (1 billion messages / 8 messages per prompt).

• Daily Searches: However, not all prompts are search-like. Based on search-like behaviour, Chatgpt gets around 37.5 million searches per day.

• Monthly Visits: ChatGPT.com gets approximately 5.19 billion visits per month, with 601.5 million unique visitors ².

C) Search-like Behavior in ChatGPT Prompts

• Percentage: About 30% of ChatGPT's prompts have search-like behavior, comparable to traditional search engine queries. The remaining 70% are used for other functions like creating images, summarizing text, writing code, or doing math homework