“Goodbye, Google!”
Social networks have become the most used search engine by the new generations, especially Gen Z or Centennials. Their use of the internet has relegated Google to the role of just another search engine, one that they do not use as much as Google would like (40% of this generation use TikTok or Instagram for their searches*).
This new generation seeks information on the same social networks they participate in and interact with. “Why go outside to find what someone else has already explained in here?” They want to search in fewer steps, with more immediacy, and with the guarantee that the results are absolutely peer reviewed, because the answers they are looking for must have been generated by other users in the same environment.
The new search engines and the battle for young people’s attention.
Let’s face it, Google is boomer. It’s outdated and not as reliable as it used to be. There are so many interests, so many brands, so many sponsorship opportunities to position some results above others, that you’re not guaranteed to find what you’re looking for, but what Google wants you to find. Despite this, it is still the most popular search engine in Spain (95.2% of all searches*).
The absolute market dominance of this beast of the world wide web is on the wane, and although it will take time to fall because of its gigantic size, it will undoubtedly fall. And that fall has already begun, with the rise of these new generations of native cybernauts who do not have the “Google dependency” that many of us still suffer from.
One of the keys lies in the U2U (user to user) trust links that are established on social networks. We increasingly rely on the content created by other users on these platforms, sometimes giving them the same credibility as prestigious media outlets such as the New York Times or El País. Content creators in whom we trust (often blindly) because of the closeness we feel to them and the confidence that comes from:
One of the keys lies in the U2U (user to user) trust links that are established on social networks. We increasingly rely on the content created by other users on these platforms, sometimes giving them the same credibility as prestigious media outlets such as the New York Times or El País. Content creators in whom we trust (often blindly) because of the closeness we feel to them and the confidence that comes from:
- “I’ve followed him for years, he’s like family”
- “She makes me laugh”
- “He explains everything in a very simple way”
- “She’s an expert and being an influencer is just a hobby”
- “I’d rather be told about it than read about it”
And that’s another key. Images. Clearly, reading a review on Google with four photos attached is not the same as walking into a restaurant with your trusted TikToker and having him or her tell you in less than a minute why it is or is not worth eating there with your partner.
Centennials or Gen Z are a fundamentally visual generation with an attention span of less than 10 seconds. Using any tool other than their own social networks to search is like pulling the handbrake in the middle of the motorway at 100mph. Absurd braking and a potentially fatal accident (of boredom). “Tell me in song!”
It doesn’t matter what they’re saying, the important thing is keeping attention on the screen, and so that mini-game in the background is there to make it seem as if something is going to happen at any moment. This is the only way to keep young people’s attention, so that they can almost unconsciously absorb the information that a robotic voice reads from the text superimposed on the screen.
One of the craziest formats for getting information across to Gen Z without them yawning is what we call “retainers”. Retainers** are utterly anodyne audiovisual capsules in which a circle jumps from cube to cube, trying not to fall into the void, while an AI-generated voice tells you about anything from the reproduction of Asian wasps in captivity to the Palestinian-Israeli armed conflict to the conspiracy of how JFK’s death was simulated by two aliens from Area 51.
Absurd? Perhaps. Hypnotic? Absolutely. “Modern problems require modern solutions.” And TikTok and Instagram, with their reels, have responded to the search and information needs of a generation that is absolutely visual, digital and far removed from the dated “good reputation” of traditional media that search engines serve up on a plate.
Wise up, Google, wise up.
*TechCrunch
