Google Adds Web Filter, Continues To Lose Market Share

google losing market share

Since August 2023 and the ongoing rollout of AI features, Google has continued to lose market share in the search engine realm against competitors like Bing and Yahoo. These competitors are now growing at rates never seen in over a decade.

Back in May of the same year, Google announced the implementation of Search Generative Experience, an evolution of its core product that embraces AI. Using Gemini, the search engine compiles information from sites around the Internet and delivers a summary that hovers above the classic blue SERP links.

Google’s new “Web” filter lets users only see text links.

During the recent Google I/O 2024 experience, the company announced a rollout of the new AI Overview to users in the US. It means that the first part of the results page after a query is now dominated by a massive AI section. It’s clear that the company wants this to become the new “normal” for search.

After a query, the left displays an AI Overview that dominates half the page, and the right displays the classic blue links using the “Web” filter.

The company has continued to grow the implementation of AI into its search functionality so much that they have now added a “Web” filter for the original browsing experience. It has gotten to the point where users have to scroll down more than half of a page to see blue links over the answers generated by the AI.

What’s more, the March 2024 Core Update has greatly hindered the ability of small businesses to rank their pages in the index, leaving most of the results to domains with extremely high authority, like Reddit.

According to Statcounter’s revised report, here are the new search engine market share numbers for April 2024 in the United States.

  • Google fell to 86.58%, down from 86.94% in March and 88.88% YoY.
  • Microsoft Bing grew to 8.24%, up from 8.04% in March and up from 6.43% YoY.
  • Yahoo grew to 2.59%, up from 2.48% in March and up from 2.33% YoY.

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