ChatGPT isn’t disrupting Google Search just yet, report finds

Google Search still reings supreme for traditonal search, despite the rising numbers of AI chatbots.

AI companies are pushing chatbots more than ever before, with many people now starting to rely on them for everyday information. People are increasingly using chatbots like ChatGPT to inquire about things, instead of Google, the quintessential search engine that many have used for decades.

ChatGPT is getting more popular but it is still denting Google's search lead - just yet. (AP)

By Shaurya Sharma

Shaurya Sharma is the Technology Editor at Hindustan Times Digital Streams, where he oversees technology coverage across digital and social platforms. With over eight years of experience across editorial, video production, and digital media, his work focuses on smartphones, AI, consumer gadgets, and shaping audience-first content strategies for modern tech consumers.

He began his career in 2018 as a fashion cinematographer before turning his lifelong passion for technology into a profession. From spending his childhood immersed in tech magazines, video games, and the latest gadgets to covering the global consumer tech industry today, technology has remained a constant throughout his journey.

Over the years, Shaurya has worked with some of India’s leading media organisations, including CNN-News18, Sportskeeda, and Guiding Tech, where he led video initiatives that combined strong editorial storytelling with engaging visual and social-first execution.

A graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication from Manipal University, Shaurya has reviewed hundreds of products across categories including smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles, cameras, and wearables. Beyond work, he is passionate about animal welfare, environmental causes, and automobiles, particularly turbo-petrol cars

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This has given rise to the popular narrative that traditional search may be on the decline and that chatbots are taking over. However, there’s only some truth to this as per a new report by the Washington Post.

AI Chatbots Still Have Miniscule Search Usage Compared To Google

The Washington Post reports that Similarweb, which provides the publication with its analytics activity, found that more and more people are starting to find their online articles using ChatGPT. Between January and May 2025, they received around 25 million visits from ChatGPT, a significant increase from the year prior (1 million). This indicates definite growth in chatbot usage for accessing news.

However, during the same five months (January to May 2025), Americans made approximately 9.5 billion visitations to news websites using traditional web search, including Google. Now, if you do the maths, for every American person who used ChatGPT to look for information and land on a news website, 379 people used Google.

Furthermore, the publication found (via parkToro CEO Rand Fishkin) that users are doing more than 14 billion Google searches a day. These are huge numbers compared to the minuscule 37.5 million Google-like searches that occurred on ChatGPT every day, making Google's usage 373 times greater than ChatGPT's, the publication reported.

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So, What’s The Verdict?

So, while ChatGPT is far from matching Google's search usage, websites are definitely starting to feel the effects of AI chatbots. Even when looking at market share, while there have been definite dips (Google's global search engine market share fell below 90 percent during the final three months of 2024 for the first time since 2015), these were often attributed to popular chatbots, though not clearly specified as the sole cause. It remains to be seen what the eventual results will be, but for now, Google Search still holds its place.