AI search is starting to kill Google’s ‘ten blue links’
1 min read
Summary
According to research from Adobe, referrals to US retail websites via AI search experienced a 1,300% year-on-year increase in Q4 2024, with referrals on Cyber Monday alone up 1,950% YoY.
AI search referrals also resulted in a 23% lower bounce rate and a 12% increase in the number of pages visited compared to referrals from traditional search engines such as Google or Bing.
Users were also found to stay on sites 8% longer when using an AI search engine.
Adobe’s research found that 39% of surveyed shoppers used AI search to shop online, while 55% used it for research and 47% used it for purchasing recommendations.
However, the roll-out of AI search tools has faced issues, with Google’s AI Overview chatbots telling users to eat rocks and that Barack Obama was the first Muslim president, while AI search chatbot startup Perplexity has faced plagiarism accusations.
Despite this, OpenAI’s ChatGPT also launched its own search tool last year, with the company emphasising that publishers had control over how their work was used.