How tall is the? Why is my phone bill
so high? Did Doug Ford really swallow a beat
on live TV. Holy Christ. I just swallowed
a bee. How do you Google without Google?
It doesn't make sense. Google and search are so
intertwined that the company's name has become the shorthand for
looking things up online but it's not just search.
Google dominates everywhere. If you use the internet at
all, you touch something controlled by the company youtube
. Chrome and Android are all parts of the Behemoth
that is Google. So Google is king right now
. The problem with being king though is that eventually
someone comes from the chrome Gen Z is taking on
Tik Tok as its preferred search engine. A new
study says that these folks are skipping right past Google
to search for things online. Microsoft's Bing Chat GPT
launched last week. Remember we covered it here on
the show and users rushed to try it out.
We can see that plan right now with the rise
of artificial intelligence. Early in 2023 Microsoft unveiled its
rebound bing search including opens A I chat GPT at
the time. Microsoft made it abundantly clear what the
Google was taking a piece of Google's pie. Since
then, Microsoft says Bing has passed 100 million daily
active users and over a million new users. Those
are some impressive stats but don't a casket on Google
just yet. The company still commands over 90% of
the search market with Bing just being shy of 3%
. Now, while Bing might not be taking the
search yet A I part search features seem to be
the next big change in the industry. And Microsoft
has positioned itself as the leader in the space regardless
of which A I use. Though they have a
long way to go before they can actually take over
search duties from traditional search engines. They might have
the tendency to make things up rather than provide accurate
information, but that should don't play its importance despite
its current limitations. A I is improving at a
startling pace so much. In fact that numerous leaders
are calling for a pause on artificial intelligence research to
ensure that it's done safely and responsibly. Now,
we're currently looking at a mere fraction of ways that
A I could be used in the future. Whoever
comes out on top will be the leader in spaces
will be on search engines. That's an entirely different
conversation, but it's worth mentioning because it's clear that
Google understands the importance of the A I race.
It's unlike the company to reveal a product or a
feature before they're even confident in it, even if
they have a track record of dropping products that don't
immediately turn profit. So to see them released,
barred in a state that was clearly wasn't up to
par with other offerings on the market shows that they
really need to be seen by shareholders and the public
as being invested in A I while all eyes are
on the race for A I advantage. Google has
a bigger problem on its hands. It search result
sucks. There's been a growing course of voices complaining
that Google just isn't that helpful for finding stuff online
useful search results are burned beneath ads, brand and
content and more ads people end up needing to scroll
past list of top stories and videos loosely related to
their, to actually find good old fashioned blue links
to websites that hold the answers they're looking for other
people just add reddit to the end of their query
in an effort to get information written by real people
. Something that's clearly at odds with the ongoing A
I push but even that's unreliable at the best of
times. So the problem comes down to this Google's
main draw, helping people find stuff is at odds
with how they make money. So what takes priority
serving people, the content they're seeking or the advertisement
that make them money? I think we both know
the answer to that one. And then there's a
search algorithm itself as the internet matures Google has had
to shift their algorithm to respond to all the new
content. When users figured out that the past version
of the algorithm responded to keywords, we start to
see articles that were written to take advantage of the
system. Google is constantly having to shift how their
engine par information to weed out the best content for
the user. And it appears that they're losing that
fight at least when compared to their competition. You
only need to look to Tik Tok to see how
effective the algorithm can be. We'll touch on that
more in a bit. But Google's priorities are clear
, prioritize the monetization and the user second, even
if they're falling behind when it comes to the user
experience for the moment, they still hold the advantage
when it comes to their suite of tools for advertising
. And sadly, that goes a long way for
Canadians. Google search has lost even more relevance recently
as the company started blocking news results for some response
to Bill C 18. Among other things, C
18 seeks to make companies Google and Meta which is
Facebook pay Canadian media companies. When link into their
content. It's intended to prop up a struggling Canadian
news landscape. I think this definitely is a really
brazen admission that Google and to other extent, Facebook
really don't give a fig about news in Canada.
If Canadians can't find Canadian media through Google search,
it's just another reason not to use it you know
what I'm saying? That's facts. Google isn't just
the king of search though. It's the king of
browsing Google Chrome browser is the most popular browser with
some of 65% of the global market share. Apple's
Safari browser is a distant second place with almost 19%
and that's almost exclusively because of its position as the
default on iphones and ipads and like search. There
are plenty of other browsers vying for the chrome except
what most people don't realize is that most alternatives are
still chrome just with a different code of pint take
. For example, the third place browser Microsoft edge
Microsoft is pushing edge hard, especially with its big
chat A I integration. What many people don't realize
is that edge is built on Chromium. The open
source foundation of Google's Chrome browser that's largely maintained by
Google. Other browsers use Chromium too, including Brave
Oprah and Vivaldi. Vivaldi and Vila. I got
it right. Vivaldi, Vivaldi, I got it
. The only two major browsers that aren't based on
Chromium is Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari. For now
. At least it seems like none of these alternate
web browsers will challenge Google's dominance in any meaningful way
. And that's an easy point for the big G
here. Another of Google's ions of dominance is youtube
. If you want to upload a video to the
internet, youtube is the obvious answer sure via exists
. But have you ever heard someone ask you like
and subscribe to my via channel. Probably not Google
finally has a challenger though one that's given it a
serious run for its money, Tik Tok, it's
an incredible popular video platform that assuming it doesn't get
widely banned could actually challenge youtube for the video thrown
at first, I had my, you know,
tiktok is a very different platform than youtube with a
focus on short vertical video that relies on algorithmic feed
where you scroll from one video to the next.
But its popularity is undeniable. So much that tiktok
has spurred Google and meta to develop a similar vertical
platform in their existing apps, namely youtube shorts and
Instagram reels. It's becoming such a threat that Google
has launched a monetization system for youtube shorts to content
with tiktok's Creator Fund. So far though shorts monetization
system has fallen short in Canada, but tiktok creators
complain lots about the creator fund too and it's not
just youtube that has been seen, users migrate to
tiktok. We've also seen a dramatic increase in searches
on Tik Tok instead of traditional search engines. Gen
Z isn't just using the video platform for entertainment.
It's an all encompassing destination for news information and interest
, unlike Facebook, Snapchat or any of the other
recent social platform phenomenons tiktok has managed to break out
of the social space to become an all in one
domain meta might be the one pushing to create a
metaverse. But the company best poised to reach that
goal aside from Epic with Fortnite would be by dance
with tiktok. So where does tiktok support come from
the algorithm? There's no other platform that has managed
to use the algorithm to serve up relevant content as
efficiently as Tik Tok. It's an area that Google
wants dominated a large part. Why they became the
go to search engine in the first place? Eventually
, as tiktok expands and needs to hit ever expanding
profit margins, they'll have to face the same problem
that Google is currently facing. But they could take
a serious chunk of the pie before that day comes
. If it feels impossible to avoid Tik Tok content
. That's a good sign that they're doing their job
. At least for the moment, only a time
travel would know whether they'll remain in the pantheon of
tech giants. Google is the king of the internet
right now. It seems like it and we didn't
even get into the ads game if you do anything
online, chances are you will interact with something related
to the company. And while there might be several
challengers, no one has claimed to the throne just
yet with their tech powering so many different aspects of
the everyday internet experience, they position themselves to be
a part of whatever step the industry takes next.
Even if their search engine, browser and video platforms
take a hit, but don't assume it will just
stay that way just because they seem too big to
fail if Google doesn't continue to diversify their offerings and
counter technologies such as artificial intelligence and hardware, they
could see their name fade from the public consciousness.
How do you Google without Google? Google is the
king of the internet. I'm just kidding. They
might have the tendency to make things up rather than
to provide accurate information. I didn't mean to laugh
just now. It was kind of funny until they
take their Nips. Oh, Cops. Ok.
I'm done. What are you suckers up to?
And as a critter who, and as a critter
who uses these two platforms, tiktok has a point --> .