What Should You Know about Online Search in 2024?

Did you know that 68% of online experiences start with search engines? That’s an impressive number. But mostly, it means that site and online business owners should take this seriously.

It’s essential to know how search engines work, what engines are the most popular, how current technology influences the search, and so on.

We decided to take a look at the latest data provided by Statista to cover the main questions about online search in 2024.

Contents

• Online worldwide search market
• Search industry leader - Google
• AI-powered search
• Conclusion

Online worldwide search market

We can all agree that online searches have become an inseparable part of our lives. Engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others help billions of people find the information they need.

But let’s look more precisely at what defines the current and future state of the search market.

Market share of leading search engines worldwide from January 2015 to April 2023 (Statista)

This graph clearly shows that Google is the ultimate leader among search engines. We also believe that nothing will drastically change in the near future. This way, if you want to expose your site online, make sure to optimize it for Google.

Yet, here’s how the rating of the most popular search engines looks (as of April 2023):

• Google - 92.63%,
• Bing - 2.79%,
• Yandex - 1.63%,
• Yahoo! - 1.1%,
• DuckDuckGo - 0.52%,
• Baidu - 0.44%.

Things won’t change much if we compare search engines' popularity across different devices (desktop and mobile). Google still comes as a confident leader with 84.69% for desktop and 96.46% for mobile search.

Google’s example signals that people use mobile search more often. Given that, it’s logical that Google uses the mobile-first approach to evaluate and rank sites. (Even the Google mobile app is the fourth most popular app in the US.)

So, mobile-friendliness is a must if you want to be successful online.

Considering that people spend more time online and use search engines as an access point, no wonder they generate lots of revenue.

Imagine: search advertising outperforms TV advertising. The search advertising expenditure was over $164 billion worldwide in 2022. And it is projected to be more than $190 billion in 2024.

So, consider learning more about search advertising if you seek merit in the online search.

Of course, it will be impossible to cover the online search topic fully without taking a deeper look at its leader - Google. That’s why let’s take a more precise look at it.

Search industry leader - Google

As you can see from the previous data, Google undoubtedly holds the top position among all search engines. So, what do we have to say about this search engine?

Worldwide visits to Google from November 2022 to April 2023 in billions (Statista)

Though visits to Google have slightly dropped in April, the average number of visits still surpasses 80 billion. Isn’t it impressive?

As such, you need to optimize your site to fit Google’s needs. For example, one of the essential elements is content quality. And the search engine gives clear guidelines on what it wants to see on your site.

Yet, generally, you can find all the main requirements on the Google Search Central site. You can educate yourself on:

• SEO fundamentals,
• Crawling and indexing,
• Ranking and search appearance,
• Site-specific guides.

Additionally, you can check our article on how to rank high on the search engines. We discuss the main components you need to know and consider.

Also, consider if your TA prefers to use Google search. As Truelist shares, India, Brazil, and India lead in Google desktop search. (No worries, the US is also on the list.)

Of course, Google is much more than a plain “question-answer” platform. Now, it uses extensive snippets, new search results’ appearance, and so on. Moreover, users can even use image search (so don’t forget to optimize your visuals too).

Let’s take a look at some of the main Google search queries and results.

1. The most popular keywords on Google search worldwide in 2022 by monthly search volume (Statista).

As you can see, YouTube - Google's subsidiary - was searched the most.

2. Most popular online search questions on Google worldwide in 2022 volume (AdvisoryExcellence).

People seek entertainment. So, the most popular question was "What to watch?"

3. Most popular online search queries on Google worldwide in 2022 by monthly search volume in millions (Statista).

Facebook holds leadership when it comes to the most popular search query.

4. Top Google search queries worldwide in the 2nd quarter of 2023, index value (Statista).

The most current data shows that users start their interactions with the query "Google."

5. The most popular search topics and search queries worldwide, 2023 (Google).

The most popular topic is "woman" and the main search query is "ChatGPT."

AI-powered search

The rise of AI has definitely shaken the industry. Artificial intelligence-powered chatbots provide another level of communication and search for customers.

Many Internet users and also company owners seemed to be really curious about this new technology.

Though Google had established itself as an unbeatable leader in the search industry, one company outperformed it in terms of AI use. Of course, we are talking about OpenAI and its hit chatbot ChatGPT.

Despite ChatGPT's unprecedented popularity, it still has drawbacks, and the information provided is not always full or correct.

Perhaps this matter holds almost all generations against the full switch to AI-enabled search.

Share of adults in the United States who would switch or not to an artificial intelligence (AI) powered search engine of February 2023, by generation (Statista)

So far, only millennials and Gen Z seem to be somewhat curious about using the new technology.

Yet, major search engines see potential in incorporative generative AI. Google used the Language Model for Dialogue Applications to create and release its AI-powered conversational model Bard.

And the giant won’t stop there. Google shared that it works on the all-new search engine Magi and develops some AI tools.

That not only refers to the US-based engines. For instance, Baidu makes a run of the Chinese version Wenxin Yiyan and the English version ERNIE Bot.

Anyhow, tech and search engine companies should work hard on AI development. As people have become more savvy in using the Internet and finding data, they doubt some of AI's capabilities.

Share of adults in the United States who trust an artificial intelligence (AI) powered search engine to perform selected activities as of February 2023 (Statista)

As you can see, data privacy, misinformation, and fitting recommendations are among the top users’ concerns.

Nevertheless, search engines don’t stop developing AI features. The main cause is that numerous tech startups can take search traffic away from them. So, it’s more of a survival question.

Yet, if the research and AI implementation are successful, users will be glad to receive more accurate results, a user-friendly way of searching for information, higher data protection, etc.

Conclusion

We can say that online search is in the “critical stage” right now.

Internet users become more technologically savvy and demand more from search engines. Innovations like AI have their own impact on search and interactions with customers.

As Google stays the top search engine for most countries, you should put most of your effort into optimizing for it. (Anyway, build your SEO strategy based on what engine your TA uses.)

Google itself provides numerous recommendations and rules to webmasters and site owners. So, of course, a big part of your success in 2024 will be following them. Moreover, you can check SEO tips from industry experts, too.

How different will online search be in 2024? Leave your suggestions in the comments section below.