BrightEdge Data Reveals Google is Still Winning in AI-Powered Search Race

SAN MATEO, Calif., July 11, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BrightEdge, the global leader in AI-driven organic search, content, and digital marketing automation, has released a fresh batch of data from the BrightEdge Generative Parser™ (BGP). Findings include the state of Google's market share, areas where Bing and Perplexity are growing and slowing, and how major Large-Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are evolving their approaches to content to safeguard their models from potential legal issues. As search continues to adapt to AI, it’s imperative that marketers continue to monitor these alternative search engines as optimization techniques for LLMs are likely to apply to AI and traditional engines.

"There is no doubt that Google's dominance remains strong, and what it does in AI matters to every business and marketer across the planet,” said Jim Yu, Founder and Executive Chairman at BrightEdge. "At the same time, new players are laying new foundations as we enter an AI-led multi-search universe. AI is in a constant state of progress, so the most important thing marketers can do now is leverage the precision of insights to monitor, prepare for changes, and adapt accordingly."

BrightEdge Generative Parser™ has been monitoring AI Overviews since it was in Google Labs and labeled as Search Generative Experiences (SGE); it’s also been keeping tabs on Bing and Perplexity, as well as LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude throughout June 2024. BGP has found the following insights.

Industry Findings

Each percentage of organic search market share is worth about $1.2 billion.

• As the battle for consumer attention and platform engagement grows between AI-led search engines, each percentage of organic search market share will be worth about $1.2 billion.
• Even small gains from existing engines and new entrants have a prolific impact on their revenue.
• This will also influence how they build future incremental revenue, subscription, and partnership models.

Insights into Google Search

Google continues driving around 92% of all organic search traffic to brands.

• Recent speculation about Google's declining market position is unfounded.
• Google drives around 92% of all organic search traffic to brands.
• At this time, there is little evidence of any significant impact of AI or new entrants on market share or Google search queries.

Google doubles down on authoritative sources over User Generated Content (UGC).

• Google is prioritizing established, expert content over user discussions and forums.
• The appearance of content from Reddit and Quora in AI Overview citations declined to near zero in June.
• The data confirms that Google has taken action since its statement on May 30th related to limiting the use of UGC in its results.
• This is due to AI's difficulties detecting sarcasm and other linguistic nuances that then trigger hallucinations.

Other AI-Powered Engines and LLMs.

Bing is still stuck at under 5% of the market share but is slowly growing

• Comparing the first six months of 2023 with 2024, Bing's market share increased from 4.2% to 4.5%.
• While this increase may seem small, it is essential to remember that each percentage of organic search market share is worth about $1.2 billion, so increasing by 0.3% could potentially be worth $300-$400 million.

Perplexity usage continues to grow at a rapid rate of 31% month-over-month.

• After growing quickly in Q1 2024, Perplexity growth remains strong.
• Perplexity’s organic referrals monthly growth rate from May to June was once again above 30%.
• If sustained, this growth will make Perplexity a legitimate contender in the Search market race.

Referrals from Large Language Models (LLMs) are growing.

• The overall number of referrals from LLMs is small and expected to have little industry impact at this time.
• However, if this incremental growth continues, BrightEdge predicts it will influence where people search online and how brand's approach optimizing for different engines.
• Marketers should continue to monitor these alternative search engines as optimization techniques for LLMs are likely to apply to the AI of traditional engines.

ChatGPT is playing it safe, as using content to train LLMs has become a hot debate.

• ChatGPT no longer gives visibility to brands that it is a referral source.
• All referrals from ChatGPT will now look like the user went directly to the brand's website due to the inclusion of a "noreferrer" tag by OpenAI.
• ChatGPT is playing it safe, making it harder for brands to claim they are stealing content.

Claude AI referrals are making their appearance.

• Over the last month, Claude referrals have started to appear. The number is small at the moment, but BrightEdge expects Claude referrals to grow over the coming months.

"These findings underscore the dynamic nature of the AI-driven search landscape," said Albert Gouyet, VP of Operations at BrightEdge. "As engines and AI models become more adept at surfacing and citing the most relevant and trustworthy information, it is crucial to establish your brand as a go-to resource in your area of expertise. This means keeping ahead of changes and doubling down on your core competencies by creating high-quality, informative content that highlights your unique value proposition."

As part of its mission to help marketers stay ahead of changes in AI and search, BrightEdge has released additional insights that can be accessed for free in its Ultimate Guide to AI Overviews. The complete set of insights can be viewed at www.brightedge.com/ai-overviews.

About BrightEdge

BrightEdge, the global leader in Enterprise SEO and content performance, empowers digital marketers to transform online opportunities into tangible business results. Its all-in-one platform provides organizations with crucial market insights and intelligent AI-driven solutions. The BrightEdge platform contains the industry's most unique and extensive data set that connects key search, social, content, and digital media data points. Its deep-learning engine, DataMind, has been powering SEO AI-driven solutions since 2015, allowing marketers to benefit from high-fidelity data-led insights and automated action. Over 57% of Fortune 100 companies and nine of the top ten international agencies trust BrightEdge to help them provide the best performance by becoming an integral part of the digital experience.

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