Internet search moves from browser to bots, SEO to GEO

Internet search has changed with the advent of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), moving from fetching links to showing content and becoming conversational.

- PRANJAL SHARMA

It has pivoted from browser to chatbots.

Google search was launched in 1998 and rapidly became the industry leader: a position it has maintained since then. Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, Yandex and DuckDuckGo are other popular search engines—a market that's worth $252.5 billion, according to Mordor Intelligence.

The market is forecast to grow and be worth $440.6 billion by 2030. "Strong growth reflects the shift from keyword retrieval to AI-native, conversational engines that require far greater compute resources, especially for multimodal queries that combine text, voice and visuals," said Mordor in a report.

Search that fetched content links was the standard way to use the internet for decades. But now sophisticated predictive engines mean searching links is a small deal.

The search business has entered a new era. GenAI bots in devices and services like email enable users to see AI-based summaries and content, not just link-based information.

The older model enabled companies to monetize search engines by charging advertising fees for their content. Search engine optimization (SEO) became the industry standard for marketers promoting their content.