Out of all of the search engines, Google is by far and away the most powerful and regarded. It is a media giant, and comfortably among the most powerful companies in the world. A big part of what makes Google so strong, though, is its constant innovation. New features and add-ons are included all the time, meaning that Google can offer some very intriguing opportunities.
For example, a slew of new features has arrived aimed at keeping Generation Z on the web. Given the supposedly poor attention times of this generation, Google is looking for ways to captivate them and keep them busy. Google has found that more and more people would rather search social media for a potential query than simply ask their typical search engine.
So, Google is looking to implement tools that will keep this generation coming back online. Indeed, according to their internal data, some 40% of people aged 18 to 24 do their search queries on social media, not search engines.
Google’s solution was to come up with a new feature: combining social media insights into typical searches. Now, when you search, you will see key posts from major social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. YouTube Shorts, another popular innovation, provide the same function.
In a way, this is like a social media feed but on a search engine. Say you search for your sports team, we’ll say the Boston Celtics. When you do that, you will find that under the Exploration area that you can find lots of social media content. Bite-sized clips, insights, opinions, and more.
This is apparently what the next generation wants when they are searching around on the web. Articles and long-form videos are useful, but the attention-starved youth of tomorrow seemingly want rapidly delivered, bite-sized snippets. That could be a problem later in life, but for now, Google is happy to oblige.