Google’s digital search empire is experiencing its first real decline in almost twenty years. Projections put its advertising market share below 50% by 2025 , marking the end of an era where Google was the undisputed guardian of knowledge on the Internet.

The change is not coming from a single competitor, but from the fragmentation in the way we search for information. A few years ago we turned to Google for everything, but not anymore. Now we go to YouTube to look for tutorials, to TikTok to check trends or to Amazon to find products. The Web no longer revolves around a single search engine.

The ace up its sleeve is search with results generated by AI, where Google has a fantastic position, a lot of internal talent and a great deal of accumulated experience. But  that poses an existential paradox : its traditional searches generate advertising revenue, AI-based answers generate expenses. And the latter is what users increasingly demand.

We are not only witnessing the loss of market share of a dominant company, but a change in how we interact with information. The new generations prefer multimedia and immersive experiences. And instant answers, not ten blue links. The question is how Google will reinvent itself in a world where being the guardian of knowledge is no longer enough.

To top it off, there is a threat on the horizon: OpenAI, which is no longer satisfied with being the company behind ChatGPT . Its aspirations are more in line with the desire to become the new Google.