In the United States Of America the Estimated Share of Google Search Grew After Microsoft's Chatbot Hype (Which Coincided With Mass Layoffs at Bing)
Microsoft's chatbot hype started in late 2022 (after mass layoffs; the second wave in months was quite big) as Microsoft needed a distraction and "Bing Chat" started while Microsoft aggressively laid off Bing staff and then shut down the main office (some workers got relocated and some were let go of... not that the media mentioned this).
Microsoft's search business is chaotic and a complete disaster from a fiscal perspective. With all the chatbot hype it is even losing more money because not only training but also querying would take an incredible amount of energy, more so over time (just to yield text full of lies and falsehoods, don't call that "hallucination" as that would imply LLMs have comprehension). Then add the legal bills (getting sued for plagiarism and defamation) on top of that.
Google was doomed, the media kept telling us. But was it?
Nope.
It was cruising along just fine in the US. Google's relative share in the US was around 80% a decade ago. It gradually rose to about 90% half a decade ago. It peaked last year and right now statCounter estimates it has 87% of the US market:
Watch out, Google! People don't want actual Web pages anymore. Or wait... maybe they do. LLMs are a bunch of hot air and useless nonsense that results in trouble, but for the sender (generator) and the recipient. █