Google puts out a list of its most searched terms at the end of each year, this year accompanied by the video below, which seems a bit glossy and filled with positive spin for a period where the top searches globally included an assassination, devastating wildfires, and a US government shutdown. Perhaps more concerning, at least in the world of search, is that where Google used to have a “learn more” button, now that’s been replaced with one reading, “catch me up in AI mode”. Which raises the question, is the last “last year in search” where “search” means a search engine sending the user to information on the internet rather than, one expects, next year’s “last year in AI-generated answers”?

David Crotty

David Crotty

David Crotty is the Executive Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Founded in 1933, CSHL Press is an internationally renowned publisher of books, journals, and electronic media, and is a division of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an innovator in life science research and the education of scientists, students, and the public. Previously, David was a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.

Discussion

2 Thoughts on "Google’s Last Last Year in Search"

Just fyi, I saw and started to use this workaround for Google Search – it takes you to web results instead of ALL, which has the effect of not showing the AI stuff.
https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14
Put that as your default search engine in Chrome – Settings – Search Engines.
There’s probably a similar way in other browsers.
Also I just saw some people reporting that it doesn’t work anymore, but it does for me still, so it might vary by country.

No.
As people become more certain about where opportunities are and how to act on them, the marginal value of good search and discovery tools (including AI search) tends to rise, not fall, because those tools are what convert vague potential into concrete, exploitable options.

Why certainty can increase AI search value

When uncertainty is high, people often do fewer targeted searches because they cannot even articulate what to look for; AI search begins to matter more once users have clearer goals and hypotheses but still face large information spaces to explore. Generative AI assistants are especially useful at turning a half-formed objective (“I think there’s an opportunity in X”) into specific questions, comparisons, and execution steps, which deepens engagement and increases the volume and complexity of queries.

That increase the value of search, not decreases it.

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