Rand Fishkin recently shared some info from Datos about the state of search in the first part of this year, and the results are quite interesting.
Rand summarizes it like this:
- AI is disrupting traditional search! Nope. Look at the numbers.
- OK… but AI is growing faster than search! Nope. On an absolute basis, traditional search is outpacing AI tool growth.
- Fine, but AI Mode in Google is huge! Nope. It’s itsy bitsy. Growing, but still less than 0.2% share.
- ChatGPT is winning, but Claude is close behind! Nope. Claude’s catching up, but Gemini is still in the #2 spot and growing, and ChatGPT has plateaued/declined for the past 6 months (Sept. 2025 was their high point)
There are a number of big takeaways in here.
ChatGPT vs Claude?
Everyone seems to be talking about how it’s “ChatGPT vs Claude” right now, which is true to a large degree, but Google Gemini is still ahead of Claude — and climbing!
Everything is going up
We’re not seeing AI use eat into search, but rather they’re both growing. To me, this lends some credence to the idea that people are using AI for more research, then jumping to Google for navigation.
Desktop only
This data is only for desktop usage, not mobile. That data likely shows a very different story (and I’d suspect much more AI use, particularly via voice).
Data matters
This is why data is always > hype. I still think AI is likely going to eat the world, but it’s not there yet and we have time to shape it into something great instead of something awful.
Check out Rand’s insights on LinkedIn or the full Datos data for more.
