While Google still dominates the search network, this is changing in important ways. Fewer searches per user means fewer opportunities for clicks, ads, and traffic, even if overall search volume seems stable.
The number of Google desktop searches per user fell nearly 20% year over year, based on clickstream data from tens of millions of US users.
- This decline is in stark contrast to Europe, where searches per user fell by only 2% to 3%.
- Even with fewer searches per person, traditional search still represents about 10% of all US desktop activity – a share that remained virtually unchanged in 2025.
What causes it
What’s driving the decline? According to the report, AI-powered responses and immediate results are the most likely cause:
- Users are increasingly getting what they need without multiple follow-up searches.
- Zero-click searches remain high but are no longer accelerating, stabilizing in the low 20% range by the end of the year.
- Repeated searches and clicks within Google properties show only minor changes, indicating that the behavior has settled to its current levels.
AI is changing the way people search, but not in the way some expected. Rather than turning users away from search entirely, AI is layered into existing search behavior.
Despite all the hype, AI tools still account for less than 1% of total US desktop activity – just 0.77% – even after a year of strong growth. Google’s AI mode in particular remains small, accounting for only about 0.06% of US desktop events in December, although its adoption continues to grow steadily.
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Questions are getting longer. One of the most obvious behavioral changes is the way people search:
- Medium searches of six to nine words are growing fastest in the US
- Very long queries of 15 words or more remain rare, but show higher volatility, indicating experimentation.
- Overall, users seem to feel more comfortable expressing complex needs directly in search results.
Discovery becomes more difficult. Search-driven discoveries are more concentrated and harder to break. According to the report, the destinations remain essentially unchanged after the search:
- YouTube, Reddit, Amazon, Wikipedia and Facebook still dominate.
- ChatGPT climbed to No. 7 among U.S. search destinations, making it one of the few meaningful climbers.
- Quora fell out of the top 15.
Traffic headed to only a few dominant platforms
Traffic from AI tools is increasingly concentrated within a small group of established platforms rather than flowing to new or independent publishers. In the US, ChatGPT remains the dominant AI tool, reaching about a quarter to a third of desktop AI users, while Google’s Gemini emerges as a clear second, growing steadily through 2025 and overtaking DeepSeek. Other AI tools, including Claude, Perplexity, and Copilot, continue to serve niche audiences without any breakthroughs yet.
Rand Fishkin, co-founder and CEO of SparkToro, said in the report:
“The big highlight here is the decline in Google searches/searchers between 2024 and 2025. It’s a decline of almost 20% in the US, although only 2-3% in the EU/UK. Other studies have shown that Google is sending less traffic than in recent years, especially to the long tail of the internet, and I suspect that AI answers have dramatically changed the way many users interact with Google, answering their questions before they ever have to click on an organic result click or have to perform a second/third/fourth search.”
The report: Q4 State of Search report
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