Grace Ashiru
With search engines being a multibillion-dollar industry—Google Search alone generated up to $175 billion last year, according to Statista—it’s unsurprising that Meta is reportedly aiming to capture a share by developing its own AI-powered search engine.
This move could position Meta as a major player in the search engine market, potentially reducing global reliance on established giants like Google and Bing.
Though specifics on how Meta’s search engine will operate remain unclear, it has been compared to other popular AI-powered search engines, such as Perplexity AI.
Perplexity gathers information from multiple news sources and responds to user queries by scanning the web and engaging in a conversational format, unlike traditional search engines that primarily match keywords. This interactive approach allows users to ask follow-up questions, making the search experience more dynamic and engaging.
Meta’s search engine is expected to function similarly, but it will have a major advantage in user reach, thanks to Meta’s AI already being deeply integrated across its social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
In other words, many users will likely be able to access the search engine directly from any of Meta’s social media platforms, making it highly accessible.
While Meta hasn’t officially confirmed the development of the search engine, reports from The Information suggest it is based on insights from informed sources. Additionally, a recent event has hinted that this may indeed be the case.
In August, AI tracking firms such as Originality AI and Dark Faces reported the detection of AI crawlers labeled Meta-External Agent and Meta-ExternalFetcher as early as July. These crawlers are believed to play a vital role in training Meta’s AI by gathering publicly available information and indexing web links for search queries.
In short, Meta has been collecting data to develop its anticipated AI-powered search engine. The company has confirmed this to Extreme Tech, stating that it has utilized these crawlers to scrape publicly available user data from the web for years.
If successful, this initiative could significantly disrupt major players like Google. Despite Google’s recent launch of its AI search summary feature in several countries, Meta could leverage its extensive social media presence to emerge as a formidable competitor in the search engine market.
Meta isn’t the only tech giant seeking to challenge Google’s dominance in the search engine market. According to Bloomberg, Apple is actively exploring the development of its own search engine, which could potentially replace Google as the default option on iPhones. Furthermore, OpenAI is in the process of creating its own AI-powered search engine, significantly intensifying the competition for Google’s leading position in the industry.
As more companies seek to either distance themselves from Google or develop their own versions of its services, Google’s dominance in the search engine market may face significant challenges. This shift could lead to increased competition and innovation, reshaping how users access information online.
If Meta successfully launches its AI-powered search engine, the market dynamics will be closely monitored. We’ll see in real-time whether Google can retain its impressive 90% market share, as reported by Statcounter, or if it will start losing ground to emerging competitors like Meta and others.
