With the caveat that nobody outside the major search engine providers knows precisely what percentage of search queries fall into various categories, it seems clear enough that “commerce-related” queries are growing as a percentage of total, as seen in the share of search queries on Amazon.
The point is that when looking at the potential impact of artificial intelligence on search, not all the effects we might see are “caused” by AI. Other shifts are happening. Looking at search advertising revenue, for example, Amazon’s share is rising.
The point is that before we even debate the impact of generative AI chatbots on search, we already see a pre-existing trend of search becoming more prominent in the context of shopping.
It’s a bit like the trends we have seen in the use of landline phone lines. To some extent, we note the shift from traditional public switched telephone services to VoIP services, for example. But that might arguably be a secondary trend, compared to the shift from reliance on fixed networks to mobile networks and smartphones for voice services.
And it arguably is the shift to mobile phone use that is the bigger change, not the shift from legacy voice to VoIP on fixed networks.
By some estimates, 10 percent to 20 percent of all search queries are related to a shopping function.
Another 10 percent to 15 percent involve research of a product arguably related to shopping. Amazon’s growing share of search volume reflects that trend.
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