🔍 Reddit’s “Go-To” Search Goal

Welcome back. Today we’re looking at why Reddit posts keeps showing up in search results, and how Reddit is now aiming to become a “go to” search engine for certain categories of search.

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The same platform that gave us viral threads and endless memes is now aiming to take a piece of the search market. 

Reddit is positioning itself as a search engine built on authentic human discussions and as an alternative to AI-generated search results.

Reddit is pulling in $200+ million in data licensing deals, including a $60 million agreement with Google, allowing companies to train their AI models on Reddit's user conversations.

According to SEMrush, Reddit is the second most-cited source in Google's AI Overviews. Its influence on search is undoubtedly growing.

The idea of Reddit as a standalone search engine isn't that far-fetched. In its Q2 shareholder letter, Reddit claimed that more than 70 million people now use its main search feature each week. Not counting the countless users who already add 'Reddit' to the end of their Google searches in search of threads.

But Reddit isn't content being just a source for Google or AI tools. CEO Steve Huffman is steering the company toward becoming a "go-to search engine" in its own right, with plans to make the search bar the app's centerpiece.

Enter Reddit Answers

Reddit Answers launched in beta last December and is expanding globally. The AI-powered tool curates insights from Reddit’s 100,000+ communities.

This strategy is working for Reddit so far. The company just announced that Answers has 6 million weekly users, up 5x from the previous quarter.

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🗂️ Google has given some advertisers access to search terms in ‘AI Search Max‘

Unofficial reports suggest that Google will give more detail on which search terms triggered ads in AI Search Max campaigns.

📰 Google launches ‘Preferred Sources’ for users to personalize news sources in search results

Users in the U.S. and India can now set their favorite news sources to appear more often in Google’s “Top stories” section.

💡 Amazon is exploring bringing ads to Alexa+ AI assistant

CEO Andy Jassy said he believes “there will be opportunities… to have advertising play a role to help people find discovery”.

📢 X plans to introduce ads in Grok AI chatbot responses

Elon Musk said advertisers will be able to pay to appear in Grok’s answers. He also hinted at plans to automate ad targeting using xAI tech, with in-app purchases and short-form video ads coming next.

💰 TikTok launches ‘TikTok Go’ for creators to earn commissions on hotel bookings

Creators on TikTok Go can now earn cash or vouchers by tagging and promoting hotels and local experiences in their videos. TikTok Go is available in the U.S., Indonesia, and Japan.

💵 Perplexity offered $34.5 billion to acquire Google Chrome

The public offer could be interpreted as a (successful) PR stunt or a statement to the judge who is considering what consequences Google will face after being found to be monopolizing the Search market.

📈 Threads has surpassed 400 million monthly active users

The Meta-owned app has added 50 million users since reporting 350 million in April. Mosseri said Threads started as “a zany idea to compete with Twitter” but has become “a meaningful platform” in the social media race.

Thanks for reading

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That’s it for today. We’ll be back next week!