ChatGPT instead of Google in 2025: How is AI-based search changing the digital information world?
The debate “ChatGPT instead of Google?” is becoming increasingly relevant as more and more people and companies integrate AI-supported search and assistance systems into their everyday and work processes. While Google continues to be the undisputed search engine leader with a market share of almost 89%, ChatGPT is growing rapidly and asserting itself as a valuable research and creative partner. This blog post highlights the differences, strengths and limitations of both systems and shows how companies and users can adapt to this new search landscape.
Google: The indispensable source of real-time information
Google impresses with its enormous reach, speed and continuous real-time access to billions of websites, which makes it the most important place to go for classic search queries. The combination of search index, AI-powered overviews, and the Google ecosystem (Gmail, Maps, YouTube, etc.) underpins its market-leading position. Because Google provides relevant links very quickly and ensures quality and up-to-dateness, it will continue to play a central role in the future — especially in transactional searches and local information.
ChatGPT: The AI for complex dialogues and creative tasks
In contrast, ChatGPT is not simply a search engine, but an AI system that understands natural language, answers complex questions, and enables contextual dialogues. It scores particularly well in creative or analytical tasks such as text analysis, programming, brainstorming and strategic planning. Users appreciate the opportunity to ask further questions in a conversation and receive individual, coherent answers. However, ChatGPT has so far worked with a fixed level of knowledge and cannot offer real-time data, which is a challenge.
User behaviour and motives for use: Supplement instead of replacement
Research shows that a majority of ChatGPT users also use Google. ChatGPT is primarily used for special, text-based or creative tasks, while Google handles the majority of everyday and wide-ranging search queries. This means that both systems complement each other and together change the way information is searched for and used.
Opportunities for companies and content strategies
Companies should monitor this development closely and adapt their online strategies. Search engine optimization (SEO) remains indispensable, but its presence in AI-driven environments is also gaining in importance. Content is increasingly geared towards being understood and used by AI systems, for example through clear structuring, high quality and the fulfilment of E-E-A-T criteria (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
Outlook: The future of search is hybrid
It is expected that there will be a hybrid use of Google and AI systems such as ChatGPT in the coming years. Google is increasingly integrating AI capabilities to allow conversational elements, while AI models are better integrated into real-time data. For users and companies, this creates a new, versatile and powerful search landscape with a wide range of possibilities.
Google remains indispensable, ChatGPT opens up new possibilities
Despite ChatGPT’s impressive growth, Google continues to be the central player in search. ChatGPT complements search behavior with its AI-supported dialogue capability and creative support, but does not (yet) replace Google. For users who want to exploit the full potential of digital information procurement, it is worthwhile to use both tools according to the situation and to keep an eye on developments.
In the following overview, we offer a comprehensive insight into the complex relationship between ChatGPT and Google in 2025 and show how the combination of both technologies is shaping the future of digital search.
1. Introduction
In the digital world of 2025, two names are indispensable when it comes to information search: Google and ChatGPT. Google, as a giant among search engines, continues to dominate global online searches with almost 90% market share. At the same time, ChatGPT, an AI-based search and conversation platform, is growing rapidly and opening up completely new ways of obtaining information. This article sheds light on why the question “ChatGPT instead of Google?” is not only provocative, but also what opportunities and limitations both systems offer and how users and companies can benefit from it.
2. How Google and ChatGPT work in comparison
Google builds its search function on a highly developed infrastructure of web crawlers, algorithms and real-time indexing of thousands of billions of websites. Google delivers the search results in milliseconds, based on relevance, freshness and user intent. The integration of AI serves as a supplement here, for example through AI-superimposed summaries or clever answer suggestions.
ChatGPT, on the other hand, is an AI language model that generates texts, understands natural language, and responds contextually in dialogues. Unlike Google, ChatGPT does not offer a list of links, but precisely formulated, coherent answers. However, ChatGPT often works with a level of knowledge up to the last training date and not with real-time information.
3. Advantages and strengths of Google
Google scores with its gigantic database and its ability to provide up-to-date and locally relevant information. Product comparisons, route planning or news can be called up quickly here at any time. In addition, Google services such as Maps, YouTube and News offer seamless integration into the ecosystem. Search engine optimization (SEO) is widely used and the tools for analyzing and optimizing websites are widely established.
4. Advantages and strengths of ChatGPT
ChatGPT is particularly convincing when it comes to complex, creative and analytical tasks. Users can formulate questions in natural language and deepen them in conversation. This is especially good for text analysis, idea generation, code snippets, or copywriting. The dialogic form enables individualized research, which Google does not offer in the classic format.
5. User behavior and application scenarios
Studies show that over 95% of ChatGPT users use Google in parallel. ChatGPT is often the add-on tool for text and analytics tasks, while Google continues to be the default tool for quick facts and transactional searches. For example, students use ChatGPT for creative writing tasks and use Google for literature research, while companies use ChatGPT for ideation and Google for market research.
6. Consequences for companies and content strategies
The shift in search behavior requires companies to adopt a dual strategy: Classic SEO remains important, for example for rankings on Google, but AI optimization is gaining in importance. Content must be clearly structured, trustworthy and understandable in order to be recognized and used by AI systems such as ChatGPT. Presence on community platforms and AI training data will be essential.
7. Future Outlook: Hybrid Models and AI Integration
Google is already working intensively on AI features such as the Bard chatbot, which enables conversational search. In the future, the distinction between search engine and AI assistant will blur, with hybrid systems that combine real-time data with intelligent answers. ChatGPT and other AI models are also increasingly being connected to live data, which expands the functionality.
8. Conclusion
Google remains the indispensable foundation of online search, especially for highly topical and transactional queries. ChatGPT complements search behavior with creative, contextual answers and revolutionizes the way users interact with information. The combination of both systems opens up a wide range of options for users and companies and will have a lasting impact on the future of digital research.
