Google Search is collapsing, a series of startups want to become the new generation of Google

Startup Bets on the Collapse of Traditional Google Search

A new crop of startups is betting on the rapid demise of traditional Google search. At least a dozen companies are pouring millions of dollars into software to help brands prepare for a world where customers no longer browse the web but instead rely on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI chatbots.

These startups are developing tools to help businesses understand how AI chatbots collect information and learn how to direct them to brands to appear in AI searches. This is the search engine optimization (SEO) skill of the next chapter of the internet.

Andrew Yan, co-founder of Athena, says companies have spent the last 10 or 20 years SEOing their websites for the '10 blue links' version of Google. That version of Google is changing very quickly and will change forever.

Companies large and small are scrambling to figure out how AI tools are handling their online content creation. Many say they are rapidly gaining new customers. This interest is an early sign that AI is transforming search, and companies are trying to stay ahead of the changes.

Andrew Yan left Google's search team earlier this year, deciding that Google Search wasn't the future. Athena launched last month with $2.2 million in funding from Y Combinator and other venture firms.

Athena's software looks closely at different AI models to determine how each model finds information relevant to a brand. The software can track differences in how the models talk about a given brand and suggest ways to optimize web content for AI. The company currently has more than 100 customers worldwide.

Google's response

Google executives don't expect traditional search to disappear. Google, which handles 90% of the world's online searches, has been working to bring Google AI Overview features to its search engine and predicts people will continue to use it alongside other tools like Gemini.

However, Google has come under competitive pressure from OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI upstarts that threaten its core business, and the company risks losing traffic and advertising revenue if users switch to AI-driven alternatives.

Compared to traditional search, chatbot queries are often longer and more complex, requiring chatbots to gather information from multiple sources at once and synthesize it for users. AI models search in different ways, one platform might pull information from a company website, while another relies more on third-party content.

Leading startups want to become the next generation of Google Search

Among the startups helping businesses navigate that complexity, Profound has raised more than $20 million from venture capital firms including Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures.

The company is building a platform that tracks and analyzes multiple inputs that influence how AI chatbots communicate brand-related information.

James Cadwallader, co-founder of Profound, says they see a future of a clickless internet where consumers only interact with interfaces like ChatGPT and agents or bots become the primary visitors to websites.

The value of these companies is still tiny compared to the traditional SEO industry, which was estimated at around $90 billion last year. But SEO consultant Cyrus Shepard says AI visibility now takes up 10% to 15% of his time and hopes to reach half by the end of the year.

Clerk, a company that sells technology to software developers, partnered with startup Scrunch AI to analyze AI search traffic. From January to June, the company saw a 9% increase in platform signups from AI searches.

Chris Andrew, co-founder of Scrunch, believes that corporate websites don't need to disappear, but 90% of human traffic will disappear as AI becomes the primary intermediary between users and online information.

Quoc Duong