OpenAI Develops Web Search Product To Challenge Google, Prompting Alphabet Stock To Slip

Alphabet's stocks slipped after OpenAI developed a new web search product to challenge Google's long-held position of being the king of search engines.

Various reports suggest that the potential new OpenAI product could be at least partially built around Microsoft's Bing search engine, which would more likely give the under-used alternative a little extra life.

OpenAI's Potential Search Engine Product

(Photo : MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP) (MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images)
OpenAI is reportedly working on a search engine product to challenge Google's monopoly and its title of king of search engines, causing Alphabet stocks to slip.

Microsoft has already been incorporating OpenAI elements into several of its own products, including Bing. This means that it is no surprise that the OpenAI and Bing connection would further expand to an outright search engine.

A potential search engine by OpenAI is expected to cut into Google's 90% share of the search market as it currently stands. However, while the news is certainly a blow to Google, it is hardly out of the fight for the top spot.

Its own work with artificial intelligence has produced significant results, starting with the Gemini 1.5 upgrade to its already available roster of AI operations. Additionally, Gemini 1.5 is capable of analyzing a huge quantity of content at once, as per TipRanks.

The CEO of Google's DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, said that this is an exciting time for AI as new advances in the field have the potential to make the technology more helpful for billions of people over the coming years.

Hassabis added that since the introduction of Gemini 1.0 in December 2023, they have been testing, refining, and enhancing its capabilities. Amid OpenAI's alleged efforts into a search engine product, Microsoft has gained little U.S. market share in internet searches last year.

The latest news caused GOOGL stock to fall 2.2% to close at 142.77, pushing Google stock closer to its 50-day moving average. However, investors should look for a bounce off the 50-day line and if that happens, GOOGL stock may be actionable once more, according to Investors.

Challenging Google's Monopoly

Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was bullish about Bing's AI potential, and following the launch of the AI technology, he called Google the 800-pound gorilla in search. He also said that he wanted everyone to know that Microsoft was able to make its arch-rival "dance."

However, the tech giant's early versions of its AI Bing chat suffered some unexpected issues as users complained that the chatbot was engaging in "unhinged" conversations. This prompted the company to limit the length of chats to address the issue.

Prior to OpenAI's alleged search engine product, there were many products that launched bringing the hype of the title of "Google killer." These include Blekko, Cuil, Neeva, and many others, but ultimately, they fail to deliver.

Checking the numbers, Google got an estimated 84.2 billion visits while ChatGPT got an estimated 1.6 billion in December last year.

This comparison shows how far the artificial intelligence company has to go in order to have even a small fighting chance of overtaking Google as the king of search engines, particularly in the modern era where the words search engine and Google are sometimes considered one and the same, said SearchEngineLand.