Google faces threat that could destroy its business

Google faces threat that could destroy its business originally appeared on TheStreet.

In the early 2000s, Google  (GOOGL)  was just finding its footing among internet users who enjoyed it for its ease of use.

It quickly outgrew its competitors, and by the mid-2000s, the verb "Google" was born, acting as an predictor of the search engine's future dominance.

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What started as just a search engine became much, much more as Google continued to develop as a company. In 2006, it launched the suite that would eventually become Workplace, which eventually drew millions of businesses to use it for their own needs.

That same year, it also bought YouTube, and by adding the video sharing platform into its business model, it gained another enormously valuable property to add to its portfolio.

Related: Google’s quiet AI win spells trouble for Amazon

Today, billions of people across the globe use Google's wide range of products every day. Alphabet  (GOOGL) , Google's parent company, holds a rare spot as one of the magnificent seven stocks known for its high level of influence.

Simply put, it's hard to imagine a world where Google doesn't have enormous sway. And while the company isn't going anywhere, it's now facing the biggest threat to its business model that it's had to contend with in a very long time.

Zero-click searches and AI

As the AI boom continues to transform the landscape of the tech world, a new type of user behavior has begun to gain popularity on the web.

It's called zero-click search, and it means a person searches for something and gets the answer they want without clicking a single link. There are several reasons for this, including the AI Overview section that Google has added to the top of many search result pages.

This isn't a bad thing, but what's interesting is why Google is leaning into AI Overview in the first place: millions of people are opening ChatGPT instead of Google to search for the things they want to know.

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This makes sense, as large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT deliver answers based on an enormous amount of information scraped from the internet, so asking it versus Googling saves you a lot of time.

Rather than click through web results looking for the answer to your query, an LLM can do that across a massive amount of information, condense and highlight the best of it, and reply within a few seconds.

This is why billions of people flock to ChatGPT every month—and why its newest announcement presents a big problem for Google.

Big AI names enter the search business

On July 9, Reuters exclusively reported that OpenAI would soon launch its own web browser to challenge Google Chrome's dominance.

If people behave the same way with the new browser as they do with ChatGPT's app, 500 million weekly active users would rush to it instead of Google for their search needs.

That could translate to a big drop in search traffic, a problem Google is already dealing with. According to a document reported by Search Engine Land, executives were already discussing and preparing for the drop last year.

Perplexity also announced its web browser, Comet, on the same day. For now, it's only available to Perplexity Max subscribers and has an invite-only waitlist that interested parties can sign up for.

As these new products reshape the search landscape, OpenAI especially has a chance to take away something that has belonged to Google alone for a long time. It's hard to say how the situation will develop next, but one thing is sure: Google needs to move fast because one of its biggest businesses is in danger.

Related: OpenAI makes shocking move amid fierce competition, Microsoft problems

Google faces threat that could destroy its business first appeared on TheStreet on Jul 10, 2025

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jul 10, 2025, where it first appeared.