For the first time ever, Google searches on Safari declined last month, as mentioned by Apple’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, during Wednesday’s session of Google’s antitrust trial. Cue noted that such a dip is unprecedented in the past 22 years.
Cue attributed this decline to the increasing popularity of AI, something Apple is contemplating integrating into Safari. The adoption of AI-driven search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot might lead users to drift away from using Google as their main source for information.
Currently, Google compensates Apple approximately $20 billion to maintain Google as the default search engine on Safari, making a fall in search volumes potentially financially significant for Apple. Cue admitted losing sleep over considering Apple’s contingency plans without the revenue from Google Search.
The Verge reached out to Google with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
