Google CEO Sundar Pichai responds to Apple senior VP Eddy Cue's claims on Safari Search's 22-year low
CEO
has directly disputed recent claims by
senior vice president of services,
Eddy Cue
, who said in a testimony that Apple saw a decline in Safari search volumes for the first time in 22 years.
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During a recent interview, Pichai countered the statement, saying that the company is "seeing overall query growth in search."
"Look, we've been very clear. We are seeing overall query growth in search," Pichai said in an interview with The Verge.
When pressed specifically about a drop in Safari, he stated, "Look, we have a comprehensive view of how we look at data across the board. There's a lot of, there can be a lot of noise in search data, but everything we see tells us we are seeing query growth including across Apple's devices and platforms."
It is to be noted that Cue said Apple is considering revamping Safari's search feature to incorporate more
AI features
. He blamed an increase in AI searches.
Pichai further quantified query growth from AI Overviews, noting that "the query growth is continuing to grow over time."
Pichai also issued a challenge to other companies in the Search space on "sending traffic to the web".
"I would challenge, I think more than any other company, we think about, we prioritise sending traffic to the web.
No one sends traffic to the web in the way we do," he said.
"I look at other companies, newer emerging companies, they openly talk about it as something they're not going to do, right? We are the only ones which make it a high priority," he claimed.
Pichai draws Search growth parallel with YouTube's rise
Pichai characterised the competitive landscape as "very far from a zero sum game." He drew a parallel to the emergence of TikTok, asking, "How has YouTube done since TikTok has come, right? You could ask all these questions there.
Like why is it that TikTok comes and YouTube has grown?"
Pichai concluded by suggesting that observers often "underestimate in these moments... people are engaging more, doing more with it. We are improving our products."
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