For years, we’ve said it… Hell! We’ve built a ‘search’ marketing agency built on this idea: search is no longer a platform, it’s a behaviour. In 2025, ‘Search’ doesn’t just live inside Google’s box. It happens wherever people seek information, whereever they head to for entertainment, wherever they actively spend time online - think short videos, communities, creators, and conversations.

And now, even Google agrees.

In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, Liz Reid, Google’s Head of Search, described a fundamental behavioural shift in how people discover information.

It’s the clearest public acknowledgement yet from Google that “Search Everywhere”, AKA a world where discovery is distributed across ecosystems,  is not just happening; it’s shaping their internal roadmap when it comes to search.

1. “There’s a Behavioural Shift Happening"

Reid (via WSJ’s Bold Names) didn’t talk about algorithms or AI as the main disruptors. She talked about people.

“There’s a behavioral shift that is happening in conjunction with the move to AI,” she explained. “People are going to short-form video, to forums, to user-generated content a lot more than traditional sites. This is particularly true with younger users.”

That single line embodies the Search Everywhere worldview: discovery has fragmented, attention has decentralised, search democratised. Why? Well, it's because authority has moved into the hands of creators, communities, and new content formats.

Reid goes further:

“We have to respond to who users want to hear from... We are in the business of both giving them high-quality information and information that they seek out.”

That’s Google explicitly acknowledging that intent is no longer confined to web queries, it’s expressed through behaviour, culture, and content choices across multiple platforms.

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2. From Ranking Pages to Surfacing People

Reid’s framing represents a cultural shift: search is becoming about people, not pages.

“People still want to hear from other people. They’re not ready to delegate all their fashion advice or travel inspiration to a model... It’s special to hear from somebody that you connect to, that you relate to, their unique take on something.”

This quote dismantles the old idea that “search” is a purely technical exercise, whilst also supporting our approach to the AI/LLM based-discovery of the future. It’s got to be human-led, context-driven, and emotionally anchored. Ultimately, whether this information is aggregated by a Google SERP or an AI/LLM response - Reid echoes our belief that connection, or preference, will be developed through authority, trustworthiness and relevance that is best evidenced by human-led activations across the search universe, across search everywhere. 

It’s also why Reid says Google’s goal is to “bridge them together”, combining quick AI answers with deeper, human-created perspectives

3. Expansion, Not Decline.

One of Reid’s most interesting arguments is that this isn’t the death of search, it’s its expansion. A point I have learned from SEMrush research and use as evidence in my recent talks and seminars. 

“This is really an expansionary moment, where the number of people who will ask questions, the amount of questions that people will ask overall, everywhere, is growing tremendously... Both Google can grow very successfully, and other people can grow successfully.”

It backs up what Search Everywhere has always stood for  in our minds, discovery doesn’t take from one place to give to another; it expands the whole ecosystem. It creates a thriving search universe.

Your TikTok SEO effort doesn’t “steal” searches from Google; it expands the behaviour of discovery, education… searching itself.

Reid even reframes competition as co-growth. Almost championing how it’s Google’s job to lower friction so that more searching happens everywhere.

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4. Discoverability Beyond the Web

Reid explains how Google is adapting to this shift: Integrating videos, forums, podcasts, and UGC into results. We’ve seen this in changes to SERP feeds and additions to SERP filter options. 

Google has even allowed users to select specific ‘trusted sources’ that the search engine can serve to users. This gives users more control over trusted sources and creators.

Furthermore, we have seen the development of further discovery surfaces like AI Overviews, Discover, and (again) Top Stories personalisation to connect users to creators they follow.

That’s essentially Google building a multi-format discovery layer, the aggregators of multi-faceted search, aligning directly with Search Everywhere’s idea that visibility via rankings is no longer enough - and that true ‘Search’ success relies on cross-platform presence, not just blue-links on a SERP, not just ‘traditional’ rankings.

5. “Search Is Human Again”‍

Perhaps the most telling quote from Reid comes near the end of the interview:

“People want content from that human perspective. They want that sense of, ‘What’s the unique thing you bring to it?’”

That’s the core of everything Search Everywhere® has been proposing since our inception. The acknowledgment that as AI makes information abundant, human originality, authenticity, and depth become the new authority signals.

In this world, brand, social and search will need to collaborate more than ever to achieve ‘search everywhere’ success and facilitate brand growth - you can explore why we need to break traditional silos between these teams and how to do that here. 

Conclusion: The Confirmation Moment

Reid’s statements mark a pivotal moment: Google, for the first time, is publicly describing the same behavioral shift that we at Deviation have been building our proposition against for the last 18 months. 

Search Everywhere® isn’t just a prediction anymore. In fact, I will lean on a WWE reference here… Search Everywhere isn’t a prediction… It’s a spoiler. In fact, it’s happening inside Google’s own product philosophy.

When the company that defined search starts redesigning its core experience around behaviour, not just queries, the message is clear:

Search has left the confines of the 'Google' box.

Discovery is now a cultural behaviour.

And every brand, creator, and strategist needs to meet people where that behaviour lives. AKA you need ‘Search Everywhere’.

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Work With Deviation | The Search Everywhere® Agency

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Search may have left the confines of the 'Google' box, but let's face it most brands haven’t.

If you want to understand what Search Everywhere® really means for your visibility, your content, and your organic revenue growth, let’s explore it together.

Drop us a line.

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