Meta's Ditching Google Search - Here's Why It Matters

Thank you to Dean Hardy-White for sharing his insight in our knowledge base.

Meta's building their own AI search engine. And no, this isn't just another tech giant making noise - this is actually a big deal.

Right now, when you ask Meta's AI chatbot anything about current events (whether you're on WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook), it has to phone home to Google or Bing for answers. Meta's apparently tired of this arrangement, and honestly, who can blame them?

The Real Story

Meta's basically paying their competitors (Google and Microsoft) every time someone asks their AI a question about what's happening in the world. They are effectively asking their competition for permission to talk to their own customers.

But building a search engine is a massive undertaking. Google's been at this for 25 years.

What's Actually Going On

Meta's plan seems pretty straightforward: they're building a web crawler that'll feed into their AI chatbot. Instead of asking Google "hey, what's happening in tech today?" their AI will just... know.

Something caught my eye last week that makes even more sense now: Meta signed a deal with Reuters to use their news content. They're locking down the data they need to make it work.

Why This Actually Matters

Let's break this down:

1. Meta's sick of paying Google and Microsoft

2. Every major AI player wants to own their data pipeline

3. The search game is changing

The Messy Part

Nobody's talking about the elephant in the room: web scraping. To build a search engine, you need data. And grabbing data from across the web isn't as simple as it sounds - there are real questions about copyright and fair compensation.

The content creators and news organisations are getting tired (understatement) of their work being used to train AI models without getting paid. Meta's Reuters deal shows they know this is a problem they need to solve.

What I Think

This is bigger than just search. Meta's making a play for independence. They want to control their entire AI stack, from the data that trains their models to the answers they give users.

But here's my question: can they pull it off? Building a good search engine isn't just hard - it's incredibly hard. Google's spent decades and billions of dollars getting it right.

What's Next

I'll be watching for a few things:

• How accurate is Meta's search compared to Google?

• Will they strike more deals with news organisations?

• How will this change the way we use Meta's apps?

One thing's for sure - the search wars just got more interesting. And for once, that might actually be good for users.