Reddit needs to be a ‘go-to search engine,’ Steve Huffman says

Reddit goes to be leaning even more durable into search within the coming months. The corporate has already been engaged on a plan to combine its LLM-powered search into its important search characteristic, however CEO Steve Huffman stated he needs customers to think about the location as an precise search engine.

Throughout the firm’s newest earnings name, Huffman stated search is likely one of the high priorities for Reddit. “We’re concentrating our assets on the areas that may drive outcomes for our most urgent wants, bettering the core product, making Reddit a go-to search engine, and increasing internationally.”

The concept of reddit as a search engine is not that far-fetched. Many individuals are already within the behavior of including “Reddit” to conventional searches within the hopes of discovering related threads from the location. And the corporate has been attempting to benefit from this with its personal AI-powered search product . Although that characteristic continues to be labeled as being in “beta,” the corporate plans to ultimately add it to its default search bar.

“Our focus proper now could be on unifying the Reddit search, like conventional search on Reddit, which could be very broadly used on Reddit, and the brand new Reddit solutions product … we’re unifying these right into a single search expertise, and we will carry that entrance and middle within the app,” Huffman stated.

Huffman’s feedback come at a time when AI is more and more for web sites. It appears like even Reddit, which has a multimillion-dollar knowledge licensing , is not immune from these developments both. Throughout the name, Huffman stated that Reddit’s search site visitors from Google “varies week to week,” however that general “it was a headwind” over the last quarter.

That will assist clarify why Huffman is so desirous to make Reddit itself a search vacation spot, at the same time as the corporate continues to license its knowledge to AI firms. “AI does not invent data,” he stated. “It learns from us; from actual individuals, sharing actual views.”