Google searches for lost, young users

The Future. Even though Google is still the king of search with 90% of the market share, platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Amazon are starting to attract younger users. So, Google is fighting back with an ad campaign about becoming a “smarter internetter” targeted at Gen Z. While Google’s push to educate on better online literacy is a noble one, it may be aimed at the wrong crowd.

Greetings, internetters
After an internal Google report found that 40% of people 18-24 prefer to use TikTok or Instagram for search, the tech giant wants its thunder back.

• Per Fast Company, Google is rolling out a new marketing campaign called “Let’s Internet Better,” which features a series of 15-second animated videos encouraging people to become “smarter internetters.”
• The videos tackle issues like misinformation, con artists, and online catfishing, and even teach skills like how to reverse-image search (using Google, of course)
• Each video is a riff of the “The More You Know” TV PSAs from the 80s, with titles like “Did someone just buy the sun?” and “Should you put slugs on your face?”

Time is TikToking
The goal is for the videos to capture the “tone, humor, and aesthetics” that will pique Gen Z interest. And to ensure it gets those eyeballs, Google has enlisted TikTok creators like Antonio Baldwin and Alexia Del Valle to help push the videos and make some content of their own.

But according to data from the Federal Trade Commission, it’s actually older groups that fall for scams and misinformation more than Gen Z. Researchers at McKinsey say that Gen Z is “very comfortable with collecting and cross-referencing many sources of information.” I mean, this is the generation that came up with the satirical “Birds Aren’t Real” movement. You truly have to understand the internet to pull that off.