Google made a big comeback in 2025, and it’s able to prove it in the most Google-y way possible.
The most searched word on Google this year was “Gemini”—the name of Google’s own AI platform. It’s a symbolic victory that captures both the scale of Google’s resurgence in artificial intelligence and the delicious irony of how we know about it. The company that many feared would be displaced by AI chatbots has instead used its search dominance to document its own renaissance in the very technology that was supposed to make search obsolete.
For the better part of two years, it appeared that OpenAI’s ChatGPT had all but run away with the generative AI market. When ChatGPT launched in late November 2022, it didn’t just capture public imagination—it captured market share with a velocity rarely seen in tech. By late 2024, ChatGPT commanded an overwhelming 87% of traffic in the generative AI space, while Google’s Gemini (then still finding its footing) held a modest 5.4%. The narrative was set: OpenAI had won the AI race, and Google, despite inventing much of the transformer technology that powers these systems, had been caught flatfooted.
But 2025 told a different story. Google’s traffic share in the generative AI space surged from 5.4% to 18.1%, while ChatGPT’s dominance eroded from 87% to 68%. That’s still a commanding lead for OpenAI, but the trajectory tells a story of momentum shifting. Google didn’t just close the gap—it did so while launching products that reminded the industry why it remains one of the world’s premier AI research organizations.
The turnaround was driven by a combination of powerful model releases and clever positioning. Google’s Nano Banana models created new paradigms for working with images. Meanwhile, powerhouse models like Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 3 Pro demonstrated that Google could compete—and in the case of the latter, exceed anything OpenAI had come up with. These weren’t just incremental improvements; they represented Google firing on all cylinders, leveraging its vast computational resources, data advantages, and deep research bench.
Perhaps most importantly, Google has navigated what many considered an existential threat to its core business. When ChatGPT burst onto the scene, the conventional wisdom held that conversational AI would replace traditional search. Why scroll through ten blue links when you could just ask an AI for a direct answer? The fear wasn’t unfounded—Google’s search monopoly generates the majority of Alphabet’s revenue, and any technology that disrupted that cash machine could bring down one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Instead, something unexpected happened. Google’s quarterly results over the past three years have shown that search usage hasn’t declined—it’s actually increased. Rather than being displaced by AI, search has evolved alongside it. Google has integrated AI-powered features into search itself, from AI Overviews that synthesize information at the top of results pages to conversational search experiences that blend traditional and generative approaches. The company turned a potential disruptor into a complement.
Now, with Gemini’s trajectory and Google’s unparalleled distribution advantages—including integration across Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Workspace, and YouTube—the company has positioned itself not just to survive the AI transformation but to potentially lead it. Google products come pre-installed on billions of devices and are embedded in tools that billions of people use daily. That kind of distribution is something no competitor, not even Microsoft with its OpenAI partnership, can easily match.
And here’s where the irony becomes almost too perfect to ignore: We know all of this because of search data. The very technology that ChatGPT was supposed to kill has instead become the tool that reveals Google’s resurgence in the AI wars. The most searched term on Google being “Gemini” is more than a data point—it’s a narrative twist. It suggests that when people want to learn about AI alternatives, they still turn to Google. When they’re curious about generative AI, they still search. And increasingly, what they’re searching for is Google’s own AI product.
This doesn’t mean the AI wars are over, or that Google has won. ChatGPT still commands more than two-thirds of the market, and OpenAI continues to innovate at a blistering pace. Anthropic’s Claude, xAI’s Grok, and other competitors are all vying for position in what remains a rapidly evolving landscape. But 2025 marked the year when Google proved it could compete in the AI era—and proved it using the very tool that was supposed to be rendered irrelevant.
There’s a lesson here about distribution, patience, and the durability of platforms. Google didn’t panic when it appeared to be behind. It didn’t abandon search in a desperate pivot to AI. Instead, it methodically built world-class models, integrated them into its existing products, and leveraged its massive user base to gain traction. The company played to its strengths, and those strengths—it turns out—were more durable than the doomsayers predicted.
So yes, Gemini was the most searched term on Google in 2025. And yes, that’s an irony-laden win for Google. But it’s also something more: a reminder that in technology, reports of giants’ deaths are often greatly exaggerated. Google entered 2025 as an AI also-ran. It’s ending the year as a legitimate contender, with a product that people are actively seeking out. And we know they’re seeking it out because, well, they Googled it.