During a recent second-quarter conference call, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman stated that the platform has ambitions to become a go-to search engine. He believes that with search results often cluttered with AI-generated content and SEO-optimized spam, Reddit is uniquely positioned to offer valuable, human-sourced answers.
“Reddit is one of the few platforms positioned to become a true search destination. We offer something special, a breadth of conversations and knowledge you can’t find anywhere else,” Huffman said.
Unifying Search and AI Answers
Huffman revealed that Reddit’s search function currently has over 70 million weekly users, while its AI-powered Q&A product, Reddit Answers, is used by 6 million people. The company plans to merge these two features into a single, unified search experience.
The plan involves expanding Reddit Answers, which is currently available in a dozen countries, to a global audience, and giving the search box a more prominent position within the site’s app interface.
“We’re unifying those [Reddit search and Reddit Answers] into a single search experience, and we’re gonna bring that front and center in the app,” Huffman stated. This new design will ensure the search box is immediately visible to both new and returning users.
Strong Financial Performance Supports Growth
The CEO’s ambitious plan is backed by a strong second quarter, which saw the company’s revenue jump by 78% year-over-year to $500 million. To further its growth, Reddit has also launched two new ad tools that allow marketers to analyze Reddit data to spot trends and incorporate user comments into their campaigns.
This push into search comes as platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s new AI mode are making conversational, chat-style search interfaces increasingly common. By leveraging its vast archive of user discussions, Reddit aims to make its search function a more useful and trusted tool for people seeking authentic information.
What The Author Thinks
The move by Reddit to rebrand itself as a search engine is a smart and necessary evolution. In an internet saturated with low-quality, algorithm-generated content, the demand for genuine, human-powered recommendations and insights has never been higher. People already use Reddit this way, appending “reddit” to their search queries to filter out the noise. By officially leaning into this role and enhancing its own search capabilities with AI, the company is not just competing with Google; it’s offering a fundamentally different value proposition—a search experience built on real community and trust, which might just be what the internet needs right now.
Featured image credit: Jeff via Flickr
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