Reddit Aims to Become a Search Engine, Unifying Its Search Interface

Reddit plans to unify its search interface as it looks to become a search engine | TechCrunch

With search today so full of AI slop and sites spamming SEO tricks, it's not unusual for people to append "reddit" to their queries in hopes of finding useful answers to their questions. Google has tried to integrate results from Reddit in its search interface, and taking notice of the trend, Reddit has been experimenting with its own AI search as well. But the company has loftier ambitions: it wants to become the go-to search engine people use. Reddit's CEO, Steve Huffman, said as much during its second-quarter conference call on Thursday: "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 noted that Reddit's search function has more than 70 million weekly users, and its AI-powered Q&A product, Reddit Answers, is now used by 6 million people. Reddit Answers is currently available in a dozen countries, and the company plans to expand it globally as well as give it prominent placement in the site's interface. The company eventually wants to unify the core search function with Reddit Answers, and redesign its app to have the search box be more prominently visible. "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. So, whether you're a new user opening the app for the first time or a returning user opening the app, that search box will be present immediately," Huffman said on the call. People are increasingly being presented chat-styled search interfaces from products like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's new AI mode. Reddit understandably believes that tapping its rich trove of user posts and comments to help people find answers will help make its search function more useful. Reddit reported a positive second quarter, with revenue jumping 78% to $500 million from a year earlier. The company launched two new ad tools, which let marketers use Reddit data to spot trends, and leverage comments about brands in their campaigns.

Reddit Shifting Towards Search as Company Wants to Become a Search Engine

You may not need to add "Reddit" to your Google searches for much longer -- now, you can go straight to the source. In his Q2 letter to shareholders, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said the company will integrate its search function with Reddit Answers, which is currently available in the US and 11 other countries, "into a single search experience." Reddit will make the search box more visible on the app, bringing it "front and center." "Whether you're a new user opening the app for the first time or returning user opening the app, that search box will be present immediately for users who open the app looking for something specific," Huffman said. "Sometimes people are opening the app with a question." This seems a natural direction for Reddit, which now has more than 70 million weekly active users on its search function and more than 6 million WAU using Reddit Answers. Huffman believes Reddit is ideally positioned in a world where people are increasingly wanting human-powered answers to searches driven by their massive amount of Reddit chats. "80% of users in a recent survey that they believe some questions can only be answered by humans as opposed to AI-generated summaries," Huffman said on the call. There does seem to be a demand for Reddit as a source of information and answers from users. Profound, a platform that helps elevate brand visibility in AI search environments, said that Reddit was the No. 1 most cited source for AI platforms Google Overviews and Perplexity, and No. 2 for ChatGPT among searches. Profound said that Reddit's percentage on Perplexity, 46.7%, showed a "strong preference for community-generated content" among searchers. Vanessa Fox, digital marketing consultant and author of Marketing in the Age of Google, called Reddit's shift toward search a wise one. "It's a smart idea as it's certainly the case that people seek out Reddit specifically when searching Google by adding 'Reddit' to their search query, and so the demand is there," Fox told CNET. "With apps becoming such a standard part of the online experience, people have gotten even more accustomed to using search experiences other than Google for specific types of content -- TikTok is an obvious example of that." In its 2025 Q2 earnings report, Reddit showed a 78% jump in revenue from the same time last year, to $500 million. Huffman said daily active users are now at 110 million, an increase of 21% from last year at this same time. Fox added that Reddit will need to be watchful for more AI spam. "When Google started featuring Reddit results more prominently in search results, spammers -- many using AI content -- flocked to Reddit and started posting in threads that already ranked well in Google, as well as creating new posts in Reddit in an attempt to use the ranking power of Reddit to show up in Google," Fox told CNET. "Reddit now has to combat that. So if this unified search is successful, they likely will have to combat even more AI content, which unfortunately is the landscape that we're in."

Reddit wants to be a search engine now

Reddit knows that it has valuable data from actual people -- it's already reached deals with big AI companies like OpenAI and Google to share its data with them. But Reddit is also investing in improving its own search capabilities, and in its latest note to investors, CEO Steve Huffman says that the company is "concentrating our resources on the areas that will drive results for our most pressing needs," including "making Reddit a go-to search engine." Huffman says that "every week, hundreds of millions of people come to Reddit looking for advice, and we're turning more of that intent into active users of Reddit's native search." Reddit's core search has more than 70 million weekly active unique users -- Reddit overall averages 416.4 million weekly active unique users -- and Reddit Answers, the platform's AI search tool that it launched in December, has 6 million weekly users, up from 1 million weekly users in the first quarter of this year. To continue to build out search, Reddit is "expanding Reddit Answers globally, integrating it more deeply into the core search experience, and making search a central feature across Reddit," Huffman says. Of course, the move to build out its own search capabilities could be a hedge against losing traffic from Google, which is increasingly finding new ways to give you answers with AI instead of providing a list of links. Appending the word "Reddit" to Google searches is a classic way to try and get information written by humans, and Reddit has seen an influx of traffic as a result. But if Google becomes a less reliable source of traffic for Reddit, the platform may need to have better search for itself. Reddit turned 20 last month, and the company is going big on AI. (In an interview at the time, CTO Chris Slowe told The Verge that the initial rollout of Reddit Answers is "going really well.") "The internet is evolving, and our role as a community-powered platform for human connection is only becoming more critical," Huffman says.

Reddit Wants to Replace Google as Your 'Go-To Search Engine'

(Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Reddit stopped being a mere community forum long ago. Its user-driven content is so valuable that many have formed a habit of adding "Reddit" at the end of their search queries. Google itself is paying $60 million a year to license the platform's content and use it for AI training. Reddit is now looking at its next act: becoming a search engine. "We're concentrating our resources on the areas that will drive results for our most pressing needs: improving the core product, making Reddit a go-to search engine, and expanding internationally," CEO Steve Huffman writes in his latest letter to shareholders. The platform is currently testing Reddit Answers, a feature that works like an AI chatbot but curates summaries exclusively from Reddit threads. For example, when we asked what the worst thing about iOS 26 is, it produced summaries of the main issues and links to threads discussing them. Reddit's core search product now has 70 million weekly users and Reddit Answers has grown to 6 million, up from 1 million last quarter, Huffman says. "Next, we're expanding Reddit Answers globally, integrating it more deeply into the core search experience, and making search a central feature across Reddit." Huffman also noted that around 60 million users land on Reddit every day. "Reddit is one of the few platforms positioned to become a true search destination," he says. "We offer something special: a breadth of conversations and knowledge you can't find anywhere else. Every week, hundreds of millions of people come to Reddit looking for advice, and we're turning more of that intent into active users of Reddit's native search." Reddit plans to unify traditional search with AI-powered Answers. "We're pairing these product updates with marketing initiatives to increase awareness and adoption of Reddit Answers worldwide," he said. For now, Answers is tucked away in the side panel. Google is leaning heavily on AI-generated results with its AI Overviews and AI Mode. Huffman, however, notes that Reddit users appreciate the human touch. A recent survey of users from the US, UK, Australian, and Canada found that around 80% "believe some questions can only be answered by humans, as opposed to AI-generated summaries," he says.

Reddit sees search business based on real conversations

Community content site aims to profit from real conversation Reddit has found that trafficking in human-authored content pays well in the AI era. And the popular internet community website sees an opportunity to make inroads in the search business, even as web search is being swallowed by generative AI. Company shares surged this week after Reddit reported $500 million in revenue for Q2 2025, a 78 percent increase. Net income reached $89 million, a welcome turnaround from a $10 million loss during Q2 2024. CEO Steve Huffman said in a statement, "Reddit is built for this moment. In a world where connection is increasingly rare, our communities show how valuable human conversation and knowledge really are." Reddit's fortunes in part can be attributed to demand from AI firms for the community site's historically human-authored posts, which they use for model training. The company's data licensing business, part of its "other revenue" line item, reached $35 million, up 24 percent year-over-year. Reddit last year struck content partnerships with OpenAI and Google. And in June this year, it sued Anthropic to halt uncompensated content scraping. Huffman, during the company's conference call for investors, acknowledged the value of content licensing along with its limits. "What we've learned since we did those deals is that the Reddit Corpus is not essential, but appears to be growing in importance to some of the largest players on the Internet," he said. Huffman expects Reddit will continue to learn how to structure its partnerships while also striving to build the best possible products on top of the Reddit Corpus - the company's content dataset. In a letter to investors [PDF], Huffman emphasized the need to tend the company's core product through initiatives to preserve human authenticity - the company is struggling to block AI spam posts. Beyond that, Reddit sees search as an opportunity, as do many other firms that expect Google to soon face a judicial order to divest Chrome as an antitrust remedy. According to Huffman, Reddit is becoming a search destination by virtue of the breadth of discussions. "Every week, hundreds of millions of people come to Reddit looking for advice, and we're turning more of that intent into active users of Reddit's native search," he told investors in his letter. "We're seeing good traction here as our core search product now has 70 million weekly users and Reddit Answers has grown to 6 million, up from 1 million last quarter." Reddit Answers is an answer to other AI firms using Reddit content without referring searchers back to Reddit: "It leverages generative AI to help find, synthesize, and deliver easy to understand answers from real posts and comments from redditors," the Reddit Answers Help Site explains. In other words, Reddit Answers uses AI to surface its community-generated content in response to a search query, rather than presenting a list of search results links. And it links back internally to the source Reddit posts. Reddit isn't taking on Google directly by trying to index the entire web. But it doesn't need to because Google's ineffective policing of web spam and AI slop has made Google Search less appealing. For the past few years, savvy internet users have suggested appending the term "reddit" to Google Search queries as a way of improving the results. And the proliferation of AI content online isn't helping. As researchers recently noted, up to 24 percent of the text in corporate press releases and 14 percent of UN press releases as of late 2024 appear to have been generated by LLMs. The result on Reddit is people asking, "Is anybody else absolutely SICK of seeing AI slop everywhere?" If Reddit can keep the AI scrapers and spambots at bay through its human verification initiative and preserve its predominantly human character, the community site is likely to continue growing as people seek out authentic human-crafted content. As Huffman observed during the earnings call, "Reddit is one of the most searched for terms on Google because users around the internet go to Google with the intention of ending up on Reddit." ®

Reddit should be a 'go-to search engine,' Steve Huffman says

The company has been working on bringing AI into its search bar. Reddit is going to be leaning even harder into search in the coming months. The company has already been working on a plan to integrate its LLM-powered search into its main search feature, but CEO Steve Huffman said he wants users to think of the site as an actual search engine. During the company's latest earnings call, Huffman said search is one of the top priorities for Reddit. "We're concentrating our resources on the areas that will drive results for our most pressing needs, improving the core product, making Reddit a go-to search engine, and expanding internationally." The idea of reddit as a search engine isn't that far-fetched. Many people are already in the habit of adding "Reddit" to traditional searches in the hopes of finding relevant threads from the site. And the company has been trying to take advantage of this with its own AI-powered search product . Though that feature is still labeled as being in "beta," the company plans to eventually add it to its default search bar. "Our focus right now is on unifying the Reddit search, like traditional search on Reddit, which is very widely used on Reddit, and the new Reddit answers product ... we're unifying those into a single search experience, and we're going to bring that front and center in the app," Huffman said. Huffman's comments come at a time when AI is increasingly for websites. It sounds like even Reddit, which has a multimillion-dollar data licensing , isn't immune from those trends either. During the call, Huffman said that Reddit's search traffic from Google "varies week to week," but that overall "it was a headwind" during the last quarter. That may help explain why Huffman is so eager to make Reddit itself a search destination, even as the company continues to license its data to AI companies. "AI doesn't invent knowledge," he said. "It learns from us; from real people, sharing real perspectives."

Reddit Wants to Be a Real Search Engine

Reddit is planning to unify its traditional site search and "Reddit Answers" AI tool, and give it more prominent placement in the site and mobile apps. The company is hoping to become more of a first destination for information searches, instead of Google or other search engines standing in the way. The company is actively building on the explosive growth of its AI-powered tool, Reddit Answers. The plan is to fully unify Reddit's core search function, which already has more than 70 million weekly users, with the Reddit Answers tool. Unfortunately, that means Reddit will probably pester you with AI searches right on the homepage. This sounds a lot like Google's AI overview, except Google sometimes gets its information from credible sites that do research, while a lot of Reddit information comes from opinions and guesses. A common meme is that if you post a question on Reddit asking for an expert or professional, many of your comments will start with 'not a [professional] but,' and then the best guess or an experience. Still, this may not be that big of a change from Google's own search. A Semrush study claimed that Reddit is now the second most-cited source in Google's own AI-generated summaries. Reddit may not like that, because while it's good to be linked in the AI overview, it's a bit of a double-edged sword. Google's new AI Overviews give direct answers and summaries, so users might not feel the need to click through to the original source anymore. This traffic cannibalization is a huge risk, and some top news sites saw a drop in Google Search traffic after the feature launched. This may be why Reddit wants to move away from being used by Google and have its own search. If you've never used it, the Reddit Answers AI tool makes concise summaries and gives direct answers from the discussions on the platform instead of using keywords to find a discussion. While it gives you a summary, it links back to the original threads, so you can get the full context if you want to. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman explained, "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. So, whether you're a new user opening the app for the first time or a returning user opening the app, that search box will be present immediately." Huffman made it pretty clear during the Reddit second-quarter conference call that the company believes it's one of the few platforms positioned to become a "true search destination." This is because of the "breadth of conversations and knowledge you can't find anywhere else." Reddit seems to have been moving toward this goal for a while. The company updated its web protocols to give paying partners exclusive access while blocking crawlers from competitors like Microsoft's Bing. So it sounds like Reddit doesn't want to keep being the place you end up at, but instead be the search engine you start with. Source: Reddit, TechCrunch

Reddit wants to be your new search engine

Reddit, like nearly every major tech company right now, is going all-in on AI, and its next big bet is transforming itself into a full-blown search engine. That's straight from Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. According to TechCrunch, Huffman told investors during the company's latest earnings call on Thursday: "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." He's not wrong. For years, internet users have added "reddit" to the end of their Google searches to filter past SEO sludge and find real human answers. The habit became so widespread that Google eventually baked Reddit content directly into its search results. But Reddit doesn't want to be drowned out by Google's AI search push -- it wants to be the answer. Like Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft, the company is focusing on "its own" AI-driven search experience. That effort centers around the website's search function and Reddit Answers, an AI-assisted tool that is powered by Gemini AI, according to Google. Reddit Answers, which now serves 6 million users and is being tested in a dozen countries, functions much like ChatGPT, offering conversational, in-depth responses to user queries by pulling from the platform's massive archive of discussions. Instead of simply returning links or posts, it aims to synthesize answers in a more natural, AI-driven format. The company plans to combine Reddit Answers with its core search function and redesign the app so the search bar takes center stage. According to Huffman, global expansion is on the way. "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 said in the call. It's all part of Reddit's broader push to consolidate its user base and keep people on the platform, while also turning a solid profit. In Q2, the company reported a massive 78 percent revenue jump year-over-year, pulling in $500 million.

Reddit Wants to Replace Google as the Internet's Top Search Engine. Investors Are All In

Reddit is already one of the most visited social media sites on the internet. Now the company is looking to parlay that popularity into search engine dominance. "The world and the Internet are rapidly changing, and I believe Reddit has a once-in-a-generation opportunity," said CEO Steve Huffman on an earnings call Thursday. Reddit, Huffman added, has seen its search function used by over 70 million users per week. And a growing number of people outside of the site affix Reddit to their search query when using Google (either by just including the word "Reddit" to whatever they're looking for or using the site:reddit.com parameter). That's leading the company to focus more on its own search tools, with plans to make them a much more visible part of the Reddit experience. "Reddit is one of the few platforms positioned to become a true search destination," Huffman said. "We offer something special, a breadth of conversations and knowledge you can't find anywhere else. ... This is under heavy development for us right now, and we hope to get that out before too long in the hands of users." Investors couldn't be happier. While Wall Street, on the whole, is having a miserable Friday (dragged down by tariff concerns and an especially gloomy jobs report), Reddit shares were up more than 20 percent in mid-day trading to $194 per share. That followed the company blowing past analyst expectations in its second-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. Earnings per share came in at 45 cents, compared to an expected 19 cents, while revenue hit $500 million (versus an expected $426 million). The company also said third-quarter revenue will be in the range of $535 million to $545 million, ahead of Wall Street estimates of $473 million. The focus now, Huffman said, is to concentrate its resources on things that matter -- with "making Reddit a go-to search engine" listed as one of the company's top priorities. That will mean bringing together the traditional Reddit search functionality and Reddit Answers, an AI-powered chatbot that digs into most of the threads on the site (it skips some, but not all, NSFW subreddits) for its answers. That AI product is now used by 6 million people, the company said, up from 1 million last quarter. "We're unifying those into a single search experience," said Huffman. "We're going to bring that front and center in the app. So, whether you're a new user opening the app for the first time or returning user opening the app, that search box will be present immediately for users who open the app looking for something specific." Reddit's obsession with search isn't a new thing. Last October, the company said search was "a key part of the strategy" moving forward. Huffman, at the time, called the relationship with Google "symbiotic" and some investors worried the company could be overly reliant on the Alphabet-owned search engine. Now he seems more eager to both continue exploiting that bond while also increasing Reddit's competitive threat. Google is hardly the only company Reddit will have to compete with in its search ambitions. OpenAI announced plans to get into the search business at the end of last October. Perplexity's Comet browser is already on the market. And Meta has confirmed it is working on a web search tool in its AI assistant, called Meta AI, which could offer that company some independence from Google and Bing. While Reddit's search will include AI components, the company hopes to differentiate itself from the coming wave of AI search engines by highlighting the human component. "Conversation and connection are becoming more valuable and rare," said Huffman. "In a world increasingly dominated by algorithms and automation, the need for human voices has never been greater." The final deadline for the 2025 Inc. Power Partner Awards is Friday, August 8, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

Reddit Wants to Rival Google With Its Own Search Engine

Reddit as a search engine can become a reliable source of information if Google ever turns into a diluted AI mess. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has recently expressed interest in expanding the website into its own search engine, as demand for human-written answers is increasing amid the abundance of AI-generated content. The CEO stated in its second-quarter earnings report that Reddit is "concentrating our resources on the areas that will drive results for our most pressing needs," which also includes "making Reddit a go-to search engine." As a result, the platform is expanding its AI search tool called Reddit Answers globally to more regions. The platform celebrated its 20th anniversary last month, and now, it plans to deeply integrate Reddit Answers into the general experience. Expanding Reddit as a search engine is an optimistic thought on Huffman's part, given the rising demand for genuine answers from real people these days. Google is taking blue links out of the equation, serving answers through AI Overviews and the new AI Mode. But Reddit building its own search could hurt the traffic the service gets from Google. According to the earnings report, the platform sees 416.4 million weekly active unique users, and a good chunk of it is coming from Google. So, going against the search giant doesn't sound like a wise decision, but it can be a good alternative to offer if Google ever becomes too diluted with AI to be considered unreliable. What do you think about Reddit's search engine? Would you want to use it? Let us know in the comments below.

Reddit could be the next big search engine

Reddit is sharing ambitions to become the next top search engine. Already, millions of people use Reddit as an online forum to get feedback and help from real users, and a lot of Google searches see the word "Reddit" placed after a search term nowadays to ensure a real discussion and response. In a new note to investors, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman writes that Reddit is "concentrating our resources on the areas that will drive results for our most pressing needs," which includes "making Reddit a go-to search engine." "Every week, hundreds of millions of people come to Reddit looking for advice, and we're turning more of that intent into active users of Reddit's native search," Huffman continued. Reddit Answers will be expanded globally, making it more of a core feature in searches. Even if adding Reddit to your searches gets you human results, a lot of people are still using Google and its new AI for their answers, meaning Reddit is wanting to take the next step up.