Google, Meta, and Microsoft continue in their race to capture dedicated users for search and AI services and engines, competing with newcomers OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic, Mistral and many others for market share.

New Street Research surveyed 263 U.S. consumers on a census-weighted basis for their search and AI chatbot usage habits, noting that the analyst firm follows stocks of Google’s parent company Alphabet and Facebook’s parent company Meta.

Survey results showed Google retains a lead among U.S. users for default search settings among both Android and iOS users — at 71% and 81%, respectively.

DuckDuckGo achieved a score of 9% overall, with 14% on Android and 7% on iOS. Yahoo followed with an overall score of 6%, with 6% on Android and 6% on iPhone.

Bing had an overall score of 4%, with 5% on Android and 3% on iOS.

Microsoft Bing had 4% of respondents, but the survey was completed prior to this week’s announcement that the company added reasoning, vision and voice to its AI platform.

The study also shows that AI chatbots have highly competitive adoption rates, and not only ChatGPT and Meta AI. In the survey, Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp AI are attributed to parent company Meta.

As more consumers consult with chatbots on what to purchase, especially as gifts, it will become more important for brands to carefully consider the platforms to best place ads and content. 

New Street Research found through the study that more males than females have asked an AI chatbot to help research or decide on a purchase in the past 30 days. Male respondents were much more likely to report having used an AI chatbot to research a purchase at 74%, compared with female respondents at 45%.

When asked to cite which chatbots were used on a mobile phone in the past 30 days by operating system, 48% overall cited ChatGPT, while 54% of users cited iPhone, and 32% cited Android.

Some 45% overall cited Meta AI, with 48% of users citing iPhone and 38% citing Android.

Snapchat My AI entered this data set with a percentage score of 35%, with 37% of users citing iPhone and 30% citing Android.

Google Gemini came in at No. 4, with a score of 30% overall — 28% for iPhone and 36% for Android.

Claude AI, Perplexity AI, and Mistral AI trailed behind Google Gemini for mobile, and Microsoft did not rank for mobile phones.  

New Street Research found Google continues to lead in use for search but lags in AI use, and more males than females ask AI chatbots for help when trying to determine what to purchase.