CANADA, March 2023 - For most web users in Canada, search is a daily activity, but traditional search engines are not their only choice. GetApp, in its recent survey, explores how web users in Canada look for information online, including their use of social media platforms for search.

Most web users in Canada use search daily

The study surveyed more than 1,000 Canadian web users who perform online searches at least once a month, where it was revealed that 78% search for information online once a day or more, 21% of whom conduct more than 10 searches per day.

Most Canadians search for information using their smartphones, with 38% of respondents indicating it's their preferred device. Laptops and desktop computers are also popular search devices, with 31% and 24% of respondents, respectively.

While voice search has become more accessible through smartphones and virtual assistants, it wasn't a popular way to search, with only 4% of respondents saying it was their first choice, compared with the 92% who said they preferred to type their query into a text box.

Less than 10% prefer search engines other than Google

When choosing a search engine, Google reigns supreme; 92% of respondents said it was their preferred search provider. Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo were preferred by less than 3% each. Despite search functionality being common across digital platforms, the majority of respondents (59%) said they exclusively use web search engines to find information online, while 38% also search using social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.

Even amongst users who used both web-based and social media platforms to search, web search engines were still preferred by a majority. Relevance and the trustworthiness of the search results were the main factors that led users who searched on both platforms to prefer search engines over social media.

The most popular social media search engine is YouTube

83% of those who conduct social media searches use YouTube, with Facebook and Instagram following at 67% and 45%, respectively.

There are some types of search queries that users prefer to carry out on social media, however. 30% of web users prefer to use social media platforms to find tutorial content, and over a quarter (26%) prefer using social media to find celebrity or influencer-related gossip.

The survey also found that video is a highly valuable medium for web searchers, with 37% of respondents saying they search using a video platform. Of those, 68% search for video at least once a day, with YouTube being the most popular platform for consuming video content (76%), followed by Instagram (15%) and TikTok (9%).

“Web-based search engines have been around longer than social media platforms have, so it makes sense that 92% of respondents prefer, and are perhaps used to, typing queries into a search box,” said Tessa Anaya, analyst for this study. “However, social media is being used as a search engine by a significant number of internet users as well, especially for niche topics like celeb gossip and gaming. Although Google is still a top choice, niche marketers should not count out the popularity of social media searches.”