Some years back, I was trying to decide whether Facebook/Meta or Google/Alphabet’s business was more durable as an investment. I ultimately came to the conclusion that search was more durable than social media. Being the yellow pages of the internet seemed like a prime position and attempts by Microsoft/Bing and others had seemed to have no impact on Google’s market share because usage behaviors had become ingrained when Google was so much better than anyone else. Even when some competitors had caught up to Google in terms of quality of search results, people didn’t seem to switch their behaviors. Some valuable search terms still commanded $10-$20 per click or more. Social media engagement on the other hand seemed more fickle. Facebook’s popularity had seemed to reach saturation and was loosing its cool factor amongst younger folk. Luckily Zuck had the foresight to purchase Instagram but it seemed just a matter of time until engagement started waning there as a younger generation moved on to the next cool thing. I don’t know where Google goes from here. It’s early days but I already see consumers switching their behaviors to Perplexity and others. @pitdesi you’re right that it requires cannibalizing the goose that lays golden eggs but I guess if you don’t cannibalize yourself, your competitors will? I think I got it wrong in choosing Google over Facebook. (Partly due to the Zuck factor). As with most things, the existential risk is not obvious and usually comes from left field. Investing is hard…