3 years of ChatGPT: How it reshaped the world's access to the internet

ChatGPT, now three years into its existence, has rapidly evolved into the primary starting point for how hundreds of millions of users seek information online, transforming long-established digital habits and redrawing the hierarchy of the internet. It is not a search engine yet has absorbed the most-used slice of search behaviour, and it is not a browser yet has altered how people navigate websites, marking a shift significant enough to be considered a change in the internet’s architecture itself. Google remains dominant but has been forced to reinvent aspects of its ecosystem, and despite YouTube’s unchallenged cultural footprint, ChatGPT has altered how users interact with online information.

The beginning of the Shift

The shift began with everyday queries. For years, “Google it” was the default instruction for anything from comparing mobile phones to fixing a leaking tap, but ChatGPT split that behaviour by taking over the quick questions, clarifications, definitions and explainer-style searches that once drove much of Google’s traffic. Users increasingly preferred asking a chatbot that responds in plain English, delivers context, removes scrolling and bypasses advertising clutter.

This behavioural shift has accelerated a wider trend: the surge in zero-click searches. Google’s results pages have grown dense with AI overviews and monetised modules, keeping users on the platform and limiting clicks to original sources. Data from Similarweb shows a sharp decline in traffic from Google to news sites over the past year, while the share of searches ending without any click has risen from 56 percent to 69 percent. Part of this stems from Google’s own AI summaries, which often answer the question upfront; the other part is the rise of ChatGPT, which many users now consult instead of searching at all. Search engines have not been abandoned, but users are bypassing the parts that feel slow, repetitive or over-engineered. ChatGPT appeals because it absorbs vague thoughts and returns usable information without routing users through multiple links.

Accomplishing tasks

The nature of activity that users bring to ChatGPT is equally telling. Many of these tasks were never served particularly well by traditional search engines. ChatGPT’s conversational structure shapes answers around intent rather than keywords, delivering summaries, checklists or drafted messages without demanding the laborious link-skimming that defined older online habits. It does not replace deep research—though it has strengthened in that regard—but it removes friction between a question and an accessible explanation. Accuracy remains the key challenge. Google’s strength has always been transparency through multiple sources, while ChatGPT relies on a user’s ability to judge when to verify details. Yet the convenience is strong enough that it has become the default starting point for millions.

The internet library

Three years on, the deeper change is philosophical. The internet once behaved like a library: users asked, and it pointed. ChatGPT turned it into a conversation: users ask, it explains; they refine, it responds. The interaction itself has become the product. This behavioural shift—not market dominance and not the end of search—is the true disruption. People now go online to engage with information, not merely retrieve it.

Big tech companies are adapting. Google has woven Gemini into its search experience, OpenAI is moving further into browsing and multimodal tools, and Meta is pushing its open-source models across everything from phones to VR. Yet the gravitational centre has shifted toward habit rather than hardware. ChatGPT created a behaviour loop: need something explained, need context, need a script, need to test an idea—ask the chatbot. The frictionless nature of this exchange has made it the new default entry point for information.

At par with search engines?

Search engines remain crucial, YouTube remains culturally dominant, forums still solve niche problems and social platforms still drive conversations. What has changed is the order in which people approach them. Millions now begin with a chat, ask for a synthesis rather than a list of links and refine answers through follow-ups rather than multiple searches.

In just three years, the global information landscape feels markedly different. ChatGPT has not destroyed the old internet; it has reorganised it. For many users, it has become the front door.