Search isn’t shrinking, but its role in the purchase funnel is changing.

People are searching in fundamentally different ways, using cameras, conversations, and keywords to find what they want. At the same time, discovery is happening before many searches, as recommendation engines curate content and help people develop preferences before they ever type a query.

The searches marketers see may be less about discovering what to buy and more about confirming a decision that’s already taking shape. Those earlier stages are difficult to observe, so the activity that helped someone develop a preference can disappear from the purchase path.