Ahead of Apple's WWDC, BrightEdge Data Reveals Mobile AI Web Search Remains Open Frontier

Core Insights - BrightEdge reveals a significant disparity in user engagement with AI-powered search engines, with over 90% of referral traffic coming from desktop users [1][2] - The mobile web search landscape remains largely untouched by AI, despite the massive adoption of AI tools via mobile apps [2][4] - Apple's control over Safari as the default browser for around a billion users presents a pivotal opportunity for disruption in mobile web search [3][4] Desktop vs. Mobile Web Search Dynamics - BrightEdge's April 2025 data shows a clear trend favoring desktop for AI-specific search, with Google maintaining a dominant market share of 89% overall and 93% on mobile [3][7] - The majority of Google's mobile traffic (58%) comes from Apple phones, indicating the potential impact of any changes to Safari's default search engine [3][4] - Leading AI and traditional search engines exhibit a significant skew towards desktop usage, with platforms like ChatGPT and Bing showing high desktop engagement [7] Implications of Apple's Control - Apple's vendor-agnostic Apple Intelligence suggests that any change to Safari's default search engine could lead to a seismic shift in web search dynamics [4] - The dominance of Google in mobile web search, combined with Apple's control of Safari, makes this a critical area for potential disruption [3][4] - BrightEdge emphasizes that the mobile web search landscape is still largely controlled by Google, despite the rise of generative AI tools [4]