The Shift from Google Search to ChatGPT: How Generative AI Is Changing Students’ Information-Seeking Behaviour

The rapid spread of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT is changing how students search for, understand, and verify academic information, a role long held by search engines such as Google. This study examines students’ self-reported information-seeking behaviour with Google Search and ChatGPT, covering frequency of use, purpose, first-source preference, reasons for adoption, trust, verification practice, and perceived change. A descriptive, quantitative survey was conducted using a 25-item structured Google Forms questionnaire administered to college and university students through convenience sampling (N = 200). Data were analysed using frequency and percentage analysis. Of the respondents, 73.5% use ChatGPT/AI at least once a day, and 61.2% name ChatGPT/AI as their first source for academic answers, compared with 30.6% for Google Search. Understanding concepts, faster answers, and easier explanations were the main reasons for use. Trust was conditional: 59.2% verify ChatGPT answers always or often, 59.2% have encountered incorrect or misleading output at least sometimes, and Google Search was the most common verification source (42.9%). In total, 93.9% reported at least some change in how they find information. The findings point to a hybrid, AI-assisted pattern rather than a replacement of search engines; however, they rest on self-reported data from a non-probability sample and cannot be generalised.