Reddit Wants to Be More Than a Forum—It’s Building a Search Engine

Reddit is rethinking how people use its platform—and it starts with search.
The company’s getting rid of separate tools for keyword search and AI answers, replacing them with a single, smarter search box. This new setup, coming soon to both the app and web, is designed to feel more natural. Whether you’re typing a quick phrase or asking a full question, Reddit wants to surface real, helpful answers fast.Over 70 million people already search Reddit every week, and Reddit Answers—its AI-powered Q&A tool—has 6 million weekly users on its own. That growth made the company shift its focus. Features like paid subreddit tools are now on pause, while search becomes the main project. The company says it’s not just a social platform anymore—it wants to be a serious player in the search world.Reddit also posted its best quarter ever, with $500 million in revenue and $89 million in profit. CEO Steve Huffman says search is where the future is, and Reddit’s strength is its people—not just content, but conversations you won’t find elsewhere. COO Jen Wong mentioned they’re investing in marketing to help users start thinking of Reddit as more than a forum.The unified search will start rolling out over the next few months. Reddit’s betting big that the way people ask and find things online is changing—and that it can lead that shift.