So looking at the data this week, ChatGPT has majorly shifted its search behavior. The search queries we’re seeing are not much longer than they have previously.

I love having access to Nectiv’s AI Tracker that scrapes fan-out queries from ChatGPT that Jason Melman built. It’s great window into how AI is searching and allows us to spot changes very very quickly.

PS. If you’re looking to get your own ChatGPT search queries for your site, feel free to reach out. 

When analyzing our index of software queries yesterday, I saw something very peculiar in the fan-out data. Search queries were MUCH longer than I had previously seen.

It looks like this change started around mid-November 2025. You can compare that screenshot to what our AI tracker was pulling from early November for the exact same prompt set.

When previously performing a study on ChatGPT fan-out queries, we found that they averaged about 5 words per query.

From an initial analysis of 600 queries, now they’re averaging 15 words per query, triple the amount.

I mean, just look at some of these search queries from the dataset:

• what features make medical accounting software and which are the top rated accounting systems for doctors and clinics software names and reviews
• top workplace management tools software for managing employees tasks and workplace operations 2025 reviews”
• what is customer experience software, examples and how to evaluate customer experience platforms
• what features to look for in spa booking software small business and list of top spa business software reviews
• best survey software online 2025 comparison of survey tools review surveymonkey, qualtrics, google forms, typeform, surveyplanet software reviews

It wasn’t uncommon to see ChatGPT search queries of 25+ in length which is absolutely crazy.

This doesn’t appear to be just our system either. Checking the Profound data over the last 2 days, we see similar trends of longer search queries appearing.

So as of now if you’re advising your internal teams or clients, you might want to be aware that ChatGPT is using EXTREMELY long search queries for the moment. We don’t know if this behavior will stay but its definitely a continuing trend we’re seeing with AI search. These systems are searching for query strings that are much longer than a normal user would ever type in.