Technologies

Reddit Shifting Towards Search as Company Wants to Become a Search Engine

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman wants to expand Reddit Answers to capitalize on increasing demand for Reddit results.

You may not need to add «Reddit» to your Google searches for much longer — now, you can go straight to the source.

In his Q2 letter to shareholders, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said the company will integrate its search function with Reddit Answers, which is currently available in the US and 11 other countries, «into a single search experience.»

Reddit will make the search box more visible on the app, bringing it «front and center.»

«Whether you’re a new user opening the app for the first time or returning user opening the app, that search box will be present immediately for users who open the app looking for something specific,» Huffman said. «Sometimes people are opening the app with a question.»

This seems a natural direction for Reddit, which now has more than 70 million weekly active users on its search function and more than 6 million weekly active users using Reddit Answers. Huffman believes Reddit is ideally positioned in a world where people are increasingly wanting human-powered answers to searches driven by their massive amount of Reddit chats.

«80% of users in a recent survey that they believe some questions can only be answered by humans as opposed to AI-generated summaries,» Huffman said on the call.

There does seem to be a demand for Reddit as a source of information and answers from users. Profound, a platform that helps elevate brand visibility in AI search environments, said that Reddit was the No. 1 most cited source for AI platforms Google Overviews and Perplexity, and No. 2 for ChatGPT among searches. Profound said that Reddit’s percentage on Perplexity, 46.7%, showed a «strong preference for community-generated content» among searchers.

Vanessa Fox, digital marketing consultant and author of Marketing in the Age of Google, called Reddit’s shift toward search a wise one.

«It’s a smart idea as it’s certainly the case that people seek out Reddit specifically when searching Google by adding ‘Reddit’ to their search query, and so the demand is there,» Fox told CNET. «With apps becoming such a standard part of the online experience, people have gotten even more accustomed to using search experiences other than Google for specific types of content — TikTok is an obvious example of that.»

In its 2025 Q2 earnings report, Reddit showed a 78% jump in revenue from the same time last year, to $500 million. Huffman said daily active users are now at 110 million, an increase of 21% from last year at this same time.

Fox added that Reddit will need to be watchful for more AI spam.

«When Google started featuring Reddit results more prominently in search results, spammers — many using AI content — flocked to Reddit and started posting in threads that already ranked well in Google, as well as creating new posts in Reddit in an attempt to use the ranking power of Reddit to show up in Google,» Fox told CNET. «Reddit now has to combat that. So if this unified search is successful, they likely will have to combat even more AI content, which unfortunately is the landscape that we’re in.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 23 #599

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 23, No. 599.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be Halloween-themed, as the answers are all rather dangerous. Some of them are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Please don’t eat me!

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Remember Mr. Yuk?

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

POND, NOON, NODE, BALE, SOCK, LOVE, LOCK, MOCK, LEER, REEL, GLOVE, DAIS, LEAN, LEAD, REEL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

AZALEA, HEMLOCK, FOXGLOVE, OLEANDER, BELLADONNA

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is POISONOUS. To find it, look for the P that is the first letter on the far left of the top row, and wind down and across.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Oct. 23, #395

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Oct. 23, No. 395.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has one of those crazy purple categories, where you wonder if anyone saw the connection, or if people just put that grouping together because only those four words were left. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Fan noise.

Green group hint: Strategies for hoops.

Blue group hint: Minor league.

Purple group hint: Look for a connection to hoops.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Sounds from the crowd.

Green group: Basketball offenses.

Blue group: Triple-A baseball teams.

Purple group: Ends with a basketball stat.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is sounds from the crowd. The four answers are boo, cheer, clap and whistle.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is basketball offenses. The four answers are motion, pick and roll, Princeton and triangle.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is triple-A baseball teams. The four answers are Aces, Jumbo Shrimp, Sounds and Storm Chasers.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends with a basketball stat. The four answers are afoul, bassist, counterpoint and sunblock.

Technologies

Amazon’s Delivery Drivers Will Soon Wear AI Smart Glasses to Work

The goal is to streamline the delivery process while keeping drivers safe.

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it is developing new AI-powered smart glasses to simplify the delivery experience for its drivers. CNET smart glasses expert Scott Stein mentioned this wearable rollout last month, and now the plan is in its final testing stages.

The goal is to simplify package delivery by reducing the need for drivers to look at their phones, the label on the package they’re delivering and their surroundings to find the correct address.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

A heads-up display will activate as soon as the driver parks, pointing out potential hazards and tasks that must be completed. From there, drivers can locate and scan packages, follow turn-by-turn directions and snap a photograph to prove delivery completion without needing to take out their phone.

The company is testing the glasses in select North American markets.

Watch: See our Instagram post with a video showing the glasses

A representative for Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

To fight battery drain, the glasses pair with a controller attached to the employee’s delivery vest, allowing them to replace depleted batteries and access operational controls. The glasses will support an employee’s eyeglass prescription. An emergency button will be within reach to ensure the driver’s safety.

Amazon is already planning future versions of the glasses, which will feature «real-time defect detection,» notifying the driver if a package was delivered to the incorrect address. They plan to add features to the glasses to detect if pets are in the yard and adjust to low light.