Last year, Google's algorithm changes have plummeted search engine traffic for news websites and publishers, and even bankrupt several independent publishers, including Gazete Duvar in Turkey.
The technology giant is currently taking another blow to online publishers through an artificial intelligence summary.
Google's AI Overview feature is a service provided by internet giants to compete with artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT. This feature provides a short summary generated by Gemini that appears at the top of the search results. Below the overview you will find details such as a link to the source and a “Show More” option.
This means that when a user enters a query into Google Search Engine, they can get the answer in a summary without clicking the link below. However, this poses serious risks, especially for websites that rely on Google Ads revenue and traditional search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
Popular website traffic has decreased
The introduction of AI overviews has impacted traffic to sites that feature content, particularly holiday guides, health tips, and product reviews.
According to SimaryWeb, search traffic to websites fell 55% between April 2022 and April 2025.
A report published by the Wall Street Journal shows that traffic to many well-known news sites around the world is declining. Traffic from organic search to HuffPost's desktop and mobile sites has halved over the past three years, but the Washington Post has seen roughly the same decline.
Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng fired about 21% of staff in May, saying that “extreme traffic is diminishing beyond our control” as the reason for the layoffs.
In April 2025, the proportion of traffic from organic search to New York Times' desktop and mobile sites also fell to 36.5%.
Nicholas Thompson, CEO of Atlantic, predicts that traffic from Google will drop to zero, and says the company needs to improve its business model.
“Google is changing from a search engine to an answer engine,” Thompson said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
In an interview with WSJ, Thompson and other industry leaders said they are most interested in building reader relationships as they are trying to develop new strategies.
Users do not click on the link
Google executives argue that the company is working on sending traffic to the web, and those who click on the link after seeing an AI overview tend to spend more time on these sites. However, the research study shows another photograph.
According to the new one study At the Pew Research Center, only a few of the 900 Google users in the US click on the source page specified as a result of a search that includes a summary of the artificial intelligence overview. The rest are happy with the short information Google has provided.
Furthermore, according to this study, the sources most frequently cited in both AI summary and traditional search results are Wikipedia, YouTube (a Google subsidiary), and Reddit. 15% of the sources of AI summary come from these three sites.
Introductions to government sites (such as the “GOV” extension) are more common in AI summaries than traditional search results. Meanwhile, both AI summary and traditional search results could potentially refer to 5% of news sites.
Worse, 404 Media, a website known for Specialized Technology News, has noticed that AI-Assist's music production stories have not been featured on Google search. This is because the artificial intelligence overview summed up the story content but did not link it to the actual story.
This site summarizes the situation with the following statement: “AI overview will provide information so that the source itself is not clicked.”
SEO loses its impact
The effect of AI overview on SEO (search engine optimization) is also noticeable.
According to the register, the most recent data showed that click-through rates for top rank sites during searches using AI summary averaged 34.5%. Being on the first page doesn't make as much sense as before.
AI often provides misinformation
Plus, there is another risk. The reliability of artificial intelligence.
404 Media published a news article showing that one of the responses given by the feature in question was actually generated from another AI summary. This is based on AI sources.
As information moves away from the main source, the margin of error increases. This situation has been described by experts as “a vicious cycle of information that leads to the collapse of the artificial intelligence model itself.”
If there is not enough source of quality information, users will have inaccurate and superficial content generated by artificial intelligence.
The advertising industry continues to work for Google
Websites and Google revenues are based on the following ad cycles: Websites can use people who use search engines that allow Google to access content for free. Google redirects users to websites that view ads and content. Most websites make money from these ads.
According to the BBC, an estimated 68% of internet activity starts with search engines, and around 90% of searches are done on Google. This means that your website relies heavily on Google to make money.
Therefore, it is stated that the overview mode of artificial intelligence can destroy business models that have existed for 23 years.
However, at least for now, Google has not experienced any losses with this change. Google's parent company, Alphabet, raised its revenue to record levels in the last quarter of 2024.
Google's total revenues rose 14% compared to last year to $96.4 billion, according to data released by the company. According to the register, the majority of the revenue still comes from advertising. That's exactly $54.2 billion.
This is because Google places ads directly within or around the AI overview summary.
According to a Sparktoro survey, by 2024, only 360 of every 1,000 Google searches in the US had led to sites that were not owned or advertised by Google. These rates are expected to worsen with increasing summaries of artificial intelligence.
“Not hopeless”
While Google still dominates the market, rival AI-powered search engines such as confusion are gradually taking part in the competition.
According to Bank of America executive Muhammad Raslunejat, it points to Google's $14 billion spending on infrastructure investments in the last quarter alone.
On top of all this, the fact that the US Department of Justice still denounces Google's monopoly creates individual pressure. The ministry requires Google to sell its Chrome browser. The company's recent advertising and artificial intelligence movements could further inflame these debates.
