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Online publishers are faced with what many people call “traffic apocalypse,” as Google's AI-generated summaries appear to block search traffic, one of their readers' most important sources.
Since AI overview was introduced last year, US Google users have been seeing a short A-Generated Summaries at the top of their search results. However, Pew's research shows that these summaries significantly reduce the frequency with which people click on the original source.
The report tracks online activity for 900 adults in the US and found that users are significantly less likely to click on the link when AI-generated summary appears. Traditional search links were clicked on only 8% of visits that include AI overviews. This was almost half (15%) of the visits.
Worse, for publishers, few users clicked on the source quoted in the AI summary. Only 1% of visits. Another Authoritas analysis cited by the Guardian found that if AI summaries appear above them, sites ranked at the top of the search results could lose up to 79% of their traffic.
Publishers are Google Zero braces
Media companies are currently rushing to adapt as referral traffic from Google continues to decline. Some call this looming crisis “Google Zero.” This phenomenon refers to the future where Google search no longer sends meaningful traffic to publishers.
Wired, for example, offers new subscription offers, live Q&As with editors, and exclusive newsletters. In an editor's note, Katie Drummond called it a response to a “traffic apocalypse,” caused by a decline in search and social media referrals.
In late June, a coalition of publishers led by an independent Publishers Union filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, claiming that the AI overview “has caused and continues to cause major harm to publishers.”
Google rejected the idea that its AI tools were hurting publishers. The spokesman told Reuters that “claims about traffic from searches are often based on highly incomplete and distorted data,” adding that AI-powered searches “create new opportunities for content and companies to be discovered.”
Still, publishers argue that these opportunities are not translated into traffic or revenue.
With one in five Google generating AI summaries, publishers are competing to build direct audiences through subscriptions, apps and events before traditional web traffic disappears completely.
