"But if you take a closer look at its recent actions, you might wonder if I'm onto something. Let's start with Google rolling out AI-powered features in its flagship search app. AI Overviews, which began rolling out in May 2024, provide an AI-generated summary of search results at the top of Google search pages, and AI Mode, introduced in May 2025, is an alternative search interface built around conversations with Google's Gemini chatbot."
"Now, Liz Reid, a VP and head of Search at Google, will tell you that's nonsense, that " overall traffic to sites is relatively stable." Further, she claims, the new and improved AI Google is "sending slightly more quality clicks to websites." And Nick Fox, Google's Senior VP of Knowledge, recently said, "from our point of view, the web is thriving.""
"Isn't that nice? Please. Stop trying to con me. I see the numbers, and they're falling faster than an airborne trooper whose parachute just failed. Similarweb, which measures traffic to over 100 million web domains, estimates a 5% decline in worldwide traffic from search engines from June 2024 to June 2025, The Economist reported, with certain types of sites, such as science, education, and health sites, taking a harder traffic hit."
Google rolled out AI Overviews in May 2024 and launched AI Mode in May 2025, adding AI-generated summaries and a conversational Gemini-based search interface. Those features place AI responses at the top of search results and offer an alternative that can satisfy queries without clicking through. Several sites reported 30–40% losses in Google-driven visits during 2024–2025. Similarweb estimated a 5% global decline in search-driven traffic between June 2024 and June 2025. Google executives assert that overall site traffic is stable and that AI delivers slightly more quality clicks. Publishers and certain categories like science, education, and health face disproportionate referral losses.
Read at Computerworld
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