Google is now doing Google for its broad US audience — and news publishers are facing potentially multibillion-dollar ramifications from the shift.
Google announced on Tuesday that it's applying AI to high-impact search elements, from AI summaries to AI recommendation pages in groups. AI digests, which appear at the top of search results and carefully summarize content found on the web, began rolling out Tuesday to all of Google's 246 million unique US users.
AI summaries mean that websites across the board will have less traffic, as people simply search and read what the AI has generated without clicking on anything.
As newsrooms receive less traffic and less money, their ability to create fresh content diminishes. At the same time, Google becomes less of a gateway to resources and more of a direct resource Anastasia Kotsiubynska, Director of SEO at SE Ranking, shared with entrepreneur.
“Most likely, there will still be misleading information in search results and hallucinations, and many users will probably use this information without double checking,” Kotsiubynska warned.
Google I/O 2024 on May 14, 2024. (Photo by Christoph Dernbach/Photo Alliance via Getty Images)
Google search changes could cost websites $2 billion collectively; some may lose two-thirds of their traffic, according to the data from media industry growth company Raptive.
“This will be disastrous for our traffic as Google markets it to further satisfy user queries, leaving even less incentive to click so we can monetize our content,” said Danielle Coffey, chief executive of the News/Media Alliance. CNN Business.
This is the Quest in the age of Gemini. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/JxldNjbqyn
— Google (@Google) May 14, 2024
Google, a large technology company with over 90% of global market share in search, can now frame search results at will with AI summaries and pull from websites without guaranteeing site traffic or profit.
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“AI compilations rely on the intellectual property of content creators, which raises serious questions about compensation and fairness,” Raptive said in a STATEMENT.
Google does links to pages in her summary, citing her sources.
Unlike OpenAI, which has has entered into an agreement with major publishers such as Axel Springer and The Financial Times compensating publishers for training AI on their articles and linking directly to them, Google has yet to publicly announce a similar deal with a major publication.
OpenAI has also earned the ire of some publishers, including the New York Times filing a lawsuit against the company due to copyright in December.
Google has one $60 million deal with Reddit, announced in February, to train its AI on Reddit data.