TL;DR:
- Google’s new AI-powered search features could reduce website traffic and revenue.
- AI summaries may lead to misinformation and less fact-checking by users.
- Google’s dominance in search allows it to control the narrative of search results.
The Search Game Changer: AI Takes Centre Stage
Google has announced a significant change to its search tool, introducing AI-powered features that could have a profound impact on website traffic and online businesses. The tech giant is applying artificial intelligence to key elements of search, including AI summaries and recommendation clusters. These changes, which rolled out on Tuesday to all 246 million unique U.S. users, could potentially cost websites billions of dollars in lost traffic and revenue.
The Impact of AI Summaries on Website Traffic
With the introduction of AI summaries at the top of search results, users can now get a quick overview of the information they’re looking for without needing to click through to any websites. This means less traffic for websites across the board, as people simply read the AI-generated summaries and move on.
As newsrooms receive less traffic and revenue, their ability to create fresh content diminishes. At the same time, Google becomes less of a gateway to sources and more of a direct source of information. Anastasia Kotsiubynska, Head of SEO at SE Ranking, shared her concerns 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.”
With over 90% of the global market share in search, Google has the power to frame search results however it wants using AI summaries. This raises concerns about the potential spread of misinformation, as users may rely on AI-generated summaries without verifying the information.
Danielle Coffey, the chief executive of the News/Media Alliance, expressed her concerns to CNN Business:
“This will be catastrophic to our traffic, as marketed by Google to further satisfy user queries, leaving even less incentive to click through so that we can monetize our content.”
Danielle Coffey
AI and Intellectual Property: A Fair Deal?
The use of AI summaries also raises questions about compensation and fairness, as they rely on content creators’ intellectual property. Raptive, a media industry growth company, stated:
AI Overviews relies on content creators’ intellectual property, which raises serious questions about compensation and fairness.
RAPTIVE
Unlike OpenAI, which has entered into deals with major publishers like Axel Springer and The Financial Times to compensate them for training AI on their articles, Google has yet to announce a similar arrangement. However, Google does link to sites within its summaries, citing its sources.
Google’s Deal with Reddit
Google has a $60 million deal with Reddit, announced in February, to train its AI on Reddit data. This partnership could provide Google with a wealth of user-generated content to improve its AI capabilities.
How do you think Google’s AI-powered search features will impact your online business? Share your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe for updates on AI and AGI developments.
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