LONDON – Google’s overviews in top pages are changing web behavior as AI in search affects direct visitors amid changing online content landscape.
In past year, Google’s AI Overviews or summaries that appear at the top of search results sparked controversy over their impact on web traffic, content creators, and the future of online information.
As Google claims these overviews aimed to help users find accurate answers faster, critics are of view that they are affecting traffic to websites, denting publishers’ revenue, and limiting users’ access to diverse sources of information.
Pew Research Center study, which analyzed browsing data from 900 US users, found that most users rarely clicked on AI summaries, and in many cases, ended their browsing sessions immediately after seeing the AI-generated content. The study suggests that users are twice as unlikely to click on AI-recommended links compared to traditional search results.
Major sources report traffic and revenue drops by 40 percent for some sites, warning that this trend may discourage the creation of high-quality content.
Despite this, search engine giant denies any major decline in web traffic, saying that it continues to deliver billions of clicks to websites daily. The company also criticized Pew’s methodology, calling the findings unreliable.
However, Pew stands by its research, saying that its numbers are in line with data from other independent studies. Some industry reports claim AI Overviews may have caused a 30% to 70% drop in search-generated traffic for some sites.
Interestingly, Google’s own AI assistant Gemini appears to agree with critics, admitting that AI Overviews could be harming website traffic.
The shift could lead to a web ecosystem collapse, as content creators lose business to produce original work. It also raised concerns about misinformation, stating that AI often misunderstands or oversimplifies complex topics.
Google, however, insists that it is committed to transparency and improving user experience. A spokesperson said the AI features help users ask better questions and discover new sources of information.
