Google's AI summaries are causing a significant drop in online news audiences, with studies suggesting up to 80% fewer clickthroughs to original content. This has led to concerns among media owners, who regard it as an existential threat to outlets reliant on search result traffic.
According to the studies, a site previously ranked first in search results could lose around 79% of its traffic if results are delivered below an AI overview. MailOnline experienced a large drop in clicks from search results featuring an AI summary, with clickthrough rates dropping by 56.1% on desktop and 48.2% on mobile devices.
Users clicked on links beneath AI summaries only once every 100 searches, according to a Pew Research Center study. This has sparked worries that Google's AI Overviews will lead to the "death of quality information online" by reducing traffic to news websites.
Media owners accuse Google of trying to keep users "within its own walled garden, taking and monetizing valuable content – including news – created by the hard work of others". The News Media Association's CEO, Owen Meredith, emphasizes the need for urgent action from the Competition and Markets Authority to address these issues.
Google disputes the findings, labeling the studies "inaccurate" and based on "flawed methodology". A spokesperson claims that AI features create "new opportunities for websites to be discovered" and that overall web traffic hasn't significantly declined. Google says it continues to send billions of clicks to websites every day.
