"This is nothing new-Google updates its algorithms hundreds of times per year, with anywhere from two to four major "core updates" that result in significant changes. And while it's tricky to determine exactly what changed, publishers and websites large and small noticed significant traffic drops and lower search rankings-even for content that had previously been doing well. " Google Zero" (as Nilay Patel of The Verge first called it) is thought to be caused, at least in part, by AI overviews."
"Google Search has shown a slow crawl toward this for a couple of years, but the most recent blow was delivered over the summer. When you search for something and you get a neat little summary of various reporting completed by journalists, you're less likely to visit the websites that actually did the work. And, in some instances, that summary contains incorrect AI hallucinations or reporting from websites you might not trust as much."
Google updated its search algorithm earlier this year as part of routine updates and several major core updates per year. The changes led to significant traffic drops and lower search rankings for many publishers and websites, including previously high-performing content. The phenomenon called "Google Zero" is linked in part to AI-generated overviews that summarize reporting directly on search results. Those summaries can reduce clicks to original reporting and sometimes include incorrect AI hallucinations or prioritize less trusted sources. Google offers a "Preferred Sources" tool that allows users to prioritize favored publishers in Top Stories and tailor search results.
Read at WIRED
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