"Now, this basic assumption has been upturned. Over the past year, Google has rolled out AI Overviews around the world, so that when users type a query into Google, they often receive an AI-generated answer above the standard blue links. Google is morphing from "search engine" to "answer engine", from an index of third-party information to a publisher of AI-generated summaries."
"News sites in the US and the UK have reported a sudden and sustained decline in traffic to articles from readers arriving via search engines, to the extent that some publishers are laying off workers and warning of an "existential crisis" for journalism. But in Australia, the "AI Armageddon for online news publishers" hasn't generated too much fuss. What's going on?"
The open web comprises hundreds of millions of publicly accessible websites whose viability depends on search-driven reciprocity: sites optimize content for Google to attract traffic, advertising revenue, and to fund further content. Google has introduced AI Overviews that deliver AI-generated answers above standard blue links, shifting Google toward an 'answer engine' that summarizes third-party content. Major news publishers in the US and the UK have reported sustained search-driven traffic declines, prompting layoffs and warnings of an existential crisis for journalism. In Australia, Ipsos audience measures show combined readership among top sites has increased, while SimilarWeb data indicates lower combined readership and sharper declines for smaller publishers reliant on Google.
Read at Abc
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