Liz Reid, Google’s head of search, speaks at a Google I/O event in Mountain View, Calif., on May 14, 2024. While many factors often drive traffic fluctuations, publishers say the introduction of Google’s AI Overviews has led to dramatic declines for news outlets and other online information sources. Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
When Google unveiled AI Overviews last year, online publishers worried that the AI-generated blurbs in the top spot of search results would spark precipitous declines in traffic and gut the business model of vast reaches of the web.
Now, there is growing evidence validating those fears.