Is Google Killing the Open Web with AI?

Google’s embrace of AI is fundamentally changing how we interact with the internet. With the introduction of AI Overviews and the experimental AI Mode, the search giant is prioritizing AI-generated summaries over direct links, potentially reshaping the web as we know it.

AI Overviews: A New Way to Search?

AI Overviews, now a familiar sight at the top of Google search results, offer concise answers and information extracted from various websites. While convenient, this feature reduces the need for users to click through to the original sources, impacting website traffic and potentially their revenue.

AI Mode: The Future of Search or the End of the Web?

The newer AI Mode takes this a step further, presenting a complete AI-powered search experience. Instead of a list of links, users engage in a conversational interface, receiving answers generated by AI. While Google highlights the enhanced reasoning and multimodal capabilities, this approach further diminishes the role of traditional web links, relegating them to footnotes rather than destinations.

This shift mirrors the functionality of AI-first chatbots like ChatGPT, offering summarization and regeneration of information rather than direct retrieval. While this offers a different user experience, the question remains: where will these AI models obtain the data they need if they are starving the web from which they learn?

A Codependent Relationship at Risk

For years, websites have relied on Google to drive traffic through search rankings. In return, Google has crawled, indexed, and ranked their content. However, with AI-powered search, Google risks disrupting this codependent relationship.

While AI Overviews and AI Mode may offer a cleaner, ad-free experience compared to the increasingly spam-filled traditional search results, they also conceal the raw material that fuels the AI. By prioritizing AI-generated content, Google could be inadvertently starving the web of the traffic it needs to thrive, impacting websites and potentially hindering the future development of AI models themselves.

The Fate of the Web in the Age of AI

Google’s head of search has even suggested that “the search results page was a construct,” signaling a move away from the traditional model of linking to external websites. Whether this is a strategic shift to win the AI race or a genuine evolution of search remains to be seen.

The future of Google search may involve a blend of AI-generated content and traditional links, driven by Google’s advertising business model. However, the long-term consequences for the millions of websites and their visitors remain uncertain. As Google prioritizes AI, the question is whether it will ultimately bury the web that provides the data it needs.

Keywords

• Google AI
• AI Overviews
• AI Mode
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Website Traffic
• Generative AI
• Online Content
• Search Technology