Google’s AI search changes upended online publishing

Publishers spent years figuring out how to get clicks on Google. But new AI features have torn that ecosystem apart.

Publishers spent years figuring out how to get clicks on Google. But new AI features have torn that ecosystem apart.

The digital publishing industry has relied on Google for a very long time. Many outlets spent time and money optimizing their webpages to show up at the top of the engine, with the goal of getting readers to click on their articles or discover their websites for the first time. For years, the relationship between Google and publishers was largely reciprocal; online publishers filled out Google’s index with content, while Google supplied publications with exposure and traffic.

But that relationship has changed. The launch of Google’s AI features — coupled with changes to the way it ranks results — has made it harder for publishers to survive on traffic from Google alone. In 2024, Google rolled out AI Overviews, a feature that slots an AI-generated result summarizing pages from across the web at the very top of Google , with links to sources its AI system determines to be the most useful placed below the summary. Instead of vying for clicks on the first page of , publishers became beholden to an AI system that regurgitates results, with no guarantee that users will actually click on the source of that information.

Though Google’s AI Overviews got off to a shaky start , the feature immediately raised concerns among publishers, with the News/Media Alliance saying it will be “catastrophic” to web traffic. A 2024 investigation from the Press Gazette found that Google’s AI Overviews appeared for almost a quarter of news-related searches in May 2024. By August, the outlet found that AI Overviews had begun impacting the visibility of publishers by replacing media sites that previously held the top spots on Google’s engine for certain queries.

A future where Google could eventually stop sending traffic to outside sites on the web has only gotten closer as the company builds out its vision for an AI-powered . In May 2025, it launched AI Mode , a feature that replaces Google’s standard engine with a chatbot-like interface that provides detailed summaries from results on the web.

The concerns raised by the News/Media Alliance were real: Traffic to online publishers tanked following the launch of Google’s AI features. A June 2025 report from The Wall Street Journal revealed how traffic to Business Insider , The Washington Post , HuffPost , and the WSJ itself has declined since 2022. Data from analytics company Similarweb suggested that traffic to The New York Times sank from 44 percent to 35.5 percent in three years, the WSJ reported.

A report from Digiday pointed to similar dips at Digital Content (DCN), a trade association that represents outlets and media companies like Bloomberg , The Associated Press , The New York Times , Condé Nast, and Vox Media. Between May and June 2025, DCN says 19 of its members experienced a traffic loss on Google, ranging from 1 to 25 percent, Digiday reported. DMG Media, which owns Daily Mail and Metro , told the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority that click-through rates dropped by up to 89 percent between June and July 2025, citing impacts from AI Overviews. On top of all of this, Pew Research found that people are “less likely” to click on links to other websites when they see an AI Overview.

These numbers starkly contrast with Google’s claims that its AI features are helping the web. Last year, Google head Liz Reid said click volume from the engine remained “relatively stable,” adding that AI is sending more clicks to different types of websites — especially those “with forums, videos, podcasts, and posts” from other users. Nick Fox, Google’s senior vice president of knowledge and information, told the BBC , “From our point of view, the web is thriving.”

In addition to scrutiny from regulators , publishers from around the globe have filed lawsuits against Google, claiming the company’s AI features have negatively impacted traffic. Many lawsuits haven’t been successful. US District Judge Amit Mehta dismissed an antitrust case from Chegg and Penske Media , which owns The Rolling Stone , Billboard , The Hollywood Reporter , and The Verge . The same judge also rejected a proposed class action lawsuit surrounding AI Overviews filed by Arkansas newspapers.

Online publishers have had to adjust their strategies in the wake of falling traffic, with many leaning on social media, newsletters, and subscriptions to promote and make money from their work. Others are using a toggle that allows them to opt out of appearing in AI Mode and AI Overviews without affecting their visibility in — an option Google broadly rolled out following an order from the UK . But this still doesn’t fix sinking traffic.

Pushback from online publishers appears to have resulted in some changes to Google’s AI features. The company has begun to make sources more prominent in AI Mode and AI Overviews , as hovering over a link in either feature will show a pop-up with a list of articles and accompanying images. Another AI change puts in-line links “higher up in responses more frequently.”

Google will likely continue making changes to how it presents sources in AI , while coming up with ways to compensate publishers that inform its results. The company says 400 publishers , including The Washington Post , CNN, Axios , and the Financial Times, are now part of its News AI pilot program, which licenses content to develop new AI features. It’s also testing a program that pays publishers for the use of their content in AI Overviews and AI Mode, according to reports from The Information and Digiday . Whether this program is enough to repair Google’s relationship with publishers remains to be seen.

Google is burying blue links even further beneath AI Overviews. The summaries have started to automatically expand for some queries, instead of requiring users to manually click a “Show more” button.

The Wall Street Journal reports that is also considering cutting off Google due to dropping traffic.

It’s not just publishers and online forums that are concerned AI Overviews — the nonprofit Common Sense Media claims the summaries pose an “unacceptable” risk to kids by failing to respond appropriately to children in crisis.

This Decoder interview with Google CEO Sundar Pichai sheds a lot of light on the company’s vision for the future of .

This write-up from The New York Times shows how Google’s AI Overviews still struggle with accuracy.

A survey from Nieman Lab reveals how more people are relying on AI chatbots to get their news.