Ah Google Search, everyone’s favorite search engine that started out as an excellent source for Internet resources using links and is openly being turned into a service that eats everything that is in its way, even the very sites that fuel it.
A new report, cited by the Wall Street Journal, suggests that major US publishers have noticed sharp drops in organic Google Search traffic between June 2025 and June 2026.
According to the report, sites noticed decreases of organic traffic by up to 85 percent and the main reason for that appears to be AI Overviews. When Google Search displays an AI generated overview on a search results page, traffic to sites drops by about 60 percent according to the study. This leaves Discover traffic as the remaining traffic source from Google, but this comes with its own set of caveats, including a tendency for clickbait.
Major US publishers and sites, including Reddit, Politico and Business Insider, may turn to drastic measures to put an end to Google’s strategy of becoming the one and only destination on the Internet that users need.
Reddit, the Wall Street Journal reports, is considering dropping a potential renewal of its $60 million per year deal with Google. This would disallow Google from using the content published on Reddit for AI training and also prevent the company from showing Reddit content in its AI overviews.
Apart from losing the money, Reddit might also notice another drop in referrals from Google as a consequence, as it would likely no longer be listed by the AI Overviews feature.
My personal take: Google’s decisions have led to a decline in Internet blogs, at least in the tech sector. Independent owners of sites like Freeware Genius stopped publishing or pulled their sites entirely from the Internet because of Google. Now, the beneficiaries of Google’s algorithmic changes are facing a similar situation. Google is keeping the users that it used to send to these sites and now it is their business model that is in jeopardy.
Here is the outcome: Some will survive, as they may provide value that Google can’t replicate. Some will merge, others will vanish. Even big publications or sites may go down. Google might eventually notice that AI can’t generate fresh information on its own though.
“Samer”–wonderful site, but . . . here’s the story for those who didn’t know about his site:
https://www.ghacks.net/2016/01/22/samer-kurdi-freewaregenius-interview/
Ten years ago!
I do–for thorough, easy to read information that allows questions for clarification, I use AI on a daily basis. I used AI to help me design a new porch which included a pic of the final design, materials needed, and estimated labor. I sent it off to a contractor who crunched the numbers, said all was fine, and finished the job in the time AI estimated it would take.
Just finished a landscaping design that I sent to a landscaper who said it was all in line with a quote he would give [except for the rocks], and the plant choice was good for this area.
Used Gemini yesterday to update some “block and delete” filters in Gmail–saved me so much time using AI.
I find searching and reading through all these “new” tech blogs exasperating–maybe it’s the writing style. The writers go on and on and on and on and on, but I want one little piece of information.
Even finding links for products is faster using AI; AI is a game changer and bloggers will have to evolve or? I don’t know.
Nevertheless, I discovered months ago and am reminded often, AI can’t really think through a problem. It doesn’t have “experience” in the real world, so it is limited in the most important aspect of human thought. It doesn’t have consciousness. Is that the right word?
Yes, it is the right word for “human thought.” But in my opinion machines can be made self-aware but still do not evolve beyond the same machine capabilities that they were designed for. Illustrated well in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager about robotic war. Robots became self-aware but could not fix themselves because nobody programmed how to repair or fabricate unique components. What you probably meant is that AI does not have human flexibility, ingenuity, and creativity.
Google is playing stupid games and will win stupid prizes. Eventually Google will have to make some kind of revenue sharing deal with some website publishers. If every website is forced to paywall itself, Google will have problems finding results except from government, corporate, and social network websites.
It’s not all googles fault. People are tired of having ads shoved on thier face.
I can find info much faster using Brave AI the using normal search. I also get links and use terms and names I got from the AI to use the normal search to check the info or get more info.
This faster finding of info is why people are using AI.
So Google had to choice but to also use AI for it’s search engine, or it would lose most of it’s users to ChatGPT search.
The consequence is less visitors to content websites and so less websites with content and so less new content for the AI to use and find.
I think the solution will be that Google may set up it’s own news service or online journals for organisations to send their press releases and articles to. But that wil mean less investigative journalism. Some not so deep investigative journalism will exists as social media channels (youtube, etc).
Some online forums will still exists, because people are social and want to exchange info with like minded people. But Google may need to pay these forums to get their info.