Google’s new search feature causes publishers to experience visitors and income loss
According to EURONEWS evaluations, Google’s new search feature called “Artificial Intelligence Summary” reduces the need for users to click on links. The most affected by this situation is news sites and content producers.
This feature, which has been activated in the US and some other countries as of 2024, offers user search queries directly summarized on the Google page. These summaries are prepared by the artificial intelligence model called Gemini. Although there are resource connections just below the short answers, most users do not turn to these links. The search people receive the information they need directly from the summary.
This new structure affects sites that offer content especially on health, trip, technology and product evaluation. According to Similarweb data, the organic traffic that such websites received on Google decreased by 55 percent in three years. This means a significant loss of visibility for content producers. Since advertising revenues are based on connection clicks, this decline turns directly into economic damage.
International media organizations such as HuffPost, Washington Post, Business Insider and The New York Times are also influenced by this process. For example, HuffPost’s desktop and mobile access decreased more than half in terms of organic traffic. Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng had to dismiss 21 percent of its employees in May 2025. Traffic loss was shown as a direct justification in this decision.
Google at the top of the search results is pushing site links to the background
In the new system, welding connections that appear below the summary can easily escape the attention of users. According to a study by Pew Research Center, only 1 percent of users click on the source connection. Other users are content with brief information offered by Google.
The most shown sources include Wikipedia, Reddit and Google Youtube platforms. The total share of these three resources in artificial intelligence summaries is 15 percent. Official resources, such as government sites, find more frequently in artificial intelligence summaries than traditional results. However, it is seen that news sites could not come to the fore in this structure.
In some cases, the content is fully summarized. 404 Media noticed that a special news on the production of artificial intelligence -supported music was not visible in Google searches. Although the news was included in the summary part, there was no connection to the original content. Such examples directly affect the visibility of publishers’ content in search engines.
SEO is also similar to the table. According to The Register’s data, the click rate of the site, which is ranked at the top of the searches in which the artificial intelligence summary is shown, is decreasing by an average of 34.5 percent. This reveals that it is not as meaningful as before.
Google has differentiated the system in the ads following the summaries. Ads are located in or around the direct summary boxes. According to the data released by Alphabet in the last quarter of 2024, the total income of the company increased by 14 percent compared to last year and reached $ 96.4 billion. 54.2 billion dollars of this income was obtained directly from advertisements.
Sparktoro’s analysis revealed that only 360 out of every 1000 Google search are directed to sites that do not belong to Google and do not have advertising relationships. This ratio has fallen further with the introduction of artificial intelligence summary. Traffic losses of content producers are evaluated within this framework.
Alternative search platforms began to be discussed more in this process. Artificial intelligence -backed search engines such as Perplexity aim to access users directly. Muhammad Resulnejat, one of the Bank of America executives, associates the increase in Google’s infrastructure investments with competition pressure against these platforms.
The monopolism investigation of the US Department of Justice against Google is another remarkable development. The Ministry suggests that the company abuse its superiority in the search market. The disposal of the Chrome browser is among the steps brought to the agenda in this process.
All these developments show that content -producing publishers will be reshaped by the income models obtained through Google searches. This transformation affects the working ways of both content producers and technology companies.