Is Google's AI driving 'Google Zero'? Here's why publishers are worried

While Google is still the go-to choice for many to gather information and type in queries that bewilder them, a slew of new insights suggests that the search engine's new AI additions might be impacting the relatively laissez-faire way internet is known to work in. While users are now writing queries that are three times longer than the keyword-dense searches they traditionally used, according to Google, a study from the Growth Memo newsletter, found that in about 75% of sessions, users never left AI Mode for the web.

With Google's comprehensive incorporation of AI into Search, users are no longer leaving Google AI Mode to read information on websites. Instead, they are simply reading Google's AI-generated answers—a trend that has led to fewer visitors reaching independent websites and a decline in search traffic, a Ney York times report highlights the grave possibilities such trends may lead to.

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Is Google Zero here?

Publishers have long been warned about a "Google Zero" moment, when traffic from Google would plummet. According to Nilay Patel, Editor-in-Chief of The Verge, Google Zero is already here. The changes Google has implemented threaten the open web and demonstrate how rapidly AI has reshaped the technology landscape.

Over the years, tech giants have built highly fortified platforms that focus on maximising profits rather than enhancing public utility. Google, however, denies being involved in activities that have negatively impacted internet traffic. In a blog post, Liz Reid, Vice President of Search, said the company's ethos had not changed and that it continued to send a "relatively stable" number of clicks—numbering in the billions—to websites. She added that reports claiming a decline in search traffic were "inaccurate" and relied on "flawed methodologies."

"We care passionately—perhaps more than any other company—about the health of the web ecosystem."

Google AI Search's new features

Google has gradually added a range of new features to AI Mode. These include website previews alongside some AI-generated responses and a tool that allows users to set "preferred sources," enabling AI to refer to their favourite news outlets more frequently. Google has also worked on building a profile system that helps publishers and creators promote their work in Search.

A Google spokesperson responded to the findings of the study, saying, "Google's AI Search features send billions of clicks to the web every week, meeting people's evolving preferences for how they want to find information while driving significant traffic to websites." The spokesperson added that Google's AI features prominently highlight links to the web.

He also argued that the study claiming users stayed in AI Mode 75% of the time was flawed because it relied on a small sample size and assigned participants specific tasks that did not reflect normal user behaviour.

While Google maintains that its AI additions have not contributed to declining traffic for independent publishers, their widespread adoption has undeniably changed the way people search for information. Searches are increasingly being performed through AI chatbots, and the number of people visiting websites continues to decline. Information is now being served directly to users based on their preferences, with AI systems crawling the web to gather relevant content.

Cloudflare recently reported that nearly 50% of all web traffic is now non-human. It also said that human traffic to websites in industries such as finance and publishing has dropped by nearly 40%.

Cloudflare added that chatbot-style search tools have put the open web under pressure. The impact is already visible across the internet. Wikipedia, one of the most frequently visited sources for online information, has seen an 8% decline in human visitors over the past year while simultaneously experiencing a sharp increase in bots scraping its content to train AI models.

Action by Britain's Competition and Markets Authority

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has asked Google to address publishers' concerns. The regulator has also urged the company to include clear attribution links in AI chatbot responses, helping direct users back to the original websites.

The authority has further called for an opt-out mechanism that would allow publishers to prevent their content from appearing in AI-generated summaries.