Loss of Revenue Expected for Web Publishers As Google AI Search Rolls Out

Google is transforming the way we interact with the internet by introducing AI-generated answers that displace links to human-written websites. This significant change, announced at Google’s annual I/O developer conference, is expected to impact billions of content creators, advertisers, and web surfers.

The tech giant is rolling out its Search Generative Experience (SGE), which is powered by its most advanced large language model, Gemini. SGE is designed to provide users with AI-generated overviews at the top of their search results, offering conversational, abridged answers to their queries rather than directing them to other websites.

This new approach allows users to ask more complex and descriptive questions and get the gist of a topic faster. It also enables users to start tasks quickly, like writing drafts or generating imagery right from the search page. The AI overviews can be adjusted to simplify the language or provide more detail, catering to the user’s needs and understanding of the topic.

The introduction of SGE is expected to cause a significant shift in web traffic, with some publishers estimating a loss of up to 60% of their traffic. However, Google believes that this new approach will enhance the user experience, making information discovery more efficient and intuitive.

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