Google Ends Decades-Old Web Traffic Bargain as AI Search Squeezes Publishers

2 articles · Updated · The Verge · Jul 24

Google is no longer reliably sending the large volumes of referral traffic that long underpinned its exchange with websites, leaving publishers to confront a sharp drop in audience from search.
AI-driven changes in search are driving the break: Google still collects and indexes web content, but increasingly answers users directly instead of sending them onward to publishers.
Publishers are already weighing defensive moves, including blocking Google from crawling their sites, while Reddit is exploring a way out of an AI training deal.
The shift reaches beyond media companies, with even Google’s core Search business described as feeling the AI crunch as the web’s traffic economy is rewritten.