Lately, it’s hard not to wonder if Google’s new AI features could be slowly reshaping the web as we know it. The company has been rolling out AI-powered tools that change how we search and find information online. Some people are concerned that these changes might be hurting the open web and the way content creators and businesses rely on it.

Google’s AI Features and Their Impact

Since May 2024, Google started introducing AI Overviews at the top of search results. These are summaries generated by AI that give quick answers without clicking through to websites. A year later, in May 2025, Google launched AI Mode, which is built around chatting with Google’s Gemini AI chatbot. These new features have made some websites see a big drop in traffic. Some report losing 30% to 40% of visits that used to come from Google. That’s a huge hit for publishers and online sellers who depend on search traffic for revenue.

Google’s top brass, like Liz Reid, a VP and head of Search, insist that overall traffic isn’t really falling. They say the new AI features are actually sending “slightly more quality clicks” to websites. Similarly, Nick Fox, Google’s Senior VP of Knowledge, claims the web is still thriving. But the numbers tell a different story. Traffic measurement groups like Similarweb estimate a 5% worldwide decline in search engine traffic from June 2024 to June 2025. Certain types of sites, like those focused on science, education, and health, are seeing even sharper drops. Content companies, including big names like The New York Times and Vox, report referral traffic falling by as much as 25% during that period.

Content Loss and Google’s New Strategy

Neil Vogel, who runs major publications like People and Travel + Leisure, says that before AI, over 60% of their traffic came from Google. Now, that’s down to the mid-30s and dropping fast. He blames Google for “stealing content to compete with us.” This refers to how Google’s AI pulls information directly from websites and presents it in summaries, often pushing the actual links further down or removing them altogether.

Many digital marketers notice that AI Overviews push links down the page or leave them out entirely. Instead of sending users to the original websites, Google encourages follow-up questions within its own tools. This means fewer clicks to external sites, which hurts publishers and content creators. Essentially, Google is repackaging web content as its own answers, starving the open web of traffic and visibility.

A survey by Pew Research supports this view. When users see an AI summary, only about 1% click on the links provided in the summaries. That’s a tiny fraction compared to traditional search results. Meanwhile, Google is increasingly embedding ads in these AI summaries, and many of those ads lead to Google-owned platforms like YouTube or Google Flights. Data from market research firm SparkToro shows that almost 30% of all clicks go to Google’s own sites—up from just 12% in 2019. This trend has accelerated since Google’s AI search rollout, and it’s likely to get worse.

What’s Next for the Web and Content Creators?

Google’s strategy isn’t just about changing search. It’s also about controlling the flow of traffic and ad revenue. The company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, has said that putting links inside AI Overviews results in higher clickthrough rates. So, the focus is now on being featured in those summaries rather than on ranking highly in traditional search results. When people click through, many land on Google’s own platforms, keeping more of the advertising money within Google’s ecosystem.

This shift raises questions about the future of the open web. Google’s own legal filings suggest that they see the web as already declining rapidly. Critics argue that Google’s use of AI to pull content and reduce traffic to external sites is part of a broader move to dominate online advertising and information. Governments like those in the European Union and the UK are watching closely and considering legal action against Google for its market practices.

Some companies and content creators are trying to fight back. Initiatives like Cloudflare now offer tools to block AI web crawlers from scraping content. Others are exploring new business models that rely less on search and more on newsletters or apps—what’s called “Google Zero.” Many are also planning to put more content behind paywalls to prevent AI from copying and republishing it.

All these efforts point toward a future where access to free, open content on the web could become more limited. It’s reminiscent of the early days of online services like AOL and CompuServe, where content was proprietary and often paid for. If current trends continue, the open web might shrink further, replaced by a more closed, AI-driven information landscape. Many people fear this could make the internet less open and more controlled by a handful of big tech companies.

Inspired by

• https://www.computerworld.com/article/4065060/does-google-want-to-kill-the-web.html

Sources

• gmpg.org
• search.google
• digitalcontentnext.org
• blog.google
• seroundtable.com