The deployment of AI mode and the generalization of summaries of results by IA calls into question the whole ecosystem of the web of today.
The head of Google Search, Liz Reid, published yesterday a blogging ticket in the form of an fire extinguisher. According to her, the web research by IA would actually offer more clicks to websites, and would improve the degree of retention of Internet users. Information that completely contradicts the observations of the Pew Research Institute, which alerted last week on the significant drop in attendance at several information websites.
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IA research for websites?
In most other countries than France, Google has already deployed what it calls “AI Overviews”, that is to say from the responses generated by artificial intelligence to the requests you enter the search engine. A new feature that accelerates information taking for Internet users (at the risk that they are false), but also mechanically reduces clicks leading to websites that cause this information. However, Google wants to be reassuring: the volume of clicks on the firm’s search pages would have remained “Relatively stable” Since the implementation of AI Overviews.
An observation that directly contradicts the Pew Research Institute, a study of which has shown that Internet users who are presented with summaries by IA are much less likely to click on a link. A report swept by Liz Reid, who considers that “Our data contradict third -party reports that suggest dramatic trafficking in traffic – often based on outdated methodologies, isolated examples, or traffic drops that already took place before the deployment of research by AI”.
However, a survey of Wall Street Journal held earlier this year than titles like Business Insider, The Washington Post and the HuffPost had undergone a significant drop in their attendance since the generalization of search engines by IA, which was able to lead some media to dismiss part of their team.
The end of the web as we know it
This is just a month before the AI Overviews arrived in France. The effects of AI search engines are already visible around us: how much already prefer to use Chatgpt that Google for small daily research? Also, the web ecosystem of the 2010s, entirely based on optimizations allowing to appear in good position in Google search results, is about to collapse. And the victims are likely to be numerous.
It is a known phenomenon, and observed on the part of all Internet users. Google’s rules to ensure a good place in the results have shaped titles, the prioritization of information in press articles. And, with the arrival of the results generated by AI, it is a new paradigm that is set up. SEO experts (Search Engine Optimizationwho accompany publishers to improve their position on Google) also see their business heckled, now forcing them to become Geo experts – Generative Engine Optimization.
It is mechanical: if the click rate drops to websites, it means that the advertising revenues of the sites will drop. A situation that could lead to job cuts, and therefore a reduction in the volume of articles published, making said sites even less visible by search engines. Who knows how many sites will survive this surge?