Publishers Encounter Fresh Challenges as Google Expands Presence in AI

Google’s new search tool powered by generative AI, called Search Generative Experience (SGE), has raised concerns among publishers. SGE uses AI to create summaries in response to search queries, with the summaries appearing on the top of the Google search homepage. Publishers worry that the tool will decrease their web traffic, as users may find the AI-generated summaries sufficient for their information needs and not click on the provided links. Publishers also want to be compensated for their content which AI companies use to train their AI tools. While Google has introduced a new tool, Google-Extended, that allows publishers to block their content from being used by Google to train its AI models, it doesn’t prevent the content from being crawled for SGE, leading to uncertainty for publishers on how to ensure participation in the new search tool.
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SGE has raised concerns among publishers as they fear a decline in web traffic. The use of AI-generated summaries may discourage users from clicking on provided links, potentially impacting publishers’ ability to secure advertisers. The design of SGE has also pushed down the appearance of links in traditional search, potentially reducing traffic to those links by up to 40%. Publishers are worried about measuring the value of their content without relying on click-through rates. While Google has stated that SGE is designed to highlight web content, publishers are uncertain about how they can ensure their participation in the new search tool.
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Publishers are concerned about the lack of transparency regarding SGE, as they feel Google has not provided clear information on how they can prevent their content from being crawled for SGE. The new search tool is seen as more threatening to publishers than previous crawlers, as it generates summaries that users may read instead of clicking on links, potentially undermining publishers’ revenue. Some websites have already chosen to block their content from being used for AI, but this does not impact their appearance in search results. For publishers, the use of generative AI in search raises questions about their place in an AI-dominated information landscape and the need for fair compensation for their content.

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