Is Google killing publishers? Major concerns raised around how AI Overviews work

Back in May, during its annual I/O, Google unveiled AI Overviews. It is an add-on to Google search and offers an AI-generated summary of users’ queries. The feature hasn’t been rolled out completely yet and is already facing backlash. A recent Press Gazette report revealed that the visibility of publishers is dropping on Google searches because of this new feature. 

Currently, not a lot of people have access to the AI Overviews feature but according to a recent analysis by research consultancy Authoritas, which reviewed 6,599 keywords across various categories, AI Overviews now appear for 17% of queries in the UK and US.

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What is AI Overviews and why are publishers worried?

See, AI Overviews appears on top of the search results. Since it gives a brief summary of what the user has asked, they don’t go through the hassle of scrolling down and reading other articles. As per research, this new AI feature by Google is taking away from the traditional publisher content.

To give you context, as per the Press Gazette, earlier, the US consumer media site Martha Stewart held the top spot in search results for “how to kill wasps” earlier. Now, the AI summary of this article and others are placed on top of the search results along with sponsored links. To find the original article is now placed super low. 

Another issue that has been identified here is that AI Overviews often also produce incorrect information. Often outdated or incorrect information is reflected. The whole issue is that AI Overviews not only keep people from scrolling down but also sometimes leave them with wrong information. Moreover, AI Overviews use link symbols that keep users on the Google site, requiring extra clicks to access original sources.

The research further revealed that in 60% of cases, AI Overviews link to pages outside the top ten results in standard searches. This has dramatically altered the current search rankings and site traffic.

Also read: Yelp sues Google over anti-competitive practices in local search and advertising, Google says “not new”

Authoritas CEO Laurence O’Toole says that Google AI Overviews will likely become the norm for search results in the future. It can gradually expand to cover a broader range of topics. According to him, this shift will significantly impact clickthrough rates and publisher traffic.