\nThe post Google Is Burning the Internet to Save Itself \u2014 And AI Is the Match appeared first on Android Headlines.
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![](\"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/google-search-ai-search-AH.jpg\")
\nSource: ndroidheadlines.com <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For nearly three decades, Google has been the front door to the internet. It helped us navigate a chaotic sea of information, connecting billions of people to billions of pages\u2014some useful, some dubious, many essential. In the process, Google didn\u2019t just organize the world\u2019s information; it reordered the internet around itself.<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019s unmaking it.<\/p>\n
The threat isn\u2019t from regulators or rival search engines\u2014it\u2019s from Google\u2019s own pivot to artificial intelligence. In its rush to stave off an AI-fueled exodus to chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, Google has begun cannibalizing the very ecosystem it once sustained. The company says it\u2019s enhancing search. In reality, it\u2019s rewriting its business model in a way that threatens to dismantle the open web as we know it.<\/p>\n
Why is Google so terrified of losing its search dominance?<\/p>\n
Simply put, Google is a monopolist. Google does not want to have to compete with other companies, especially for something that is so core to its business \u2013 search. In fact, Google just got hit with another antitrust case decision, where US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote, \u201cGoogle is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google is currently in the midst of multiple antitrust trials, where the US Department of Justice has claimed that Google is a monopoly. And so far the US Government is undefeated in accusing Google of being a monopoly in multiple businesses that Google has.<\/p>\n
It also came to light, during this trial, that Google was paying billions to Apple. This made Google the default search engine on the iPhone. In 2022, Google paid Apple $22 billion to remain as the default search engine on the iPhone and other Apple products, court records showed. Google also profits shares with Apple, from its search engine. So every search you make in Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac makes both Google and Apple money. This deal also locked out other competitors like Bing and DuckDuckGo, who couldn\u2019t even afford to pay Apple anywhere near that much to become the default search engine.<\/p>\n
But the antitrust trials don\u2019t scare Google. It\u2019s artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s scared of AI replacing its core business<\/p>\n
Artificial Intelligence is a real problem for Google, despite Google embracing it for many years. Well before ChatGPT and these other chatbots became popular, Google was always talking about AI, all the way back to its announcement of Google Now, back in 2012. But Google fell behind, when it comes to AI. OpenAI released ChatGPT and took over the world, becoming the fastest product to hit 100 million users.<\/p>\n
And when it comes to search, AI is essentially replacing it these days. Think about it. When you need to look for an answer to something, where are you going? ChatGPT? Perplexity? Google? More and more people are using AI Chatbots to find answers, especially with the new Deep Research feature that many of these chatbots are adding now. And the AI alternatives often times provide better results, just take a look at this example from SEO Expert Lily Ray.<\/p>\n
What it looks like to search for something on Google in the US (the first three screenshots) compared to ChatGPT (last screenshot)<\/p>\n
Why is this so hard for Google?<\/p>\n
And the search is literally about a Google product. pic.twitter.com\/MZczhXDdys<\/p>\n
\u2014 Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) April 16, 2025<\/p>\n
Even if you are heading to Google, you\u2019re likely getting the answer before seeing a single ad. Since Google has placed all of the ads below the AI excerpt at the top of the page. Remember, ads are how Google makes money from search, so with fewer eyeballs on ads, less revenue for Google.<\/p>\n
This is a $237 billion issue for Google. In 2024, Google made a little over $237 billion in ads across its platforms. Ads also fund everything that Google does. From Gmail, to YouTube, to Google Drive, and even Android.<\/p>\n
Some experts have suggested that this is \u201can extinction-level event\u201d for Google; it\u2019s not just bad for publishers that rely on ads to make money and pay for their employees and other expenses.<\/p>\n
If search dies, Google dies with it.<\/p>\n
When this much money is at stake \u2013 and let\u2019s face it, it\u2019s Google\u2019s entire livelihood \u2013 Google is going to fight dirty. And it\u2019s doing this by stealing data from the very publishers that it serves ads to.<\/p>\n
As one expert said, \u201cIf a news website pays a guy to test out the 30 best smartphones and rank them, and Google\u2019s AI aggregates that information and provides the answer, that\u2019s not OK. That\u2019s straight thievery.\u201d And Google is indeed doing this. Just search Google for \u201cbest smartphones ranked\u201d and you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s full of shopping links; however, if you switch over to the \u201cAI Mode\u201d tab, you\u2019ll see it listing out all of the best smartphones, why they are good options, and what to look for. Sure, Google sources these sites on the right-hand side of the window. But Google just gave you all of that information, so why would you click on any of those sources? There\u2019s simply no need to.<\/p>\n
Google is already seeing a shift in search engine market share. They are down 2% worldwide in the past year. Google does still have a staggering 89% of the market, however, at the pace that AI is improving, this could accelerate pretty quickly.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s $237 Billion Panic Button<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s lifeblood is ads. While many of us see Google as a search giant, or a smartphone platform, Google\u2019s true business is ads. It always has been, and that could be the downfall for Google. Last year, $237.68 billion flowed into Google from advertising alone. Those annoying ads you see on websites, and in search results, all were responsible for that.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s total revenues for 2024 were $350.18 billion, showing that advertising still represents a very significant amount of its revenue.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s happening and why is Google hitting the panic button? Well, if users keep using Google\u2019s AI, or even AI alternatives, those advertising dollars will vanish. For Google, AI Search functionality will effectively kill the company\u2019s cash cow. This is because AI gives you a direct answer, instead of 10 different search results, along with up to five ads. That means AI generates zero dollars for Google.<\/p>\n
What was Google\u2019s response? AI Overviews. This was announced at Google I\/O in May 2024, and is now available for virtually every Google Search user. What this does is, provides you with an AI answer at the top of the search results. Not replacing the search results, but giving you a straightforward answer, which can be very useful for simple things like conversions, or finding out how tall someone is.<\/p>\n
The flip side here, is that Google is cannibalizing what made them so successful. By backstabbing the internet.<\/p>\n
AI Overviews are killing website traffic, and will essentially kill the internet in the long run. Just take a look at the screenshot above, where I searched for \u201cWhat is Android 16\u201d. The first result is halfway down the page, with AI Overview taking up the first half of the screen. And it tells me everything I need to know about my query. So while Google is telling publishers that AI Overview is going to improve their traffic, meanwhile telling investors that this is a defensive move to keep users from jumping over to other AI competitors.<\/p>\n
Google isn\u2019t just keeping you on its site now \u2014 it\u2019s keeping you on the top half of the page. Below the fold lies a digital graveyard.<\/p>\n
Some publishers have reported pretty catastrophic traffic drops, of over 60% on queries that now include an AI Overview. This means that Google is obviously lying to publishers.<\/p>\n
AI mode for my queries about the Masters golf tournament. Includes my follow-up questions. For this type of query chain, I really didn\u2019t need to click through to a publisher (even with the follow-up questions). For other types of queries in AI mode, I often do click through, but\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/DlLUQSICYx<\/p>\n
\u2014 Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 13, 2025<\/p>\n
For decades, Google told publishers, \u201ccreate great content and we\u2019ll send you traffic\u201d, now Google is using that same content to \u201ctrain AI systems that will ultimately put publishers out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Meta got dragged for killing journalism with Facebook traffic drops due to eliminating the news tab, then what Google is doing is ten times worse, because it\u2019s taking the content it no longer sends traffic to.<\/p>\n
Google claims \u201cAI Improves Search, instead of Replacing it<\/p>\n
In a discussion with the Search Engine Journal, Sundar Pichai was asked about AI and Search, and whether it would ever replace search. Pichai doesn\u2019t believe it will replace search, but improve it instead.<\/p>\n
Pichai equated AI as a technology that improves current technologies, versus replacing them. Obviously, as a company worth nearly $2 trillion, Google needs to stay on top of the latest technologies and capitalize on them as well.<\/p>\n
The thing that excites me about AI is it\u2019s the same underlying piece of technology for the first time in our history we have one leveraged piece of technology which can improve search, can improve YouTube, can improve Waymo and we put it all as cloud to our customers outside and so I feel good about that.<\/p>\n
But the question still remains, will AI help search for those looking for answers, or those making the content that Search is surfacing, or both?<\/p>\n
Google isn\u2019t just killing publishers, it\u2019s killing small businesses<\/p>\n
While we know all too well how Google\u2019s changes can kill our traffic, and some of our competitors as well. It\u2019s important to remember that news sites and publishers aren\u2019t the only ones being affected by Google\u2019s backstabbing. Small businesses that rely on Google Search, Maps, and other Google products for potential customers to find them.<\/p>\n
Given the current economy, these small businesses and independent publishers are already struggling. The last thing they need is for Google to steal their content and their traffic, as well as revenue.<\/p>\n
This is also going to affect educators, researchers, and students who are relying on organic sources for all sorts of projects, and even a thesis.<\/p>\n
But potentially the biggest stakeholder getting burned will be journalists. As their work is being summarized, no credit is being given to the journalist.<\/p>\n
While Google might see no problem with this right now, after a while, they will be driving these publishers and businesses out of business. Then how will they feed new information to their AI machines? Google has said before that giving traffic to publishers is a \u201cnecessary evil\u201d, but these days, it seems like playing Google\u2019s game is more of a \u201cnecessary evil\u201d.<\/p>\n
Google Is the New Napster \u2014 And the Web Is Its Music Industry<\/p>\n
In the early 2000s, Napster blew up the music industry by giving people exactly what they wanted: free music, instantly. It didn\u2019t matter that artists, producers, and labels were being robbed blind \u2014 the user experience was too good. Napster didn\u2019t care who made the music. It only cared that it could be copied, indexed, and served up for free.<\/p>\n
Now, Google is doing the exact same thing to the internet.<\/p>\n
With its AI Overviews, Google scrapes the collective output of journalists, bloggers, researchers, and creators \u2014 then spits it back to users without ever requiring a click. It\u2019s dressed up as \u201cefficiency\u201d and \u201cAI-powered search,\u201d but let\u2019s be real: it\u2019s theft, algorithmically sanitized. Just like Napster, Google is banking on the fact that the convenience is so addictive, we won\u2019t care that the people who actually make the content are being bled dry.<\/p>\n
Google is Napster with a trillion-dollar valuation. But this time, there\u2019s no Metallica lawsuit. No federal court case. Just a slow, quiet collapse of the web as we know it.<\/p>\n
Because if AI can take your content, summarize it, and steal the traffic, why would anyone keep publishing anything at all?<\/p>\n
If we let AI replace the open web, we don\u2019t just lose Google Search \u2014 we lose the soul of the internet.
\nThe post Google Is Burning the Internet to Save Itself \u2014 And AI Is the Match appeared first on Android Headlines.
\n
\nSource: ndroidheadlines.com
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