Google's AI is shifting the balance of power on the web – these are the biggest losers
When Google delivers the answer itself, users click through to the source far less often. An exclusive analysis shows where the risk is highest – for news publishers in the US first, and for Europe next.
What it’s about
For decades the rule of the web was simple: rank at the top of Google and you are visible. That order is collapsing. Google is rebuilding its search engine at speed. AI summaries are replacing classic results. Whoever delivers the answer captures the traffic – and that is, increasingly, Google itself. Exclusive data from analytics firm Similarweb shows how sharply the share of users who don’t click through after a search has risen.
Who’s losing
In the US, Google traffic to many news sites has already crashed. Business Insider has announced layoffs; other outlets are losing millions of visits per month. The share of users who don’t click further after seeing AI Overviews is, at some US outlets, more than ten percentage points above the classic-search baseline. The old deal of “content for reach” is on the verge of breaking. In Germany, too, the signs are mounting that the same shift will repeat.
Why this is a structural shift
What Google is doing now is not a technical tweak but a structural shift. When search engines turn into answer engines, the economics of the web change. For decades, media produced content because reach via search could be monetised. Once that bridge is gone, the question becomes: how is journalism, how are product guides, forums, niche sites going to be financed in the future – and who supplies the data that AI systems live on?
What regulation could do
At precisely this moment, the EU is considering softening core provisions of the Digital Markets Act – out of fear of US punitive tariffs. The law was supposed to limit the power of the tech giants. In the UK, a publishers’ association has already filed a complaint about Google’s AI summaries with the European Commission. The tipping point is right here. Anyone who delays it loses the foundation of an open web with many voices.
I wrote the full story together with Philipp Alvares de Souza Soares for Handelsblatt. This is a first impression.