Google Is Lying To Us!
In a recent retort to critics, Google has gotten defensive about its AI Search.
Researchers have done what they do best, research, and have found that Google's AI search sends less traffic to sites. A lot less.
Ryan Whitwam
As to be expected, Google has tried to refute this.
Liz Reid
Honestly, what do we expect Google to say? They'd be insane to say: "Yes! Our product is ruining people's livelihoods!" Absolutely not. Any good practitioner of public relations would try to spin the story. And Google's Liz Reid tried.
Now I'm not normal. I do I click on the source links? More than average people, but I’m not sure average person would do deeper research.
Do I think that if you want to read more you might click the citations? Sure. But, often if your question is answered in the summary, why would you keep clicking through.
Now, this is a major issue for publishers, because people aren’t coming to their site and seeing the ads. Visitors might also not be paying for the paywall. Or any number of things a visitor could do on the source site.
Journalist Mike Elgan has some strong words for Google and he doesn't mince them at all:
The post claims that total organic click volume has remained “relatively stable” and that average click quality has increased. The post hides Google’s criteria for “relatively stable.”
Google shits all over third-party reports, claiming they’re flawed or based on isolated incidents, but provides no detailed rebuttal or specific evidence to undermine these external analyses. This is a classic “strawman argument” where opposing data are caricatured rather than addressed substantively.
To this, we should all apply Hitchens’s Razor: “Any claim asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” So dismiss the claim that third-party reports criticizing AI Mode are flawed.
The language Google uses to describe metrics is conspicuously vague and imbued with optimistic qualifiers like “higher quality clicks” and “people are happier with the experience.”
I tend to agree more with Mike. Google isn't on the higher ground here. Not one bit.
What do you think? Is Google full of malarkey? Fully? Partially? Not at all?
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