Ddos 
As artificial intelligence tools increasingly harvest internet content to generate summaries and detailed answers, the open web is rapidly declining. The reason is not difficult to grasp: when users find the answers they seek directly in Google’s AI Overviews at the top of a search, they have little incentive to scroll further down to the traditional search results.
For countless websites, this shift is catastrophic. Many rely heavily on search engines to drive traffic; once the majority of search engines adopt AI Overview–style features, websites are reduced to mere content providers, while referral traffic dwindles, inevitably dragging down advertising revenues.
Google has previously responded to concerns over traffic loss caused by AI Overviews, insisting that the feature would not impact normal website traffic — though notably, the company offered no internal search data to substantiate that claim.
Yet in court filings, Google was compelled to acknowledge the truth:
“The fact is that today, the open web is already in rapid decline and Plaintiffs’ divestiture proposal would only accelerate that decline, harming publishers who currently rely on open-web display advertising revenue.”
This formal statement, submitted in connection with the U.S. antitrust case over Google’s dominance in online advertising, underscores the company’s recognition of AI’s transformative impact on search and the open internet. A remedial hearing is scheduled for September 22, during which Google’s position on the issue will be examined.
When pressed on Google’s seemingly contradictory narratives, Dan Taylor, the company’s Vice President of Global Ads, took to X/Twitter to clarify:
“In the preceding sentence, it’s clear that Google’s referring to ‘open-web display advertising’ – not the open web as a whole. As you know, ad budgets follow where users spend time and marketers see results, increasingly in places like Connected TV, Retail Media & more.”
The statement, however, has done little to dispel confusion, nor has it reconciled Google’s inconsistencies. The reality remains evident: artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping both the internet and the search engine market, and the impact on websites — especially their traffic and revenue models — is inevitable.
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