Google's AI Overview strategy backfires with advertisers as agents bypass search traffic
Publishers and advertisers say Google's AI-powered search summaries are destroying their traffic and revenue model.
What to know
- Google's AI Overview feature answers queries directly, bypassing traditional search results and reducing ad clicks for publishers and advertisers.
- The strategy appears to undermine Google's own advertising revenue model while also damaging partner websites' traffic.
- Users and observers question whether repositioning Google as an AI agent player actually weakens its market dominance in search.
The dispute Whether Google can monetize AI-powered search summaries in a way that doesn't cannibalize advertiser revenue and its own market position. · positions read across 7 posts and comments
AI Overview destroys advertiser value and Google's own business model.
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“Your own adwork loses massive value bc less views and clicks... SEA, Image, Video, everything bc agents still give a fuck about ads”
iLikeGreyHounds · r/wallstreetbets ↗
This pivot weakens Google's competitive position long-term.
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“Weird business model to transform the market from a thing where you were leagues above the rest to one where you're a second rate player at best. Don't really see this ending well for google”
@hagenblix · Bluesky ↗
Users will abandon Google for open-source alternatives if AI enshittification continues.
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“Whenever they start enshittifying this stuff is the point when I switch to an open source local model permanently.”
RafaelWanderpfad · Reddit ↗
Google Search and advertising company
How it unfolded 3 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump postscomments
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3
hagenblix warns Google's pivot makes it a second-rate player
A Bluesky user argues that Google's strategy to shift the market from traditional search to retrieval-augmented LLMs is self-defeating, moving Google from market leader to a weaker competitor.
“Weird business model to transform the market from a thing where you were leagues above the rest to one where you're a second rate player at best.”
— @hagenblix -
Why do you think self hosted would be cheaper? Hyperscalers can better use massive scale to offer cheaper compute, that's kind of their thing. Even if you can predict your demand precise enough to have high utilization, your power and cooling will be more expensive anyway. If you can self host cheaper than hyperscalers you should throw away your…
2 more of the top 3 · 6 posts in this stretch
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Google working hard to force everyone to switch from traditional search engines to retrieval-augmented LLMs. — Weird business model to transform the market from a thing where you were leagues above the rest to one where you're a second rate player at best. Don't really see this ending well for google
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The same way influencer sponsorship works i guess. Ai will tell you lies for pay in the answers, from whomever is willing to pay google. It wont look like typical ads.
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2
WSB user details advertiser losses from AI Overview
A Reddit user in wallstreetbets outlines how AI agents answering queries directly reduces clicks and impressions for Google's advertising partners, destroying SEA, Image, and Video ad value.
“Your own agent and other agents give a fuck about your advertisement business-model remove 2nd bid auction system and let customers pay more, for shitty clicks…”
— iLikeGreyHounds -
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futurebird questions Google's AI Overview monetization logic
A Mastodon user speculates on Google's reasoning for AI Overview, noting it could maintain market dominance or enable new advertising products, but observes that advertisers appear unhappy with the results.
“How did Google think adding AI overview would make them money? I'm not being sarcastic, I really want to know.”
— futurebird -
F
How did Google think adding AI overview would make them money? I'm not being sarcastic, I really want to know. I assumed that they thought: * It's what people want and will maintain market dominance with the public * It's a new opportunity to sell a different more powerful (manipulative) kind of advertising placement to our customers They seem to…
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What people are saying 3 voices from 1 site · best of 7 · verbatim
- Can Google develop new advertising products powerful enough to compensate for lost traditional search clicks?
- Will advertisers accept a fundamentally different model, or will they invest in alternatives like open-source LLMs?
- Nov 3
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But you can’t milk a tortoise You're not trying hard enough. Gotta get those numbers up.
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you don't need to pretrain it. It'll be similar to how Gemini searches the web when you ask it questions, except it searches the ad database also
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Whenever they start enshittifying this stuff is the point when I switch to an open source local model permanently.