Google AI Search Features Face Web Traffic Backlash

SEO · x · 2026-07-20

Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews are again under scrutiny after a New York Times piece framed them as building an “AI fence” around the web.

The quoted Google spokesperson says the company sends billions of clicks to websites every week through these AI features and pushes back on the idea that they block the open web. The post is essentially about the tension between AI-enhanced search and publishers’ traffic concerns.

Related event: Google AI Search Accused of Walling Off Web Traffic(2 posts)→

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