Traffic of news websites has been severely hit by Google's new artificial intelligence tool

News Website Traffic Hit Hard by Google's New AI Tools

For online news publishers, the doomsday brought about by artificial intelligence has arrived. Chatbots are replacing Google searches. Users no longer need to click on blue links, and as a result, the referral traffic to news websites has plummeted. Google's AI overview feature, launched last year, has weakened the traffic to featured content such as vacation guides, health tips, and product review websites; this feature summarizes the search content at the top of the search results page. The AI mode launched by the company in the United States last month is expected to deal an even heavier blow. The AI mode responds to user queries in a chatbot-style conversation and provides far fewer links. According to Similarweb data, the proportion of traffic from organic searches to The New York Times' desktop and mobile websites dropped from nearly 44% three years ago to 36.5% in April 2025.

—— The Wall Street Journal

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