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AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

arstechnica.com

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Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#291

Post by entuno »

ripped_britches wrote: post #203

Why is this being framed as a problem? People are obviously happier with the new feature, duh Of course they need to make the AI overviews suck less, but saying it’s unfair to sites is crazy talk because your site now just generates less value than an AI response if that’s what stopped you from going If you have content better than Gemini I will still go to your site

A lot of companies seem to have based their business model on the assumption that Google and Microsoft would continue to send them traffic for free indefinitely.

So now they're having to scramble to rethink their approach, and obviously aren't happy about that.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#292

Post by omnicognate »

pasc1878 wrote: post #278
omnicognate wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I do that search on Google right now, the top result is the National Pork Board (pork.org): ad-free, pop-up free, waffle-free and with the correct answer in large font at the top of the page. It's in F, but I always stick " C" at the end of temperature queries. In this case that makes the top result foodsafety.gov which is equally if not more authoritative, also ad-, waffle-, and popup- free and with with the answ…

Kagi sort of gets this correct. Kagi search gives the pork board first as well. But note that site fails mtkd's requirements giving temperature in degrees Fahrenheit and not Celsius. The second hit does give a correct temperature but has a cookie banner (which at least can be rejected with one click) The optional Kagi assistant quotes the pork board, usda which also is only in Fahrenheit, and third a blog on site for…

I don't really see the problem with F and C. As I mentioned, I always stick " C" on the end of temperature queries. It's 2 characters and the results always have the centigrade temps, on both Kagi and Google.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#293

Post by SwtCyber »

throwaway81523 wrote: post #133

Of course slow, shitty web sites also cause a massive drop in clicks, as soon as an alternative to clicking emerges. It's just like on HN, if I see an interesting title and want to know what the article is about, I can wince and click the article link, but it's much faster and easier to click the HN comments link and infer the info I want from the comments. That difference is almost entirely from the crappy overdesig…

But it's kind of a vicious cycle: users avoid bad sites, traffic drops, sites shove in more ads to survive, UX gets worse, and so on

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#294

Post by ianis-r »

Mars008 wrote: post #283
littlecranky67 wrote: post #233

Here is the experience when clicking a link on mobile: * Page loads, immediately when I start scrolling and reading a popup trying to get tracking consent * If I am lucky, there is a "necessary only". When unlucky I need to click "manage options" and first see how to reject all tracking * There is a sticky banner on top/bottom taking 20-30% of my screen upselling me a subscription or asking me to install their app. U…

That's why I don't use mobile for browsing. Only Firefox with JS disabled unless it's needed and I need that page.

Firefox with ublock origin does wonder on mobile

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#295

Post by pasc1878 »

wat10000 wrote: post #55
mtkd wrote: post #50

Conversely, it's useful to get an immediate answer sometimes 6 months ago, "what temp is pork safe at?" was a few clicks, long SEO optimised blog post answers and usually all in F not C ... despite Google knowing location ... I used it as an example at the time of 'how hard can this be?' First sentance of Google AI response right now: "Pork is safe to eat when cooked to an internal temperature of 145°F (63°C)"

It’s only useful if you can trust it, and you very much cannot. I know you can’t necessarily trust anything online, but when the first hit is from the National Pork Board, I’m confident the answer is good.

But for the OP it is not as it does not give a temperature in their preferred units and probably USDA gives the wrong temperature in their locality.

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#296

Post by pasc1878 »

slau wrote: post #20
ghushn3 wrote: post #14

I subscribe to Kagi. It's been worth it to have no ads and the ability to uprank/downrank sites. And there's no AI garbage sitting in the top of the engine.

You can opt-in to get an LLM response by phrasing your queries as a question. Searching for “who is Roger rabbit” gives me Wikipedia, IMDb and film site as results. Searching for “who is Roger rabbit?” gives me a “quick answer” LLM-generated response: “Roger Rabbit is a fictional animated anthropomorphic rabbit who first appeared in Gary K. Wolf's 1981 novel…” followed by a different set of results. It seems the resu…

Even with a normal search there is a link to get Quick Answer which gives the LLM result

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#298

Post by SwtCyber »

mtkd wrote: post #50

Conversely, it's useful to get an immediate answer sometimes 6 months ago, "what temp is pork safe at?" was a few clicks, long SEO optimised blog post answers and usually all in F not C ... despite Google knowing location ... I used it as an example at the time of 'how hard can this be?' First sentance of Google AI response right now: "Pork is safe to eat when cooked to an internal temperature of 145°F (63°C)"

The issue is more when those same tools start replacing deeper content or misrepresenting nuanced info

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#299

Post by IshKebab »

zdragnar wrote: post #105
esafak wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Write documentation and don't block crawlers.

There's a library I use with extensive documentation- every method, parameter, event, configuration option conceivable is documented. Every so often I get lost in the docs trying to do something that actually isn't supported (the library has some glaring oversights) and I'll search on Google to see if anyone else came up with a similar problem and solution on a forum or something. Instead of telling me "that isn't su…

I mean... Yeah I've had ChatGPT tell me you can't do things with Make that you totally can. They aren't perfect. What do you expect Google to do about it?

Re: AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks

#300

Post by littlecranky67 »

tmountain wrote: post #279
littlecranky67 wrote: post #233

Here is the experience when clicking a link on mobile: * Page loads, immediately when I start scrolling and reading a popup trying to get tracking consent * If I am lucky, there is a "necessary only". When unlucky I need to click "manage options" and first see how to reject all tracking * There is a sticky banner on top/bottom taking 20-30% of my screen upselling me a subscription or asking me to install their app. U…

AI is following the drug dealer model. “The first dose is free!” Given the cost incurred, lots of dark patterns will be coming for sure.

I fail to see how that will work out. Just I have an adblocker now, I could have a very simple local llm in my browser that modifies the search-AIs answer and strips obvious ads.
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