Prompt and circumstance
As online users increasingly put questions to AI, not Google, publishers and businesses built on referral traffic are paying the dearest. Google became a verb in 1998 (mainly through informal use), was named the ‘most useful word’ in 2002, and was officially added to most major dictionaries in 2006. These days, however, ‘Ask Chat’ is […] Prompt and circumstance was originally published on…
The shift from traditional search engines like Google to AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude has created a ripple effect for publishers and businesses that relied on referral traffic. With AI-generated answers now appearing at the top of Google's search page, users are less likely to click on links beneath them, receiving only minimal attention.
A study by SparkToro found that over 68% of American searches end without any clicks, up from 49% just three years prior. Gen Z is driving this trend, but the phenomenon is not limited to the young; nearly half of all American adults use AI chatbots, and a third consult one daily. However, the uncertainty remains as to how this shift will impact search engines and online businesses, as market conditions are still highly volatile.
Google remains optimistic, with their search clicks holding steady, but they are betting on AI Overview to maintain their market share. The question remains whether Google is truly the go-to AI tool, currently dominated by ChatGPT and Claude. This rise of these AI chat tools is leading to the emergence of GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), which aims to increase visibility in machine-written answers.
Tactics such as citing sources, adding statistics, and using quotations have shown to improve visibility, but the rapid development of AI tools makes it difficult to create a definitive guide to GEO.
Written by urgent.news from Emerging Europe's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
