{
  "id": 17097543,
  "title": "Google Starved Out Publishers With AI Search. Now, Its Pivot Is Blowing Up in Its Face.",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/29/google-starved-out-publishers-with-ai-search-now-its-pivot-is-blowing",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-29T17:09:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Futurism",
    "slug": "futurism",
    "url": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/google-starved-out-publishers-ai-mode-revenue"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Google has found itself in a difficult situation after its AI-powered search features failed to live up to expectations, resulting in a 11% drop in shares of its parent company, Alphabet. The company's Q3 report revealed a quarterly revenue of $127.6 billion, marking a 25% increase year-over-year, but this was accompanied by increasing spending, with capital expenditures more than doubling to $51.4 billion. The decline in revenue from traditional search ads, which generated more than $63.3 billion in the same period last year, suggests that Google's pivot to AI features may have hit a snag.\n\nPhilipp Schindler, Google's chief business officer, admitted in an earnings call that lower monetization was a challenge in AI Mode, the AI-powered search experience that functions more like a chatbot. This shift was driven by the global phenomenon of ChatGPT in late 2022, which raised questions about the potential for chatbots to dethrone Google's advertising empire. To meet this challenge, Google developed its own AI features, including AI Overviews, which have been criticized for their unreliable results and detrimental impact on click-through rates.\n\nThese AI Overviews have led to a significant decline in traffic to top news sites, with visits falling from over 70 million in July 2024 to just over 47 million in July 2026. This trend has had a devastating effect on the media landscape, with media leaders predicting a nearly 50% drop in website traffic over the next three years. Despite Google's initial claims, studies have shown that AI Overviews have destroyed click-through rates, causing harm to the websites and publishers whose content Google AI models were stealing.\n\nHowever, Schindler remains optimistic, asserting that Google will soon extract more money from AI Mode. He suggested that many AI Mode queries are upper funnel queries, allowing for the capture of new, high-value commercial intent. Additionally, AI Mode queries are expected to create more monetization opportunities over time.",
  "summary": "Its AI Mode isn't the cash cow it hoped it would be. The post Google Starved Out Publishers With AI Search. Now, Its Pivot Is Blowing Up in Its Face. appeared first on Futurism .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}