Google Backtracks on Previous Traffic Claims, Says “Open Web Is Already in Rapid Decline”

Google has finally admitted that the “open web is already in a rapid decline” after spending months telling everyone that artificial intelligence (AI) tools did not negatively impact the search traffic. The Mountain View-based tech giant's comment was made in the ongoing remedial trial that will determine whether the company will have to divest part of its ad business. Interestingly, last month, Google issued a statement and claimed that third-party reports highlighting a drop in search traffic used “flawed methodologies.”

Google Admits to the Rapid Decline of the Open Web

In a court filing for the remedial trial against the US Department of Justice (DoJ), Google commented on the open web. Notably, the tech giant recently lost the antitrust case about the monopoly of its advertising technology business, and the ongoing trial will decide whether the company needs to divest part of its ad business, and which parts, if any, it should.

Arguing against the suggested divestment, the company said, “The fact is that today, the open web is already in rapid decline and Plaintiffs' divestiture proposal would only accelerate that decline, harming publishers who currently rely on open-web display advertising revenue.” Google added that the industry is in the middle of being reshaped by market forces.

The comment directly contradicts the tech giant's statements from the previous month, where Elizabeth Reid, Vice President and Head of Google Search, claimed that total organic click volume from Google Search to websites has been “relatively stable.” The company made the statement, highlighting that the introduction of AI Mode does not take traffic away from website publishers.

Reid even went as far as accusing third-party reports suggesting otherwise of using “flawed methodologies, isolated examples, or traffic changes that occurred prior to the rollout of AI features in Search.” Google had claimed that AI Overviews are surfacing more links on the page than the traditional search results page.

Responding to a Search Engine Roundtable report on the same, Dan Taylor, Vice President, Global Ads at Google, said in an X (formerly known as Twitter) post, “In the preceding sentence, it's clear that Google's referring to ‘open-web display advertising' – not the open web as a whole. As you know, ad budgets follow where users spend time and marketers see results, increasingly in places like Connected TV, Retail Media & more.”

Notably, earlier this year, Similarweb (via The Economist) claimed that the global search traffic in June had declined by 15 percent year-on-year (YoY). It also claimed that the zero-click rates (page links being viewed but not clicked) to news websites increased from 56 percent to 69 percent YoY in May.