Changes to the Google algorithm and AI search features, such as AI previews, are sparking debates about the future of the Internet. Discover how these innovations are impacting independent publishers and content quality
If you’ve ever Googled the term “air purifier reviews,” that almost certainly means you’ve seen HouseFresh.com. Launched in 2020 by Gisele Navarro and her partner, the site leveraged a massive 10 years’ worth of writing experience between them in the indoor air quality products space. A few months after win-back, HouseFresh was soaring again because it relies on high-quality scientific testing. It had taken on 15 full-time staff. Then, in September 2023, everything went haywire.
“It destroyed us,” Navarro lamented. Search terms that previously returned top-end page rankings used to lead to major magazines, which obviously have not tested the product. Another, worse Google algorithm update in March 2024 left HouseFresh only crawling a few hundred visitors a day. Most team members had to be laid off and the site almost went under.
A Google spokesperson the BBC: “We make changes to our algorithms after testing to make sure it does benefit searchers and provide resources for feedback on search rankings Google insists the updates are for the greater good of the internet and AI reviews are just the starting point ;apGestureRecognizer.
Last week, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, announced an update commencing from this week. Google Search will provide AI-generated answers to most—nearly all—user questions. The company has tagged these newly added features, which shall be available in the USA, “AI reviews.” “Google Search is generative AI at the level of human curiosity,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said. AI reviews come as a part of some broader changes that Google has now put into place over the last two years; they will, according to the company, herald the new age of technology.
However, as pointed by critics, the flip side is that it can be equally disastrous for the creators themselves. It would rather make content with a human touch for algorithms. The “Useful Content Update” from Google in 2022 targeted cleaning such an attempt, and further updates in 2023, 2024, say low-quality content was reduced by 45%.
These have caused waves that would take a little more time to reflect on. SEMrush data had it that New York Magazine registered a 21% loss of visibility in the case of New York Magazine and GQ.com. On the other end, Reddit and other UGC platforms gained. For instance, Katie Berry, the owner behind Housewife How-Tos, is fearing that Google’s AI will scare away visitors since the site lost 70% of the traffic because of the Google 2022 update.
Salvation or downfall of the internet
Other writers, like David Leiter for example, feel that the AI, rather than reviewing their piece of work, is just scraping through the work. A search of something like “Best slot canyons near Las Vegas” now delivers an answer from the AI, not his article. Also, most people are used to Google usually providing a link to the original content for its Google AI reviews, but they are hidden under small arrows and are not that prominent.
Google realizes that the output generated by its artificial intelligence system could be erroneous and is trying to put that right through its manual methods. Google has many legal suits against it, and one of the prominent ones is that the U.S. Department of Justice has been filed by calling Google the outfit that has an illicit monopoly. Among the various punitive measures, Google, among other things, may be liable to pay heavy fines or can be bifurcated into various companies.
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