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Google Search referrals to the web have plummeted, AI links are 'less than 1%' of traffic (9to5google.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Data gathered by Chartbeat and shared by Axios reveals that, over the past year, Google Search traffic to publishers across the broader web have fallen drastically, and proportionally more so for smaller websites. Referral traffic from Google apparently fell by 60% for “small publishers,” while “medium publishers” (those with between 10,000-100,000 daily pageviews) saw a drop of 47%. “Large publishers,” meanwhile, saw a 22% drop. That last category would be any site getting over 100,000 daily pageviews.

It’s not just Google Search either. While Search traffic dropped by 34%, traffic from Google Discover has also fallen by 15% over the past year, the report found.

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[–] 29 points 7 months ago (11 children)

A LOT of people out there just read whatever tho google AI tells them on their search. They've been trained that the answer is always the 1st non-ad link on Google. And now the thing at the top of a Google search is their LLM answer.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (10 children)

    That's horrifying. That thing is wrong waaaaaaay to often to trust it. Like, easily more than half the time and that's me googling shit I'm not even that knowledgeable about.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago

    Searched for ‘is Death Stranding 2 on Geforce Now’ (streaming games service).

    Answer it gave ie ‘yes, absolutely’. With a link.

    The link? An Nvidia post about GPU drivers that had been updated to work with the game since it just launched on PC. Basically, because there was SOME mention of the game on the Nvidia site, it just went ‘yep’ without actually understanding the question.

    Basically, if I’d bought the game based on that answer, I wouldn’t be able to play it…

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (8 children)

    I watched a guy use gemini to do a delicate system edit then melt down on Fb when he bricked his home automation system.

    When people told him to stop using fckn gemini he started just blindly clinging to people and demanding answers from them instead ("I have three blinking yellow lights. What does that mean????").

    You can't fix stupid desperation

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (7 children)

    I'm in a couple discords that have tech support channels and it's always annoying when people like that come in. "I already catastrophically fucked my shit up,. Why aren't you assholes helping?" Okay buddy, let me just hop back to the past real quick and stop you from doing that.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    I mean if they just admitted what they fucked up and asked if there was any way out, you'd be a lot kinder. But instead they just jam their dick in there fucking with shit they have no business touching then start screaming for everyone ELSE to fix it like they pay us to.

    We really don't tell these people to go fuck themselves enough.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    That's the thing. People try be kind but these guys jump in there in a panic and when they don't instantly get an answer they're all like "AREN'T ANY OF YOU ASSHOLES GOING TO HELP ME!!!?". We'd be helping if we could dude but you already fucked yourself. Getting all aggressive with us isn't going to change matters.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    I've noticed a trend that recently it feels like people assume everyone else is getting the answers and instant help whenever they ask and they think just them are being left out. I keep hearing it "other people get whatever they ask for" as if it is true. It seems to be a self excuse to hate everyone prematurely and yet still expect everything from them.

    Everyone has gotten to used to seeing the internet as the solution to everyone else's problem.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    I always feel kind of good about it if it takes some effort to get an answer to an issue I'm having. If I've been searching through docs and troubleshooting for hours and finally give up and ask for help and someone just answers right away I feel like a dumbass.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Bud, i've spent 30 years in IT, a lot of it client facing. It's not necessarily the internet, just plain human nature.

    I mean the internet is probably not helping, jfgi became ubiquitous and now useless, and a lot of old school tech blogs either removed their content from AI or search engines just buried their shit in favour of marketing so people are kinda feeling like their crutches have been kicked out from under them.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah that is fair. The most accessible library in the world has basically been burned down so scraps of it can be sold back out.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    Honestly at this point if i find a useful guide for something ii'm likely to need again in the future i just print it to pdf now. The ol' habits developed back when things would get regularly TOSed return to good stead.

    (Also i document by habit anyway)

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