this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
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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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[–] Cherry@piefed.social 175 points 2 weeks ago (12 children)

Search engines are pretty much redundant because they don’t return what we are looking for.

They cooked themselves.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 80 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

But what if what your are looking for is AI generated articles that don't provide any trustworthy answers or top 10 lists of products that their manufacturers paid the site to figure on the list? Google is still the best for that.

[–] LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 2 weeks ago

Well when you put it that way…..

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[–] Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I use DDG and SearXNG several times per day. It's better at finding information in StackOverflow and Reddit threads than directly searching in those sites and it's the only way I know how to actively seek out websites I haven't been referred to by anyone.

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[–] GameOverFlow@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you have a technical problem and enter "reddit" in you search often you find help. But this is so stupid. 

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[–] Hond@piefed.social 111 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Most of the time i use search engines to get to wikipedia. Now i have to add "wiki" to most of my queries because wikipedia wont even show up on the first page.

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 71 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Just add Wikipedia to your search bar

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 32 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Use the DDG bang :

  1. Go to https://duchduckgo.com/
  2. Enter !w <your-search-here>
  3. It searches Wikipedia specifically for

There are bangs for "image search" (!im), "github search" (!gh), "search PubMed" (!pm)

You cannot live without this

[–] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

Why would I need any of that if I can bang the search bar of my browser instead, and it takes me straight to search on Wikipedia or any other site I want without waiting for DDG to add that site?

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[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You can completely skip DDG's systems by just using your search bar though.

[–] CluckN@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I know I speak for everyone on Lemmy that they prefer entering their question into Grok.

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[–] proudblond@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

...why don’t you just go to Wikipedia to begin with? I’m honestly asking. URLs still exist.

[–] Hond@piefed.social 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Wikipedias search kinda sucked 15 years ago. So i never bothered to try it again since then tbh

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

It seems significantly better now. A lot of topics, I just go straight to Wikipedia now.

[–] MunkyNutts@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

If you add '!w' to the end of your word in the address bar it takes you directly to wikipedia.

For example: buffalo buffalo buffalo !w

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Only if you are a good netizen and using DDG ;)

https://duckduckgo.com/bangs

Also, it works at the start too: "!w buffalo buffalo"

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[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 66 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

at least some of this has to be because people use other search engines

Google search doesn't actually return useful material anymore

[–] NOPper@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 2 weeks ago

I tried kagi a while back and liked it so much I subscribe now. Google messed up the one thing they ever did right.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

I dropped them for DDG over a year ago. Never have had a cause to regret.

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[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 48 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

So what the new business model is?

  1. Steal content from creators
  2. Train AI model using that content
  3. Sell this content to users as original

When creators go out of business and there's nothing to steal, how will this business continue?

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 33 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Yes. Also combined with:

  1. replace all entry level jobs with AI
  2. run out of experienced people because nobody new can learn the skills required
  3. ???
  4. profit

But you see, for a brief moment, we made the shareholders very rich, and that was a beautiful moment totally worth everything.

[–] mPony@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

well of course

and once the shareholders have all the wealth, everyone else can... Thunderdome? If they're not shareholders then they don't matter.

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[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 weeks ago

They can't see past their next set of financial statements. And the government wants those content creators to fail so they can control all information.

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[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 39 points 2 weeks ago (18 children)

Who uses Google in this day and age? They haven't had good results for a decade or so.

[–] magguzu@lemmy.pt 38 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Literally everyone, do people ever leave the Lemmy/reddit bubble?

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[–] pyramid20@lemmy.world 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I thought this was wild, that no way it could have dropped THAT much: hell, I still search for things and didn't rely on LLMs.

Then I remembered I switched my default engines to Duck Duck Go, and Startpage,

[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks 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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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 31 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

The first thing I do when searching google is to scroll past that AI shit they put at the top and look for a valid link to a valid website.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

DDG lets you just turn off the AI crap.

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[–] imjustmsk@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Do yourself a favor and don't use Google at all

Here are alternatives

  1. Brave Search or DuckDuckGo They do have similar AI features but you can disable them.
  2. Or, Just use StartPage, It's basically shows you Google results but without any if Google's bloat nor their tracking.

edit; stupif typ0

[–] BenchpressMuyDebil@szmer.info 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

https://udm14.com/ , you can also add "&udm=14" to your normal google link so you don't have to rely un udm14.com, there should be a tutorial on the site

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[–] BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Unfortunately, most of the first page of results is often AI slop at this point...

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[–] dudesss@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I'm preaching to the choir here, but for those who don't know

https://www.qwant.com/ (France)

https://www.ecosia.org/ (German)

Both of the above are currently in partnership as well.

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[–] GameOverFlow@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 weeks ago

Steal it. Wrap it up. Give it away. The perfect crime by google. 

[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I switched to Bing since Google blocked my VPN provider. I guess I'm part of the reason. Also, their search results suck balls with sponsored links all over the main page

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] org@lemmy.org 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)
[–] GutterRat42@lemmy.world 75 points 2 weeks ago (26 children)

No, fewer people getting past the AI summary

[–] Addv4@lemmy.world 35 points 2 weeks ago

Given the state of a lot of the summaries I've seen lately, that is scary.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Is that what this is saying? I wasn't sure. The article should state that explicitly, and not assume that the reader concludes that.

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 weeks ago

I think the issue there is the data doesn't tell anyone "why", it only tells "what".

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[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

No amount of bad reports or low profitability will convince these people AI is not the end-all-be-all they think it is.

[–] Iusedtobeanalien@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Google prioritised advertising over content to the point where it's chrome browser and YouTube have become unusable

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