Kathmandu. Google has claimed that the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool introduced in its search engine will revive the Internet. However, many have called it a ‘great flood’ for the website. One thing is clear. That is, the current chapter of online history is rapidly approaching its end. Now we are entering the era of ‘machine web’. An era where machines (robots/AI) visit websites.
In fact, so far the Internet has stuck to a general agreement. In this, websites allow search engines like Google to use their content for free. And, in return, Google sends people to these websites. Through this medium, most websites earn by selling advertisements and goods.
About 68 percent of internet activity starts with search engines and about 90 percent of its search is done on Google. If the Internet is a garden, Then Google is the sun, which helps the flowers to bloom.
This system lasted for decades. But a small change by Google has added to the concern that this entire system will be destroyed. The way we used Google in the traditional way, that style is changing. That is, a new AI tool has started appearing in Google Search. This can be useful for you. But if the critics’ predictions come true, it will cause an earthquake on the internet. According to them, this will make it difficult to get quality information online and a large number of people can lose their jobs.
Those who see it as a positive change say it will improve the business model of the web and expand the opportunity to find the best content. But, good or bad, your digital experience will never be the same again.
On May 20, 2025, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stepped onto the stage at the company’s annual developer conference. For your information, let us mention here, before that Google was extensively testing the ‘AI Overview’ feature. Such a feature – which shows the information about the subject you are looking for in Google’s search bar at the top of the search results. A year after its launch, the feature became available globally only a few months later. Talking about this, Pichai said that Google is moving forward. “For those who want a complete AI search experience, we are introducing a completely new AI mode,” he said. ”
After years of AI propaganda, you may doubt Pichai’s statement. But it’s real.
According to Google, people around the world who have access to the Internet use Google Search 5 trillion times a year. From this, the overall size of the Internet can be defined. Of course, ‘AI mode’ is an isolated change of Google. In stark contrast to AI overview, AI mode completely replaces traditional search results. Instead, a chatbot effectively creates an article to answer your questions.
As you read this, AI mode is becoming available to users in the US. It has now appeared as a button on the search engine and the company’s app. This is not a default for now. Or you can use it only whenever you want. But Google’s search head, Liz Reed, said at the time of launching this tool that ‘this is the future of Google Search’.
This is the main problem that critics see. AI Overview is already sending very little traffic to the website. Many now fear that the AI mode can intensify that trend. If this happens, it could destroy the business model of digital content that you have been enjoying for almost 30 years.
“If Google defaults on the AI mode in its current form, it will have a devastating impact on the Internet,” says Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy and research at amsive, a marketing agency that will cut off most publishers’ core sources of revenue and discourage content creators who rely on organic search traffic. There are millions of websites, perhaps even more, content creators that rely on organic traffic coming from Google. ”
Google has said that the publisher and other experts are unnecessarily concerned about this issue. Google claims that AI mode will make the web healthier and more useful than discourages it.
“Every day we send billions of clicks to websites, and connecting people to the web remains our priority,” a Google spokesperson told the BBC. This creates a new opportunity to find content. ”
But Google and its critics agree on one thing. That is, the internet is going to look very different now. Another year is likely to end an era of the Internet. Now the only question is- what will our world look like when the dust of that change settles?
Having said that, it is important to keep in mind that the internet has not gone anywhere. It is best to think that the nature of the Internet is only about to change. Social media platforms are doing better than ever for websites. Some popular websites with paywall are flourishing. What’s going to change is just how people search for and find information on the Internet. What some fear is the risk of an ‘open web’. It is a system of freely accessible websites where people and businesses (often referred to as ‘publishers’) share information, photos and videos.
The theory that the calculator replaced the mathematics teacher is always applicable in the field of technology. In 2010, wired magazine’s cover announced that the web was dead. Still, we are here. Smartphones, apps and social networks all predicted a catastrophe about the World Wide Web. But the web became more sophisticated.
After Google announced the new tool in May, the BBC has spoken to more than a dozen experts about the AI mode. The experts said that this tool poses an unprecedented threat to the digital economy.
“I don’t think it’s fair to use the word ‘lopp’ for what’s going to happen to the website,” says Barry Adams, founder of SEO company Polemic Digital. ”
Google disagrees. The company told the BBC that AI overview is very good for the web. And the AI mode will be no different. Google has emphasized that these features “send users to more diverse websites”. And the company claims that the traffic coming from it will be ‘more quality’. Google argues that users spend more time inside the link than ever before, especially because the link provided by AI is more reliable.
However, the company has not provided any data to support these claims. There is a guide on how to use AI mode by website operators (publishers). However, it did not give information about how AI overview affects the website. It also did not reveal how these AI tools send the amount of traffic from search to the web without reducing it.
Critics have a simple answer. Both AI overview and AI mode include links to sources. But if AI answers the question you’re looking for, why do you bother clicking a link and reaching another website?
The data seems to support that argument. Many analyses have shown that AI overview reduces the click-through rate of traffic google sends to the website by between 30 and 70 percent. However, it depends on what people are looking for. It doesn’t always mean that the information provided by AI is sufficient. In addition, about 60 percent of Google searches are now ‘zero-click’, according to some other analyses. In which users can get the information they want without visiting the same link.
Experts suspect that any version of AI mode will soon default and it will intensify the impact of AI on traffic. Because it completely removes the list of traditional links.
“I think the number of clicks going from Google’s AI mode to the web will only be about half, much less than that,” Adams said. It remains to be seen how it will be treated. But for many publishers, this will be such a dramatic change. ”
It’s not just about some bloggers losing their jobs. It will also change how users themselves interact with the web and how they find information.
“The web is all these communities at the tip of your finger, and it can be lost,” says Giselle Navarro, managing editor of Housefresh. She speaks in favor of websites that feel ignored by Google, and argues that the sources of information that users can detect may be much less diverse. “It’s like you ask librarians for books, but they only tell about books,” she says, “The web felt like a big library for all of us.” I think that experience is gone now. ”
A Google spokesman argued that such predictions and analyses are baseless. According to the company, the site may lose traffic for various reasons. And studies on these topics are often done using retrospective data and faulty methodologies.
“From our point of view, the web is thriving,” Nick Fox, senior vice president of Google’s knowledge and information division, said in a recent podcast. According to Fox, the amount of content on the web has increased by 45 percent in the last two years. This does not include spam. “We see this in the data,” he said, adding that people are still very actively clicking on the web. ”
Despite those assurances, some websites are struggling to keep themselves running with the advent of AI-powered chatbots and searches. Last year, Housefress was one of countless small online businesses that claimed to be impressed by Google’s algorithm updates that had diverted traffic to bigger brands. According to Navarro, AI is increasing such damage.
“A few weeks ago, we saw an increase,” Navarro says. The number of impressions seen in Housefresh Google search is increasing. “But at the same time, the number of clicks is decreasing. Google is showing our link a lot but no one is clicking. This is consistent with THE AI overview,” she said.
According to data analysis company BrightAge, AI overview increased the impact across the web by 49 percent. But clicks have decreased by 30 percent. Because people get their answers directly from AI.
“Google made the rules, it created the game and gave prizes to the players,” says Navarro, “Now Google is coming back and saying, ‘This is my infrastructure, the web is living in it.’ “I think it will definitely destroy the open web we know. Maybe it has already done it. ”
The start of a new machine web!
The biggest impact of AI mode will be on the experience you experience online every day. We are at the beginning of a new era that some believe can be called machine web in the future. A web where websites will not be made for people, but for AI to read. And the summaries prepared by chatbots will become the main means of consuming information.
Demis Hasabis, head of Google’s AI research lab DeepMind, shared his views on the concept of the machine web in a recent interview. According to him, Prakash will make content for AI rather than for people and send it directly to AI. Because they will now think that the website is not necessary for people. “I think the situation will be very different in the next few years,” he said.
This will be a world where answers will always be easily available. But this will make the open web very popular for the first time. However, the chances of finding something unexpectedly online, finding interesting information, or discovering something new will decrease. In an interview with decoder podcasts, Pichai said that “ultimately everything will depend on the user’s tastes”.
Matthew Prince, chief executive of Cloudflare, a company that serves about five websites on the Internet, sees even bigger problems in the future. “AI or robots don’t click on ads. That is, if AI is the audience or reader, how does the creator get paid? One possibility is that the publisher will receive direct compensation from the AI company. The New York Times is licensing content to Amazon’s AI. Google pays Reddit $60 million annually to train AI in user data. Dozens of large publishers and media groups have signed similar agreements with OpenAI and other companies.
But so far only big websites with a lot of data are getting these contracts. “I don’t think paying for content in this way is a model that works the extent needed to sustain the web,” said Tom Critchlow, executive vice president at advertising technology firm Raptiv. ”
If earning from the web becomes more difficult, Adams and others expect most people to migrate to social media. For many like Navarro, the process has already begun.
Housefress has focused on YouTube. But Navarro says social media algorithms are still uncertain and changing. He worries that these platforms will force creators to give up quality and depth and prioritize appearances. “There’s no incentive to make high-quality content like before,” Navarro says, “everything focuses on money and forces you to give less information and sell more.” According to Navarro, the loss of freedom with publishers on the web means that the quality of content for the audience is deteriorating.
There are other search engines that people can try. However, these search engines are also integrating AI into their search tools. Microsoft, for example, is building AI in its Bing search engine. But google’s small competitors have such a small market share that it is difficult to see that they can have any impact on the economy. And many are adding their own AI tools.
If technology continues to evolve, the machine web may become more closed, less diverse, and truly monotonous. This limits the experience of people who spend time online.
But some experts are not afraid. “I’m not so worried because it’s all evolution,” says Dame Wendy Hall, a professor of computer science at the University of Southampton and one of the pioneers in designing the early framework of the World Wide Web in the 1980s. I can’t say exactly what will happen. “The web is still there and still open. If Google takes such a path, then some skilled person will find a new way to earn income. But I think for many, it will be too late by then. ”
So what do internet users want?
There is no doubt that AI mode is an effective technology. It uses the ‘fan out method’. This is the method where AI first breaks down questions and searches at the same time to find answers to all those questions. Google claims that this will allow AI mode to recommend more diverse sources, prepare detailed answers to complex questions, and go deeper. And, because of this, you can understand in more detail and ask various questions to satisfy your curiosity.
According to Google, the response to AI overview indicates that THE AI mode is very popular. “When users use AI overview, they are happy with the results and start searching for more,” Google CEO Pichai told a developer conference, “This is one of the most successful startups in search in the last decade.” Google claims that if the search overview has made the search system better, then this is what the user wants.
“But that’s not a justification,” says Daniel Coffee, president of the News/Media Alliance, a trade group that represents more than 2,000 journalists and media outlets. She adds, “This is the definition of theft. AI’s answers are alternatives to real products. They make money on our material but we don’t get anything in return. Google is not the place to make this business decision on behalf of the people who produce the goods being sold. ”
Experts believe that the publisher has no alternative. Internal documents released in the court case show google has “quietly updated” its rules. So participating in a Google search means that the website automatically allows its content to be used for AI. If the website does not want to do so, then they will have to automatically exit Google search. That is, if they do not agree, they will not be found in Google search.
According to a Google spokesperson, what has been revealed in these documents is only preliminary discussion. It did not reveal the company’s final decision-making process. That is, the details of the internal documents are correct. However, it is not clear whether this will apply or not. According to a Google spokesperson, Google gives access to the content to the website operator. They can decide whether or not to show their content in AI mode.
“AI answers are a real product option,” Says Coffee, “I don’t think it’s a business proposition that we’ll ever willingly engage in.” ”
Over the past year, US courts have ruled that Google has monopolised one ‘search engine’ and the other ‘digital advertising’. The court is yet to decide whether to punish it. There is also a real possibility that Google could be broken, which could seriously affect its control over the Internet.
Google said it disagrees with the court’s decision and plans to appeal against it. Google argues that with the widespread use of AI, it is facing huge competition in the market. It also claims that any proposal to split the company will harm consumers and slow down the development of new technology.
However, small things show that Google’s grip is still weakening. During the court hearing, Eddie Q, an Apple executive, said google search on Safari browsers had dropped for the first time in 22 years. The reason for this could be that people use AI chatbots instead of search, he said. However, Google said in a statement that the overall number of searches from Apple’s devices is increasing.
A recent survey found that nearly 72 percent of Americans sometimes use AI tools such as ChatGPT instead of search engines. Mike King, founder of the SEO agency iPul Rank, says, “I think a lot of things are learned when you try to do it yourself, but a lot of people don’t need that much trouble. ”
But there are some serious disadvantages when using AI. “This will boost a ‘filter bubble’ because Google now interprets it by itself instead of giving you information directly,” King says. Research on AI chatbots has also shown that they act like ‘echo chambers’, where users see or hear only what is in harmony with their thoughts. King adds, “This strengthens the information you expect. ”
Of course, there are many concerns about the qualityof the answers given by AI. Some researchhas shown that as AI’s technical capabilities increase, its ‘hallucination’ problem is getting worse. Google’s chief sundar Pichai also called ‘hallucination’ an ‘inherent feature’ of this technology in a podcast interview. However, Google has said that it is using its traditional search method to make AI’s answers based on facts and accuracy is improving. Google told the BBC that most of the ai search answers are factual and their accuracy is at the level of other search features.
However, in the early stages, Google’s ‘AI Overview’ suggested people to eat rocks and add gum to pizza recipes. Google corrects such mistakes immediately. However, recently, a year after ai overview started on a Thursday in 2025, the same AI said that today is not Thursday and it is not even 2025.
According to a study, a type of ‘eco-chamber’ can create the effect of a type of ‘eco-chamber’ from the misleading and misinformation created by AI itself. Computer scientists have given it a new name called ‘Chat Chambers’. According to a Google spokesperson, their AI is designed to show information according to user preferences. But this does not limit other things found on the web.
On the one hand, the possibility of a ‘machine web’ has worried many who create and depend on the Internet, while on the other hand, Google has presented a different and encouraging picture. Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Decoder, “In the next five years, we will see a lot of traffic being sent to the web (other websites). I think this is the next destination of our product and we are committed to it. ”
Google told the BBC that the company is developing a strategy that will make search even better. As a result, users will be able to ask a variety of questions. The company plans to further expand the opportunity to create and find content.
“I’m not going to predict what will happen right now because the future depends on many things. But if I were still someone who values Google to get information or find it for others, I would be really worried about it,” says Cory Doctoro, a long-time technology activist and author of the book “Insitification” about the collapse of online platforms.
He believes it could also be an opportunity for internet users to demand the change they want. “This is a crisis that we should not allow to go waste. Google is going to do something that will really make people angry. ”
He says that if he is in that place, he will think about how to use this anger. For this, he thinks, google should get wet with the changes it brings.
Having said that, some people are not ready to wait for google to be the key to the changes it will bring and wait for any regulatory body to regulate Google. For this, Matthew Prince of Cloudflare is preparing to launch a campaign against it. For that, he wants to form a group with big news and content players.
And the group will work on the modalities of not allowing any AI to crawl the website and charging fees if they want to crawl. Prince wants people to go to all content websites and read them for free, but AI does not have free access to those content.
(Translated into Nepali from the BBC’s article titled Is Google About to Destroy the Web.) This article was written by technology journalist Thomas Journen in the BBC. )
