Below are the most recent 30 comments. I try to keep it clean of comment spam, but some times things
get through and it takes me several hours to get to it. So please excuse any of that comment spam.
Some of the the money has moved to sponsored pitches by the YouTubers. I'm getting really tired of having to fast-forward through first-person spiels for VPNs, prepared meals, and mental-health sites.
Yep, its been noted before no ads in AI Overviews but it people went to sites, they'd be adverts. I wouldn't be surprised if its part of Google's aim to destroy the competition and then add ads.
Last AdSense news: AdSense support changed my account from Individual to Business (I wanted it to change). That's ok, but when I created new business email, they blocked it :D So, WTF? :D I filled out the appeal, now I'm waiting.
Nope, not a good idea. I got MS from this job. I love my job very much (tech press) but this is killing me. Google is ruining my passion. I started my website 14 years ago with no money and managed to get it to be the biggest website in my niche in my country by far, with just work endless hours. Now everything down the drain and we never use AI or copy pasted content. Big tech are just evil. Noone is getting the traffic we are losing, just them... They just can't stop causing trouble. All this mess will cause a global economic collapse. Gemini is now after eshops. They will start selling thing directly in Gemini and search (AI Overviews) and they collaborate with multibillion eshops (amazon, target, etc). The end of every job is near... An when no-one has a job... war is coming to reset the economies. this is how capitalism works and always worked.
This is worrying: a Police Chief uses AI to make a decision on a contentious football match, and the basis for his decision never existed. Just another example of AI Hallucinations. It's the use of AI I'm bringing this to attention, not anything else. Apparently, he used CoPilot.
"Before Mahmood's statement, Guildford admitted an AI tool was responsible for providing incorrect evidence that referred to a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham that never took place - something he previously denied"
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c394zlr8e12t">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c394zlr8e12t</a>
Nagging makes me feel worse but that pushes people to talk so we can learn how much are normal websites affected. I don't think that is has to do with Trump, which I don't like, but with the fact that in order for US to win the AI war, Big Tech has no limits and boundaries on what they can do. Grok is making pictures of underage kids almost naked and nothing happens. If I had something like that on my website i would be writing from a 10 yr jail.
In a recent roundtable with Google, a friend of mine attended in Zurich, they told them that they should forget about the traffic from google and they should search for other ways to get traffic, which is insane, especially when Google is the Internet these days.
abc.xyz -- the alphabet inc site -- links to google.com (an alphabet company) in it's footer. I might go about cross linking sites with something similar approach and style wise, as opposed to a "page" for your family of companies.
An issue that will probably be resolved eventually won’t bring the lost revenue back to users, as usual. It never seems to work the other way around—Google never loses money.
Sir many others feel your frustration with Google and you are not alone. My grandson Robert and I do as well. All that frustration needs an outlet. Others here such as Mr. John A. User choose to blame President Donald J. Trump for all their problems which seems to provide some stress relief. Perhaps trying this method may help.
It's too early for hard numbers to come in, but some who monitor ad spending of online stores have already reported increases in digital spend. Forecasts have YoY Q4 growth between 10-16%, and I've not seen one report of a decline in digital ad spend. If you've seen such a report, or even a forecast of ad spending declining, please post the link.
I'm not saying Google's ad product works because they're a monopoly. It's just because they are a monopoly businesses have little choice but to pay Google's going rate, sell on/advertise in marketplaces or hope for the best with a very limited amount of organic traffic to achieve new customer acquisition goals.
All the news I've seen <a href="https://www.adroll.com/state-of-digital-advertising-report">https://www.adroll.com/state-of-digital-advertising-report</a> indicates digital ad spending will grow from 10-16% during Q4 2025. Since Google is the dominant player in the digital ad space, they're likely to benefit the most.
The severe reduction in traffic for online stores, especially during the holiday shopping season, forces many of them to use ads to convert inventory in cash. To recover the cost of those ads, sellers increase prices which we did for years until we finally pulled the plug on Google Ads.
Being a monopoly Uncle, doesn't mean the product still works. Look, advertisers pay for clicks that convert into sales, not impressions or brand awareness that go nowhere. If people get their answer in AI Overviews and never click through to our sites, there's no conversion or discoverability. Advertisers aren't stupid, they'll immediately stop spending, cause I worked this side managing millions. Q4 could mask it but I still stand by my prediction. Christmas spending means a strong Q4 but not as strong as before AI came out. Le'ts wait for Q1 2026 when brands look at their numbers, and sales. We'll see it by mid-late 2026 a complete ad crash.
They're not pulling budgest AI, but just because the economy is crashing and AI isn't working either. If it would be working for them, then they'd have more money left to spend on ads.
"The DOJ stated in closing arguments, in the ad case Google lost, that Google controls 91% of the digital ad market. It's unrealistic to believe Google's advertising revenue is down 70% considering their dominance and how much they've reduced organic traffic."
This is a double non-sequitur. Neither from Google having a 91% market share, nor from the fact they've reduced organic traffic follows that their revenue can't drop 70%. I'm not saying it did drop that much... just that none of the previously mentioned two things would exclude that as a possiblity.
Since last year, I kept saying Google will get their comeuppance. Karma will strike them.
But they ended up being a $4 trillion company and they’re really leading the AI race now. Even OpenAI is worried and they’re getting their team to innovate ChatGPT further.
This is absolutely wtf. How did we all get to here?
We all got thrown under the bus.
The worst part of all? Googlers from the Search Team (JohnM and the rest) have been lying to us all these years. I remember reading some regulars here said they were destroyed in 2022, but clung on, hoping the next update would fix things. And when it didn’t, Googlers told them to wait for the next update. They were strung on for years until now.
And after 3-4 years, they got totally obliterated. I can't imagine how crushing it must be, especially after all the time, money, and effort spent.
This is absolutely appalling. Google is absolutely despicable.
I’m sorry to hear that…
I was hoping all of you would fare better than before. Unfortunately, seeing all the comments, it seems that whatever happened in January is the final nail in the coffin.