Markham Erickson, Vice President, Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google told The Verge that searchers want AI Overviews, "contextual answers and summaries," over links to publishers. But to help the ecosystem and the value exchange, Google will continue to provide links.
I covered this yesterday, as part of the Rolling Stone suing Google over AI Overviews but this message needs and deserves its own headline.
Markham Erickson from Google said:
So, I don’t want to speak about the specifics of the lawsuit, but I can speak to our philosophy here, which is, look, we want a healthy ecosystem. The 10 blue links serve the ecosystem very well, and it was a simple value proposition. We provided links that directed users free of charge to billions of publications around the world. We’re not going to abandon that model. We think that there’s use for that model. It’s still an important part of the ecosystem.But user preferences, and what users want, is also changing. So, instead of factual answers and 10 blue links, they’re increasingly wanting contextual answers and summaries. We want to be able to provide that, too, while at the same time, driving people back to content, valuable content, on the Internet. Where that valuable content is for users, is shifting. And so it’s a dynamic space. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that we have an overall healthy ecosystem.
As Glenn Gabe noted on X, "An interesting quote from a Google VP about users increasingly wanting summaries over links but links are still an important of the ecosystem..."
Posted this late yesterday. An interesting quote from a Google VP about users increasingly wanting summaries over links but links are still an important of the ecosystem... https://t.co/l0ijGfIHW9
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 16, 2025
So, to play fair, for now, Google will continue to show links, even though most of the searchers prefer just the AI summaries?
I mean, I think it is true what Google is saying and despite how much I might not like it, it is true.
Forum discussion at X.
