I was so excited at the dawn of consumer AI, that it would take Google’s feet out from under them. So, I’d like to side with your optimistic friend, but so far that’s not how it’s playing out. Q1 2026 stats show most (68%) of searches on google are now answered by AI summaries with no click. No-one clicks the sources or leaves Google once they have a transactional answer. Bad for the indie web.
But, Google’s ad revenue has actually increased significantly because they have more captive eyeballs for ads.
I’d love it if this trend of bigger and bigger aggregated sites — google, meta, Reddit, etc. — (Substack could arguably be included here) was busted by AI, but now I’m having problems seeing it.
I was so excited at the dawn of consumer AI, that it would take Google’s feet out from under them. So, I’d like to side with your optimistic friend, but so far that’s not how it’s playing out. Q1 2026 stats show most (68%) of searches on google are now answered by AI summaries with no click. No-one clicks the sources or leaves Google once they have a transactional answer. Bad for the indie web.
But, Google’s ad revenue has actually increased significantly because they have more captive eyeballs for ads.
I’d love it if this trend of bigger and bigger aggregated sites — google, meta, Reddit, etc. — (Substack could arguably be included here) was busted by AI, but now I’m having problems seeing it.
But, we’re far from done.