APREX · EST. 2026
Google is in the process of implementing one of the most radical overhauls of its search engine since its inception. With artificial intelligence at its core – in the form of what the company calls AI Overviews – the search giant now presents complete answers directly in the search results, and many users no longer need to click through to the sources. For websites that rely on traffic and ad revenue, this is an existential challenge.
The SNL Example: A Norwegian Foretaste of What's to Come
Store Norske Leksikon (SNL) is one of the most widely used encyclopedias in Norwegian and has long been a preferred click destination when Norwegians search for facts. However, according to Digi.no, SNL lost a full 25 percent of its traffic overnight after a previous Google update. The story clearly illustrates what could now affect many more players in the wake of the company's latest and far more extensive AI initiative.
Google has not specifically communicated about Norwegian market effects, and SNL has not officially confirmed the figures to 24AI. The source is Digi.no's coverage of the matter.
Zero-Click Searches Dominate
An analysis from SparkToro shows that more than 58 percent of all Google searches today conclude on the results page itself – without the user visiting any external website. Data from Similarweb suggests that the proportion could be even higher, up to 69 percent. For news searches specifically, the share of zero-click searches rose to 69 percent in the year after AI Overviews were rolled out.
In practice, this means that Google is increasingly functioning as an endpoint destination rather than a referral service – a fundamental break with the business model thousands of media outlets and websites are built upon.
Industry Players in Freefall
The individual losses are significant. According to research data reviewed by 24AI, HubSpot has estimated a loss of 70–80 percent of organic traffic. The education platform Chegg reported a 49 percent decline, while British DMG Media has documented drops of up to 89 percent for specific search phrases. Globally, Google traffic to publishers fell by 33 percent over one year up to November 2025, according to available industry data.
Lily Ray, VP of SEO strategy at the analytics agency Amsive, warns that the changes will have a 'devastating effect on the internet.' She particularly points to what she describes as a fundamental imbalance: Google derives revenue from ads surrounding the AI-generated answers, while the content providers who produced the information receive neither traffic nor revenue, according to Digi.no's source.
Legal and Ethical Minefield
The News Media Alliance, representing over 2,000 news companies, has long accused Google of using copyrighted material without adequate compensation. Now, the debate is intensifying as AI summaries become increasingly prominent.
Cyber law expert Pavan Duggal believes this could potentially become one of the biggest legal and business battlegrounds in the AI era, particularly concerning the question of whether publisher content is used to train AI models without consent.
An additional problem highlighted by industry observers is that AI-generated summaries draw information from multiple sources simultaneously, which can remove important context and, in the worst case, misrepresent facts. According to the research material reviewed by 24AI, an 'overwhelming number of accuracy issues' have been reported in connection with such summaries.
What Happens Next?
For Norwegian and international publishers, the question is no longer whether Google AI will affect them, but to what extent. The SNL example shows that no one is immune – not even serious, editorially driven knowledge sources with high authority.
The industry is now undergoing a forced strategic realignment: towards more niche content, premium services, and direct subscriber relationships that are not dependent on traffic from Google. However, for players already operating on marginal budgets, the transition period may prove to be shorter than what is realistically achievable.