“. . . Google sends a lot of traffic to news sites — more than any other external source by far. Newsrooms spend time and money figuring out a lot of those answers, and the reward they’ve traditionally reaped for them has been web traffic, monetized through ads.“
Joshua Benton
Search as we know it is on the cusp of change. Microsoft is linking ChatGPT to its search offer, Bing, and Google has an answer of its own, named Bard. What happens when Bing and Bard go head-to-head remains to be seen.
NEIMAN LAB suggests the outcome could mean less traffic for news sites and, with it, diminishing revenue. Better answers from Google could mean fewer hits for newsrooms, in turn meaning a drop in ad impressions and the income they trigger.
Google now wants to answer your questions without links and with AI. Where does that leave publishers?
NEIMAN LAB | February 7, 2023 | by Joshua Benton