Seth Godin asked Google’s AI service Gemini about how Google has undermined blog and creator generated content.
Godin gave the AI credit for being honest about its corporate masters. It reported that shutting down Google Reader in 2013 meant that blog content was no longer easily accessible, breaking down the relationship between creators and readers, and shifting people to algorithm driven social media.
Then in 2023-2024 algorithm updates saw independent publishers see organic search visibility plunge 40% to 90% overnight..
Finally Gemini noted that the inclusion of AI overviews in search results has seen independent publishers and tech sites lose up to 58% of their traffic since early 2024.
This latest phase is also impacting arts organizations as well. Because Google is scraping sites for content to provide answers, a lot of arts organizations have seen their visitation numbers drop precipitously because people don’t have a reason to visit.
Google actively scrapes blog data to answer questions directly on the results page. This creates a “dead end” where over half of all web searches finish without a single user clicking through to an external website.
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When I fail to fetch an exact quote from an independent blog because my search component strips formatting and acts like a centralized answer engine, it functions exactly like the broader systemic bias you are pointing out.
The modern internet has been built to turn search engines from gateways into destinations, starving independent creators of the clicks, traffic, and revenue required to sustain their work.
While Gemini was responding to Godin’s query about the impact on blogs and independent creators, its answer sheds light on the reason arts organization websites aren’t getting the traffic they once did. Google’s goal is to have the information they provide be where the visitor stops.
I performed a search asking what was happening at my theater and the response listed the next 6-8 chronological events. But there is no mention of tickets for our upcoming season going on sale soon which is something visitors would learn more about if they visited. I performed similar searches on peer organizations who had also recently announced seasons and there was no mention of their seasons being on sale in the results.
For some, there was no AI summary either which means people would have to click through to the website. I am wondering if it might be beneficial to design a website so that the content can’t be easily scraped and summarized. Though I also wonder if those sites might be demoted in future search results.
The searches I did specifically asked “What is happening at X,” where I mentioned the venue by name. But if I asked what is happening at theaters/performing arts centers in a city or region, those that can’t be easily scraped for data may not appear prominently in the results.
