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Google AI Mode is a big threat to web traffic

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Google AI Mode is a big threat to web traffic

Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone has said that AI-powered search – especially Google’s AI Mode – is putting the web’s main traffic model at risk and says AI search engines should return users to publishers.

“I think LLMs are a big reason why they are threatened, as AI Mode at Google is a big challenge.”
“They deserve those publishers [traffic]and we won’t have the content to feed on to give good answers if the publishers aren’t healthy.”

Why do we care. Most websites are seeing less traffic from search engines like Google and OpenAI – and I think it’s only going to get worse. So it’s encouraging to see Yahoo trying to save the “search sends traffic” model. As he says: “We deliberately highlighted and linked clearly and bent over backwards to try to send more traffic downstream to the people who created the content.”

The State of AI for Yahoo. Yahoo is taking a different approach to chatbot-style communication, Lanzone said on the Decoder podcast. He added that Yahoo is not trying to compete as a full AI assistant:

“Ours looks a lot like traditional search and is category-driven. It’s not a chatbot that’s trying to pretend it’s human and be your friend.”
“We’re not a big language model. We’re not going to be a place for you to write. We introduced Scout as an answer engine.”

Next: Personalization + agent actions. Yahoo plans to expand Scout beyond basic answers and embed AI throughout its ecosystem:

“Soon you’ll see us moving into results that are more personal to you. You’ll see us moving into smart actions that you can take.”
“There’s a button in Yahoo Finance that analyzes a given stock over time… It’s in Yahoo Mail to help summarize and process emails.”

Yahoo vs. Google is not a thing. Yahoo is not trying to win by converting Google users directly. Instead, Yahoo prioritizes its existing audience and increasing frequency of use over immediate market share gains:

“No one chooses, you won’t be surprised, Yahoo uses Google or somewhere else to search. The way we get our search volume is because we have 250 million US users and 700 million global users on the Yahoo network at any given time. There’s a search box there. And they rarely use it.”

A warning. Companies – including publishers – should be careful about relying too heavily on AI platforms as intermediaries. Lanzone compared today’s AI relationship to Yahoo’s past reliance on Google:

“You’re trying to be successful by opening a way for consumers to access your product in a larger language model.”
“The bad wolf will come to your door saying that everything is fine.

An interview. Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone on revamping the web’s homepage

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Danny Goodwin is the Editorial Director of Search Engine Land & Search Marketing Expo – SMX. He joined Search Engine Land in 2022 as a Senior Editor. In addition to reporting on the latest search marketing news, he hosts Search Engine Land’s SME (Subject Matter Expert) program. He also helps organize US SMX events.

Goodwin has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in search and digital marketing since 2007. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Journal (from 2017 to 2022), managing editor of Momentology (from 2014-2016) and editor of Search Engine Watch (from 2007 to 2014). He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has shared his knowledge in a variety of publications and podcasts.