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Will AI Kill Your Traffic? Probably.

By Lior Fisher | September 4, 2024

OpenAI just dropped something big – meet SearchGPT, the all-new search prototype based on artificial intelligence. While still in the testing phase, SearchGPT might be the new Google, but with a twist. SearchGPT wants to redefine the search experience and deliver AI-powered results to search queries that are free of ads and more user-friendly.

SearchGPT will probably be integrated right into ChatGPT, pulling real-time results from the web. This will likely come with links to publisher sources, as  OpenAI said so in their latest blog post.

This is not a surprise to me or to anyone already using Perplexity. Its AI has been in trouble for using information from publishers for free. Publishers saw this as stealing. Things got even worse when Perplexity put up a paywall for content from one publisher. 

To redeem itself, Perplexity just launched a rev share program for publishers. So will SearchGPT go down the same route? We’ll find out soon enough.

 

And the plot thickens There’s a new bot in town, linking to websites in ChatGPT

Meet OAI-SearchBot, OpenAI’s new crawler that’s going to be linking websites to SearchGPT’s results. This means users might get quick real-time answers right in ChatGPT, without needing to visit a website to get their answers.

This is concerning because it validates the already old fear of AI answers or 0-click results. Both are the 2 sides of the same coin. Basically, publishers are going to get less traffic from searches.

 

An uncertain future for search and publishers

For now, all eyes are on the testing phase of SearchGPT. Will its final implementation support publishers with rev-sharing options? Or will it just create a new type of search without regard to the traditional models that have supported online content for decades?

One thing is clear, the next Google won’t be like Google at all. While SearchGPT promises an exciting time for users and how they find information on the web, it’s also an evolution publishers can’t ignore. The industry must adapt to AI search advancements and prepare for a world where search clicks will be few and far between.

 

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