"Stop Googling," says Google

Google Search is receiving its biggest upgrade in 25 years through AI Overviews and revamped search features, meaning users increasingly no longer need to search for themselves. Liz Reid, Head of Google Search, explained at Google I/O 2026 that Google is taking over much of the searching process for users by providing comprehensive AI summaries, conversational search modes (AI Mode), and accepting diverse inputs such as text, images, and files. Even open Chrome tabs can now serve as input.

 

With the introduction of information agents, the initiative shifts from the user to automated software that continuously monitors the web without active input. These agents keep working, even when a device is idle, making it increasingly unnecessary for users to perform their own search actions. Google is therefore searching more proactively, without human intervention.

 

Due to AI Overviews, 60% of Google users no longer click through to external websites. For news searches, this figure rises to 69%. Organic traffic to publishers, such as HubSpot and NPR, has dropped by tens of percentage points, also affecting advertising revenue and subscriptions. This is because AI summaries provide answers without the need to visit external sites.

 

AI Mode, AI Overviews, and information agents ensure that users rarely leave the Google ecosystem. Google answers questions directly, sidelining external websites. This strategy leads to a situational dependency on Google as a distribution channel, in which user choices in practice decrease.

 

For businesses and webshops, Google's AI transformation means that being visible in search results is becoming less relevant. Instead of traffic through ranking on page one, being cited in AI overviews is now determining the distribution of their content. This model challenges the relevance and revenue model of their work, as direct user interaction and associated income are drastically declining.

 

The shift from active search behaviour to AI-driven information provision is fundamentally transforming the web. The role of human input is moving to the background, while Google Search and AI overviews direct the flow of information. The web that made Google great differs radically from the web it is now building, with uncertain consequences for access to and distribution of online content.