Source: Search Engine Journal
Google is fragmenting the search results page by routing clicks from AI Overviews both to external websites and back to its own AI Mode experience, while deliberately obscuring this behavior in Search Console metrics. Publishers can't see how many users clicked through to their sites versus stayed within Google's walled garden, making it impossible to accurately measure traffic value or negotiate terms. Google now controls not just which content gets summarized, but also whether users reach the original source.