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AI in Search Reduces Publisher Referrals Without Improving User Experience

A preregistered randomised field experiment measuring how Google's AI search experiences affect outbound clicks, search frequency and user trust, run with a browser extension on US participants.

Known aliases

AI in Search Reduces Publisher Referrals

Relationships

No evidence-backed relationships are recorded.

Current clusters

build1 publisher

Routing every query into Google AI Mode cut publisher clicks by 18.8 points

A preregistered trial pushed one arm's entire seven-day query stream into AI Mode. The 18.8 point drop in outbound clicks is therefore the effect at full substitution, and a publisher's own exposure share scales it.

Publishers:dev.to

Reality

Evidence52
Adoption: Insufficient
Hype gap+14
Incentives68
Confidence46