Google AI Mode arrives to upend Australian publishers
Australian publishers - meet AI Mode
Google has launched AI Mode in Australia, a complete overhaul of the search experience that many publishers fear will lead to the end of the search referrals that drive much of their traffic.
AI Mode is touted as “Google’s most powerful AI search experience” by the company. It builds on the AI Overviews feature introduced in Australia a year ago, which provides AI-generated summaries gleaned from multiple sources and delivered in a conversational tone, with bullet points and links.
AI Mode completes the transformation of Google from a search engine to an answer engine, moving from providing links about a topic, to giving in-depth answers to multi-step queries.
As Google explains in its announcement: “AI Mode lets you ask longer, more complex questions that would have previously required multiple searches”, giving the following example: I want to understand the different coffee brewing methods. Make a table comparing the differences in taste, ease of use, and the equipment needed.
AI Mode uses what Google calls a “query fan-out technique”, breaking the question into sub topics and issuing multiple different questions simultaneously to arrive at a detailed reply. The product started testing in the US in March, and Google has found that early testers are asking queries that are triple the length of traditional Google searches.
Questions can be asked with text, voice, or with an image included for more context, while follow-up questions help it provide more granular responses.
It can also be given complex tasks, such as: Create a walkable itinerary for my friends and I in Melbourne this Saturday. We want to cafe hop at some lesser known specialty coffee shops, visit art galleries, and see local street art.
Google’s vice president of product management Hema Budaraju said in the announcement that “helping people discover content from across the web remains central to our mission”, promising that queries will be met not only with AI-generated answers, but also “prominent links for people to click on.”
Budaraju further notes that “with AI Overviews, we’re seeing that people have been visiting a greater diversity of websites for help with more complex questions.” She claims that when people click from search result pages with AI Overviews, “these clicks are higher quality for websites — meaning users are more likely to spend more time on the sites they visit.”
This may be so, but the end goal is spelled out elsewhere in the announcement: to provide AI-generated answers that don’t require the user to ever click out of the Google ecosystem.
“We aim to show an AI-powered response as much as possible, but in cases where we don’t have high confidence, you will see a set of web search results,” Budaraju writes.
Google is responsible for over 90% of Australia’s search engine traffic.
In the year since AI Overviews launched in Australia, the country’s biggest news websites have seen big drops in readership.
According to data sourced by ABC Science from Similarweb, since the launch of AI Overviews last October, ABC’s own page has seen a 9% drop in traffic — a similar percentage drop as SBS and 7news.com.au — while The Guardian’s traffic has fallen by 13%.
The biggest fall was The Daily Mail, which saw a 35% fall in traffic in the 12 months, while 9news.com.au suffered a 20% drop, and both news.com.au and Sydney Morning Herald clicks were down by around 18%.
As the ABC points out, for smaller publishers who lean on Google for a larger portion of traffic, the damage will have been greater.
Some local publishers have already started fortifying against these changes.
Scott Purcell, co-founder of men’s lifestyle site Man Of Many, tells Mumbrella his company has recently launched a user-sign in system and eight new targeted newsletter verticals to reduce their reliance on search referrals. The publication has partnered with Tollbit to monitor and measure its AI bot traffic, and struck a revenue-share deal with Pro Rata, another AI-powered search engine that scrapes data from companies that opt in.
Purcell tells Mumbrella the launch of Google’s AI Mode “represents a critical inflection point” for Australian publishers.
“In the short term, it’s a massive accelerant of the ‘zero-click’ trend we’ve been seeing for years,” he explains. ‘Zero-click’ refers to Google searches where a query is asked and answered without the user clicking through to a third-party link.
“It fundamentally shifts Google from a discovery engine to an answer engine, which poses a direct and potentially existential threat to the referral traffic that underpins many media business models,” Purcell said.
Scott Purcell, co-founder of Man of Many, warns that publishers need to act now
He also cites Similarweb data, that shows in markets where AI Overviews have launched, zero-click searches have jumped from 56% to 69%. “This immediately threatens revenue and the incentive for original reporting,” he said.
Although the incentive for original reporting may be diminished, the removal of easy search traffic may force publishers to rely upon higher-quality, original content in order to cut through.
“Long-term, publishers must pivot from being search-dependent to becoming ‘unforgettable’ brands with direct audience relationships,” Purcell said.
“The fight is no longer just for a top spot on Google; it’s for a spot in a reader’s daily habit. Adaptation requires a two-pronged approach. Firstly, doubling down on what AI can’t replicate: high-quality, human-led content like expert hands-on reviews, original investigations, and unique video. Secondly, aggressively diversifying away from search by building owned channels like newsletters, podcasts, and membership platforms.”
Will Hayward, CEO of Private Media, publisher of Crikey and Smart Company, told Mumbrella that savvy publishers will have made these moves years ago.
“Whilst this is clearly important news, I’m not sure how much it changes the fundamentals,” he said.
“For over a decade, smart publishers have been working on diversifying their revenues and making sure they have a direct relationship with their audiences. Those that haven’t done this are about to find things even harder.”
Purcell makes a similar point. Content is king, and great, original content will see publishers stand above the pack, freeing them from an overreliance on a single traffic source.
“The publishers who treat AI Mode as the final push to build a loyal, direct audience will thrive,” Purcell reasons, “while those still solely focused on winning a shrinking pool of clicks face a very tough road ahead.”
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