Bad news for independent websites, news publishers, and small creators: Google is keeping the traffic it used to send them.

• Most Google searches now end without a click — people read the AI answer at the top and never visit the source.
• Google's "AI Overviews" write the answer using content from websites below, then send almost no one to those sites.
• Google flipped to this model out of fear of ChatGPT, choosing to become a chatbot rather than lose users.
• A $60 million deal made Reddit a top search winner while Reddit blocked rival search engines, locking content behind the biggest checkbook.
• Publishers could lose $2 billion a year in ad money, enough to sink many newsrooms, expert blogs, and local papers.

Outlook: Expect more sites to shut down or start charging AI companies for access, while search traffic keeps drying up.