{"slug": "google-might-be-learning-the-facebook-lesson", "title": "Google Might Be Learning the Facebook Lesson", "summary": "Google faces growing criticism from users and publishers over AI Overviews and AI Mode, which many see as an attempt to keep users within Google's ecosystem rather than genuinely help them. Data shows searches for turning off AI Overviews have risen since May 2024, peaking around April–May 2026, and Reddit is reportedly considering not renewing its $60 million deal with Google due to insufficient traffic sent back. Publishers are also considering blocking Google, citing declining traffic despite Google's claim of sending billions of clicks weekly.", "body_md": "# Google Might Be Learning the Facebook Lesson\n\n**Hello Riddlers!**\n\n📌 If you find value in my newsletter and want to support the work that goes into it consider —> [☕[Buy Me a Coffee](https://buymeacoffee.com/sarataher)☕]💡 Want more from me? [[SEO Strategy Course](https://sarataher.podia.com/how-to-create-an-seo-strategy)] | [[Build Your Own SEO Tools (with Python & Agentic AI)](https://sarataher.podia.com/introduction-of-python-for-marketers)] | [[Premium SEO Mastermind](https://sarataher.podia.com/in-house-seo-enterprise-meetup)]\n\nAlternatively you can become a paid subscriber\n\n**Intro**\n\nGoogle has been facing a lot of criticism and, in many cases, deservedly so.\n\nFirst came AI Overviews. Then AI Mode.\n\nFeatures that few people were asking for, but Google had to prove it wasn't falling behind in the AI race after OpenAI launched first using the Transformer architecture that originated from Google's own research.\n\nAnd the data reflects the sentiment.\n\nSince May 2024, searches from people looking for ways to turn off AI Overviews have been steadily increasing. Just facts. The trend peaked around April–May 2026.\n\nMaybe the people actively searching for ways to remove AI Overviews are a minority. But I suspect many more are simply quietly dissatisfied.\n\nYou know who else is dissatisfied? Publishers.\n\nI don't think I've ever seen this level of audacity toward publishers. AI platforms are using content they didn't create to train their models and perform live searches, then assembling answers that compete directly with the very sites that produced that content, taking away the clicks those publishers depend on.\n\nGoogle says it’s putting users first. I’m not convinced.\n\nTo me, the goal isn’t just to help users find information really. It’s to keep users inside Google’s own ecosystem for as long as possible. That’s what this is really about.\n\nAnd let’s not forget...\n\nGoogle spent years lecturing all of us about E-E-A-T.\n\nPublishers, SEOs, and content creators have been told to create “helpful content” that demonstrates **Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness**. We audited pages, rewrote articles, added author bios, cited sources, and jumped through every hoop because that’s what Google said good information should look like.\n\nThen Google turned around and gave us AI Overviews.\n\nA system that has repeatedly produced inaccurate or misleading information.\n\nI could pause here and start talking about OpenAI and Anthropic. They aren’t exactly better when it comes to how they use other people’s content either.\n\nBut to keep this conversation focused, I’ll stick with Google today.\n\nI think Google is up for a wakeup call.\n\nEven tech giants can stumble, and history has a funny way of repeating itself in unexpected ways.\n\n**A challenging echo system**\n\nA lot of businesses have been impacted over the years with Google updates and a lot of websites lost traffic but none of it is equivalent to what we are seeing today.\n\nReddit is reportedly considering not renewing its $60 million deal with Google, which allowed Google to access Reddit content to train its AI models.\n\nReddit’s stated concern is that Google isn’t sending enough traffic back to the platform.\n\nThat argument is a little hard to take at face value, considering Reddit has become one of the most visible domains in Google Search results. Reddit threads appear everywhere now, often ranking prominently for product reviews, recommendations, and real user experiences.\n\nAnd then we have publishers. Google said that it “sends billions of clicks to websites every week through AI search.” but also does not provide the data to verify this in GSC, and publishers are seeing declines in their traffic, the traffic they rely on to generate revenue through ads, subscriptions, and other business models.\n\nHence, a lot of publishers are considering blocking Google.\n\nAnd just as Google is facing all of these challenges, SerpApi out of nowhere gets a Google lawsuit dismissed.\n\nYou see, Google had the audacity to sue SerpApi for copyright infringement because SerpApi was crawling Google.\n\nYes, you read that right… do not laugh, please. 😂\n\nGoogle literally crawls every single website on the internet.\n\nAt least when SerpApi crawled Google, they weren’t taking clicks and revenue away from publishers.\n\nJustice was served, and the court ruled that there was no copyrighted material to begin with. 😂😂😂\n\nSo some users are not happy, publishers are definitely not happy, Reddit is pushing back, and Google SERPs have been declared as non-copyrighted.\n\nMy 2 cents: as these incidents continue and more pressure builds on Google, something has to give. Google will eventually have to find ways to compensate publishers… right?\n\nYou may say, “Sara, you’re a small content creator. What do you know?”\n\nFair enough.\n\nBut I do know a thing or two from my startup days.\n\nHear me out.\n\n**Once upon a time**\n\nDo you remember when Facebook reduced the organic reach of pages from around 25% to somewhere between 1%–5%?\n\nThe goal was clear: push more businesses toward paid advertising and increase ad revenue.\n\nBut what happened over time?\n\nContent creators slowed down. Pages became less active. The platform became far less engaging and, at times, almost felt like a digital desert.\n\nI remember back in 2015 suggesting that Facebook should allow people to make money from creating great content on pages.\n\nWithout active publishers and creators, platforms risk becoming less engaging and less valuable because the content that keeps users coming back depends on those creators.\n\nand turns out, that wasn’t such a crazy idea.\n\nIt took Facebook years to realize it, but eventually they started paying publishers and creators to keep producing content.\n\n[Facebook paid](https://creators.facebook.com/blog/new-tips-to-help-you-earn-on-facebook-content-monetization/) out nearly $3 billion to creators in 2025. Of those $3 billion in payouts, 60% went to Reels while the rest went to Stories, photos and text posts.\n\nThe lesson? Platforms need creators just as much as creators need platforms.\n\nMaybe Google isn’t there yet, maybe they need to go through the same journey as Facebook to realize that. But they will eventually get there, if publishers and creators are not happy, the platform slowly starts to die.\n\n**And That’s a Wrap (Almost 😄)**\n\nIf you’re a publisher, try to navigate this challenging period.\n\nBecause there will come a point when Google and other platforms realize that publishers are not just content suppliers, they are essential partners in their success.\n\nAnd at some point, they will have to find a way to give back as much as they take.\n\n**That’s that for today folks and see you in the next newsletter!**\n\n**Support the Riddler!**\n\nSign up for my newsletter if you’re not already.\n\nShare the newsletter and invite your friends to signup. 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I’m also open to other partnership ideas as well.\n\n*Disclaimer: LLMs were used to assist in wording and phrasing this blog.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-might-be-learning-the-facebook-lesson", "canonical_source": "https://www.seoriddler.com/p/google-might-be-learning-the-facebook", "published_at": "2026-07-28 13:30:11+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-18 13:43:45.055502+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["generative-ai", "ai-products", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Google", "Reddit", "OpenAI", "Anthropic", "SerpApi"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-might-be-learning-the-facebook-lesson", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-might-be-learning-the-facebook-lesson.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-might-be-learning-the-facebook-lesson.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-might-be-learning-the-facebook-lesson.jsonld"}}