As AI kills search traffic, Google launches Offerwall to boost publisher revenue

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Dependence on Google and Platform Risk

  • Several comments warn against building businesses on new Google products, citing its history of cancellations.
  • Others argue there are few realistic alternatives given Google’s dominance in video (YouTube), mobile apps, search traffic, and maps/reviews.

Did AI “kill” search, or did Google?

  • Some say LLMs haven’t killed search; rather, Google intentionally degraded search (more ads, AI overviews) to push its AI products.
  • Others note a clear divergence between impressions and clicks across many sites that coincides with AI overviews, suggesting genuine traffic loss.
  • A minority likes AI overviews; many prefer traditional “blue links” and have switched to alternatives (e.g., Kagi, Perplexity).

LLM Training, Copyright, and “Digital Colonialism”

  • Many view training on publishers’ content without consent/compensation as theft or “digital colonialism”: big tech scraped the web, built LLMs, and is now undercutting the sites it learned from.
  • Others argue training on public content is morally fine and akin to humans learning; only near-exact copying should be illegal.
  • Counterarguments stress the asymmetry (machines can mass‑replicate) and that IP rights existed to justify investment in creation.

Capitalism, Disruption, and Workers

  • One side defends disruption as core to capitalism: business models die, consumers benefit, and creators must adapt.
  • The opposing side emphasizes workers/artists losing livelihoods, lack of safety nets, and monopolistic behavior masquerading as “competition.”
  • There is debate over whether current “innovation” is genuine competition or law‑breaking plus regulatory carveouts.

State of Publishing (Pre‑ and Post‑AI)

  • Some say online publishing was already “dead” due to zero barriers to entry, social media attention capture, and SEO‑driven slop.
  • Others note even high‑quality sites are losing search clicks now; AI may be accelerating an existing decline.

Reaction to Google Offerwall

  • Offerwall is widely seen as rebranded popups/paywalls that worsen user flow; many say they won’t watch videos or complete surveys for casual reading.
  • Skepticism that Google will fairly share revenue; expectation of complex thresholds and “ticket‑clipping.”
  • A few propose better models (non‑profit federated subscriptions, AI paying sources based on contribution), but consider them unlikely.

Future of Discovery and the Small Web

  • Some hope declining search traffic will revive webrings, blogrolls, and direct linking; others doubt mainstream users will leave big platforms.
  • There is concern that if content can’t be monetized, fewer people will invest in high‑effort work, though hobbyists and “passion blogging” will persist.