AI search eats the clicks
Google’s AI Overviews now appear in 43% of searches, up from 15% a year ago, according to Similarweb.
AI Mode is growing too, with visits rising from 126 million in June 2025 to 279 million by May 2026.
People are also changing how they search. Instead of typing short keywords and clicking through websites, they are asking longer questions and often getting answers directly from Google.
In brief:
AI Overviews now appear in 43% of Google searches.
AI Mode visits have more than doubled.
Publishers are still losing traffic as users stay inside AI search.
Blue links need CPR
This keeps users on Google for longer, but gives publishers fewer website visits.
AI citations have increased sharply, although only 6.8% of US ChatGPT desktop searches included them in May 2026.
There has been some improvement.
After a ChatGPT search update in May, the share of visits going to external websites rose from 25% to nearly 60%.
Still, the wider trend remains the same; Google is becoming a place where people find and read information, rather than simply a tool for discovering other websites.
Okay, Google’s AI Mode is pretty good, I admit it. - MV