Google admits open web is in rapid decline, AI overviews cut traffic for top publishers worldwide
The open web is being dismantled by design. Google, once the steward of digital discovery, now admits in court filings that the open web is “already in rapid decline” https://google.com/2025/09/in-court-filing-google-concedes-the-open-web-is-in-rapid-decline . At the same time, the company accelerates this collapse by pushing AI-generated answers that strip publishers of traffic, revenue, and relevance. Hyperlinks vanish in …