AI Overviews fails as UGC news killer hits the skids

Plus, billionaire doubles down on news, Daily Mail goes after newsletters, antitrust has a new rising star, Disney's hit by anti-AI hackers, and more...

What a week. A Big Tech sceptic might be headed to The White House, and hackers with a heart go after Disney. What is going on?

First, let’s say hi to this week’s new subs, and then focus on Google’s beleaguered CEO, whose latest big thing has developed a nasty - and maybe fatal - cold…

Google’s dramatic $2 trillion pivot from search engine to answer engine is in disarray after a horror flub over the launch of AI Overviews.

In a shock discovery for geeks (less so for grown-up news folk) the public are unhappy with GenAI advice to put glue on pizza, drink urine, and eat rocks. Who knew?

The depth of Google’s dilemma is revealed in data from SEO platform BrightEdge.

It reveals the number of Google searches returning AI Overviews fell to seven per cent last month - down from 24 per cent when we revealed our results six weeks ago.

Also, Reddit and Quora, the two UGC publishers that Google feted as the dream team to feed their GenAI results, have been almost entirely phased out.

Google paid $60…