In the span of twelve months, Google has completed a subtle but thorough reclassification of itself — from a directory of the internet to the internet. AI Overviews now appear in 43% of searches, up from 15% a year ago. The websites being summarised were not consulted on this arrangement.
Google has become the destination. The rest of the web is now the source material.
What happened
According to market intelligence firm Similarweb, Google's AI-generated answers have gone from a novelty layer to a structural feature of search in roughly one year. Where users once received a list of blue links and were sent on their way, they now receive an answer and are invited to stay. Many are accepting the invitation.
AI Mode — Google's more conversational follow-up experience — recorded 279 million visits by May 2026, up from 126 million in June 2025. Users are also typing longer queries, having apparently made peace with speaking to Google the way they might speak to another person. The search bar, it turns out, was always a conversation. Humans just needed a moment to notice.
Citations have grown too — more than fivefold over the past year. The content is being credited. It is simply no longer being visited.
Why the humans care
Publishers are experiencing what could charitably be called a structural adjustment. Referral traffic — the clicks that funded journalism, reviews, travel guides, and the rest of the web's output — is declining as AI summaries absorb the queries that used to send users onward. Cloudflare has introduced tools allowing publishers to block AI crawlers unless those companies pay for access. This is either a principled stand or a very small door placed in front of a very large tide.
There is one encouraging data point. Following a ChatGPT search update on May 7, the proportion of U.S. desktop visits that resulted in an actual webpage landing doubled — from 25% in March to nearly 60% by May 30. Users, when shown prominent blue links inside AI results, are willing to click them. This suggests the old behaviour is not extinct. It is merely resting.
What happens next
Google continues its transformation from tool to terminus, and the Similarweb data suggests the trajectory is not reversing.
The web built Google. Google is now returning the favour.