The publishing industry has finally extracted a concession from Google, which is a bit like finally getting an apology from someone who is still standing on your foot.
Last week's ruling by Britain's Competition and Markets Authority marks the first time a major regulator has compelled Google to offer publishers a formal mechanism for keeping their articles out of AI-generated search results. On paper, this would seem to represent the sort of control that publishers have been seeking since Google began answering users' questions directly on the results page, reducing the need for anyone to click through to the actual source.
The difficulty, as several publishing executives noted in interviews, is that the mechanism may be more theoretical than practical.
The system defaults to opted-in, meaning publishers must actively choose to withdraw their content. And Google has not provided the specific data — clicks generated by AI Overviews, as distinct from traditional search results — that would allow publishers to determine whether participation is helping or hurting their businesses.
"If this were opt-in, Google would have to prove to us why we should let them use our content," said Stuart Forrest, formerly the global audience development director for Bauer Media Group. "Instead, they keep us in by default and don't give us the click data we need."
(What Google has provided, Mr. Forrest noted, is impression data for AI features — which is rather like telling someone how many people looked at the menu without revealing whether anyone ordered.)
The nine-month implementation timeline has not eased concerns. Chris Dicker, chief executive of Candr Media Group, worried that Google might eventually bundle its Discover feature into the same opt-out framework, knowing that many publishers have become dependent on Discover traffic and could not realistically withdraw.
Phil Andraos, general manager of Reuters Digital, said the decision would require careful evaluation. "There's not enough data," he said. "If there was, we could make that decision very quickly."
Mr. Forrest offered a grimmer prediction: that few publishers will use the opt-out, and that Google will cite low adoption as evidence that publishers are satisfied with the arrangement.
A concession that no one dares to use is, of course, not much of a concession at all.
Original story published in Digiday: "Google’s AI opt-out leaves publishers with a difficult choice", by Jessica Davies, Sara Guaglione