Google is sending fewer people to other websites. That is the core of what The Verge's podcast, The Vergecast, explored in its July 24 episode titled "You can't ignore Google Zero anymore." Hosts David Pierce and Nilay Patel, who came up with the term "Google Zero," looked at how Google's new AI-powered search, shrinking traffic to news sites, and growing tension between Google and content creators all come together.

The numbers are stark. According to Semrush data cited by Nieman Lab, search traffic to some publishers fell by more than 40% between June 2025 and June 2026. Sparktoro's June 2026 analysis found that less than one-third of Google searches resulted in a click to any website other than Google itself — a drop of 8 percentage points from June 2025 to May 2026, or roughly a 22% decline. Digiday reported that publisher ad supply fell by up to 40% in Q2 2026 because fewer people were visiting news and open-web sites.

The reason is straightforward. When you search Google now, it often generates an AI-written answer right on the search page. You get your information without ever clicking through to the website that originally produced it. Those websites lose the visitor, the ad revenue that visitor would have generated, and over time, the incentive to keep publishing.

The episode covers several threads. One is Reddit's interest in ending its AI training deal with Google, which raises questions about how long platforms will keep selling their data to AI companies. Another is the growing number of publishers thinking about blocking Google entirely — stopping the automated programs Google uses to read and catalog their pages. Publishers are now building growth strategies for what Digiday described as an AI search era, treating the zero-click future as a given rather than a worst case.

Google's own search business is also under pressure. The company built its dominance on search advertising — the ads shown alongside search results. But if AI-generated answers reduce the number of times people click through to websites, they also reduce the clicks that generate ad revenue. Sundar Pichai appeared on The Vergecast in May 2026 to discuss AI, the future of search, and Google Zero directly. During that interview, hosts told Pichai that Condé Nast, the publisher behind titles like Vogue and The New Yorker, assumes search traffic will eventually go to zero.

Google has not been passive. In May 2026, the company announced "Preferred Sources" for its AI Overviews and AI Mode, aiming to surface high-quality content and firsthand sources. In June, Google introduced performance reports in Search Console — the tool website owners use to see how Google interacts with their sites — giving them visibility into how often their content appears in AI-generated answers. The company also published a guide to optimizing for generative AI features and a documentation page titled "AI Features and Your Website." A blog post announced additional controls alongside the new reporting.

The trajectory has been consistent. From The Verge's May 2024 article "Google Zero is here — now what?" through the May 2026 episode "The post-search Google era begins," the condition Patel named has moved from early diagnosis to accepted fact. Condé Nast's zero-traffic assumption, the Semrush and Sparktoro data, and publishers weighing whether to block Google all point in the same direction. Google's own tooling releases acknowledge the shift, even as the company frames it in terms of new opportunities.

What is not yet settled is whether the situation stabilizes or keeps getting worse. Reddit reconsidering its AI licensing deal suggests that data suppliers may not accept current terms indefinitely. Publishers weighing whether to block Google entirely suggests that the pain threshold for content creators is being crossed. And Google's own search business facing AI pressure means the company is negotiating from both sides: as the platform that benefits from reading the web and as the platform whose AI features are cutting the traffic that sustains it.

The term "Google Zero" has stuck because it names something you can measure. The share of searches sending clicks to the open web is declining. Publishers are planning for its near-disappearance. Google is building tools to help site owners adapt to a world it is actively creating. The Vergecast hotline (866-VERGE11) and email (vergecast@theverge.com) remain open for listener response.

In my view, the critical question is not whether Google's AI features reduce outbound clicks — the data confirms they do. It is whether the tools and concessions Google is shipping are enough to keep enough content producers participating in the system that the web Google reads remains worth reading. The alternative, in which major publishers and platforms withdraw, is one where Google's own product gets worse alongside the traffic it sends. That is a downward spiral no party has an interest in triggering, yet the incentives driving each participant — Google's ad revenue, publishers' survival, platforms' leverage — do not naturally push toward cooperation. The next several quarters of data on click rates and blocking decisions will show which way the system is heading.