Step 1, Google serves info directly and consumers rejoice

Step 2, Google extinguishes the web and nobody has a reason to publish content, consumers lament but are trapped, Google has created a platform to serve content instead of links

Step 3 (or maybe 2a), Google is now monetizing their content machine

Step 4, Google offers people a way to contribute to the content machine, make some $$ per N views, whatever. People create content within the ecosystem

Step 5, Google is now the internet, more content is created overall, quality is lower overall perhaps, algorithmic echo chambers flourish even more than today, old heads on HN lament, everyone else just goes on living

> Without google crawling your site, you don't get any new traffic. But with google crawling your site, you also might not get any traffic.

I may be strange and unusual, but I just have never cared about my Google ranking. I know this makes me out of the ordinary among site owners but I have been humming along fine.

This certainly will disrupt traffic but for some of my sites I honestly think this is a good thing. I want you to want to be there, not just stumble upon my site because you happen to hit the right search keyword. Plus if it gets bad, this does create a new opportunity for others with cross linking and search.

> AI summarization has already causes issues for sites like rtings

Isn't Stack Exchange the emblematic case?

> Leading to rtings not getting enough traffic to continue to post their data.

And here I thought denying ad revenue to websites was the morally superior way to navigate the web...

That's some catch, that catch-22.

> Without google crawling your site, you don't get any new traffic

What about the stories of marketing managers who learned months after the fact that their credit card had expired and their google ad spend had ceased with no affect on traffic? Google isn't always an effective promotional vehicle.