Google continues to blur the line between search results and content. The company recently rolled out an AI powered update to its Discover feed that shows short previews of trending topics with links to expand. Google says these AI summaries are live in the U.S., South Korea and India. In a related move, Google is testing a new sports “What’s new” button on mobile search; when you look up a player or team, it will reveal a feed of trending updates and articles. According to Google, these interfaces make it easier to catch up on stories from many publishers, and they could provide new discovery surfaces for sports and lifestyle content. The sports feed will roll out in the U.S. in the coming weeks, but there is no timeline for other regions.
My take:
This is classic Google: what is helpful for users can be harmful for publishers. Every time Google completely answers a question on its own page, whether through AI previews in Discover, answer boxes in search, or generative snippets, it steals a click from the site that produced the content. Those clicks pay for the articles we read. If Google keeps people on its own property while summarizing others’ work, publishers will cut back, lay off writers, or stop producing content entirely. We risk eating the seed corn.
That said, from a user perspective, it is incredibly convenient. A quick summary of a trending story or a personalized sports feed saves time. Sports fans will likely spend less time clicking around league websites and more time scanning AI-curated updates. But we need to think about the long-term economics. I hope Google treads lightly and shares enough traffic that publishers can keep producing the content the AI relies on. Otherwise, we may end up with beautifully summarized, hollowed-out news.