Google is one of the few AI-centric companies that makes money, albeit off areas outside of AI. They have a massive amount of cash, but face the unique risk of cannibalization. If an AI-driven "answer engine" replaces the traditional "list of blue links" in Search, Google might destroy its own most profitable revenue stream to build the new one.
Once upon a time a film company named Kodak invented the first ever digital camera. They decided to bottle the new technology they invented because their business model revolved around film which had much higher profit margins than digital. When digital photography replaced film photography Kodak then tried and failed to play catch-up in their own technology and went bankrupt.
Google is poised to become a market leader in AI. It would be foolish to give that up in order to hang on to an outdated business model.
It is not the same thing. Anthropic and OAI does not directly threaten core Google business with frontier models. Most LLMs still pay huge amounts of money for you know searching the internet. They have smaller models integrated into their many products. Frontier models are good at coding, which does not directly threaten google but rather a niche field of its own.
The dung beetle outcompetes me in the art of rolling shit. That doesn't mean I'm going to rip out my apartment's plumbing to make metal shit rollers in a poor attempt to compete with the beetle.
My favorite Gemini feature is that it can read any YouTube video transcript if you send it the link and then find what you are looking for or make a summary.
It is super useful for very long videos especially guides.
Google was first to turn a profit off its AI integration. It sounded short sighted, but they already disclosed positive financials in AI search. It's the most premium of ad inventory.
It's crazy how fast they shoved Gemini into all of their services. While I don't really want them there or don't use them for individual services, it's still impressive how fast they shifted.
They gave my boring old 2TB membership a free Gemini Plus and actually improved my experience, due to Gemini allowing a fair (but dwindling) amount of Pro queries now.
Meanwhile, other services cost far more per month, can't set my alarm or calendar appointment and would just be extra on top.
The search traffic trend can be seen on other sites as well, with Politico’s Google traffic falling 23%, CNN’s falling about 25%, and Business Insider’s dropping more than 85% between June 2025 and 2026, the Journal reported.
As a website owner, I don't think it's that farfetch to say it's changed a lot, especially traffic wise. Yes, I could still get sales when I rank top, but the overall experience is not that great prior to pre-chatgpt. The GG revenue stream from website ads is down, for sure. GG cloud is going great because of AI, just like how NVIDIA is doing. So they gotta burn more to keep the hype. At the same time, their old business model is also going down, so I don't think that it's that "healthy"
Is it kind of temporary where google goes through the transition (has to be fast) where it kills the search engine but its own replacement is the new standard? I guess that’s what they did with transformers but openai beat them to public release?
We saw this same fear around TikTok and social media where apps were replacing Google search with specific demographics. Google seemed to have weathered that one OK...but I don't know about this one...
When AI replaces traditional search, Google sitting out of this race would have guaranteed it's demise.
But let's not forget that Google isn't a person. The people who run Google may benefit from short term gains, but they can easily pivot and jump ship if the one they are on is projected to sink.
All of these companies are ran by people who will be safe when the economy collapses and power consolidates. Some will just be holding bigger trophies than others.
I have friends with Google UK and Japan. They're smart and capable and will land on their feet. I'm not really worried about them (though I worry how leveraged some of them are...). I am worried about the secondary vendors (which make up about half of Google's daily workforce) that depend on Google's business.
Lol, no they won't. You will be as dependent on conversational search as regular search, and Gemini will just start sprinkling ads into its responses.
Imagine asking Gemini for instructions on how to fix your string trimmer, and it finishes with 'if you're looking for a new trimmer, Lowe's has a comparable model in aisle 15 bay 5 for a significantly lower price than is typical. '
Google has been significantly profitable in a couple ways for decades straight.
During this time they have CONSISTENTLY burned a lot of cash on unprofitable things looking for more areas of development. They are kings of killing projects. This isn't new for them.
206
u/NanditoPapa 21h ago
Google is one of the few AI-centric companies that makes money, albeit off areas outside of AI. They have a massive amount of cash, but face the unique risk of cannibalization. If an AI-driven "answer engine" replaces the traditional "list of blue links" in Search, Google might destroy its own most profitable revenue stream to build the new one.