Google Persistently Pushes for Closing the Openness of the Web, Disregarding Antitrust Concerns

Google Persistently Pushes for Closing the Openness of the Web, Disregarding Antitrust Concerns

Rewritten Article:

In the face of an antitrust case loss, alleging Google's dominance over internet search equivalents to an unlawful monopoly, the tech giant seems unfazed, perpetually craving more control over search results. The Department of Justice has even proposed splitting Google's search businesses, but Google appears undeterred, crafting innovative methods to siphon more traffic and ad revenue away from small website owners.

First, AI summaries graced the top of search results. Now, it seems Google is trial-running a feature that pinches content from culinary experts and online cookbooks, eliminating the necessity to visit their websites.

In a groundbreaking report by Search Engine Roundtable, a new "Quick View" button has surfaced for certain Google users on the recipe images within search results. A click on this button delivers the ingredient list and cooking directions from the publisher's site condensed into a user-friendly window, keeping users on Google's platform.

According to Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable, Google is not merely providing a snippet of information, encouraging users to visit the publisher's site. Instead, they are offering the entire recipe toolkit on a silver platter on their own platform.

The extent of the "Quick View" feature's testing remains unclear at the moment.

Google spokesperson Brianna Duff commented in an email, "We're always experimenting with different ways to connect our users with high-quality and helpful information. We have partnered with a select group of creators to initiate a trial run of new recipe experiences on Search, aiming to be beneficial for users while contributing value to the web ecosystem." Duff added that for this trial period, Google has "agreements in place with the participating recipe creators."

Intriguingly, Google is tinkering with fresh ways to keep users within its domain as the discordant noises emanate from Washington.

As part of a Tuesday court filing suggesting strategies for shattering Google's search monopoly, the Department of Justice hinted at considering "requiring Google to allow websites crawled for Google search to opt out of training or appearing in any Google-owned artificial-intelligence product or feature on Google search."

The phrase seems aimed at Google's AI Overview feature, which inadequately summarizes content on other websites. However, it would also likely apply to a feature like Quick View that snatches entire sections of content and presents it at the pinnacle of search results.

Apart from the DOJ's examination, a coalition of Democratic senators has urged the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize how Google misappropriates content from website owners and how these practices enrich the tech titan by steering traffic and ad revenue away from smaller publishers. In their letter to the FTC, the senators particularly highlighted the negative impact on recipe websites.

"Previously, if a user searched for a recipe, a search engine would redirect the user to a content-creator's website," they wrote. "However, today, many generative AI features collect information from those websites (without permission) and present it as an AI-generated recipe directly to the user, competing with those websites."

For a recipe publisher to evade having their content pilfered by Google, they would need to opt out of being indexed by the web's most powerful portal, which would result in a substantial decrease in referral traffic, the senators wrote.

The boring preambles and profound reflections preceding recipe instructions on many websites have often been the subject of online sarcasm. However, if Google's solution is to shun traffic away from those websites, we may be left cooking without a net in the kitchen, reliant on Google's instructions for botulism or pizza smothered in adhesive.

1. In the future, Google may face legal requirements to allow websites to opt out of providing content for AI products or features, such as Quick View, in Google search.
2. The tech giant's Quick View feature currently presents entire recipe toolkits from publishers' sites within Google's platform, potentially reducing the traffic and ad revenue of those sites.
3. To avoid having content used by Google's Quick View feature, publishers could opt out of being indexed, which would significantly reduce their referral traffic.
4. As the Department of Justice and Democratic senators examine Google's practices for misappropriating content, the future revenue of recipe websites could be at stake, leaving users reliant on Google's instructions, which might not always be accurate or safe.

Read also: