Noticed this week that the AI search summaries have gone mainstream. Every query now gives you a paragraph of text before any links. It changes the dynamic completely. You get an answer instantly, but you lose the context of where it came from. I was talking to a journalist friend who's furious about it. He says it steals traffic. But from a user perspective, it's hard to argue against convenience.
The real shift is cultural. People are becoming accustomed to trusting a black box for answers. The old habit of scrolling through sources is fading. This week alone I've seen three thinkpieces arguing it's the end of the internet as we know it. Maybe. But the genie is out of the bottle. Search is no longer a directory. It's an oracle.
Paul