Google Finally Puts Links Back in AI Search — CNN Signs On
By TechPulse USA Staff Google spent two years training the world not to click. On Thursday, it admitted — not quite in those words — that the clicks were the entire point all along. Search chief Nick Fox announced a package of changes to AI Overviews and AI Mode designed to shove links back in front of users: more inline links, a new top-of-response section spotlighting the one or two links that actually matter, and news carousels going global. And while Fox was posting, Google's chequebook was open too. CNN signed a multi-year AI partnership, and Axios and the Financial Times joined a licensing programme that now pays more than 400 publications for their content. The twist is obvious, and Google knows it. After two years of AI summaries starving publishers of traffic — 40 per cent of Google traffic gone in a single year, by one count — Mountain View is offering the web more links and more money. The question is whether either will actually arrive. What Google actually anno...