Google moved to calm mounting criticism that its generative-AI search features are siphoning traffic from the open web, releasing a detailed blog post by Google Search chief Liz Reid on 6 August. Reid wrote that “overall organic clicks to websites from Google Search has remained relatively stable year-on-year” and argued the new AI Overviews and other tools are producing “more queries and higher-quality clicks” rather than suppressing referral traffic. The rebuttal comes after publishers and search-engine-optimisation specialists circulated data suggesting Google’s AI answers are encouraging “zero-click” behaviour. A study cited by Seer Interactive, for example, found organic click-through rates can fall by as much as 70 % on pages where an AI Overview is displayed. Reid dismissed many of those findings as based on narrow samples, pre-existing ranking changes or flawed methodology. Google’s own numbers show little sign of advertiser fatigue: parent company Alphabet reported an 11.7 % rise in search advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2025, underscoring continued demand for exposure on the platform. Even so, Reid acknowledged that user habits are evolving toward forums, videos and other first-hand content, and urged publishers to focus on original analysis and authentic voices as the company expands its AI-powered search interface.