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points by freediver 14 hours ago | 0 comments

Pretty remarkable (in the age of AI) that search/ad revenue actually grew 12%. Anyone have a rational explanation why is that the case?

[–] whizzter 14 hours ago

For me Google has stayed as the default interface, if I need to ask a basic query (probably searches that don't yield much revenue but keeps me on Google), the results were becoming worse a 1-3 years ago but now the AI parts of Google is now good-enough(TM) that I mostly don't need to go to a separate interface, as long as users aren't fleeing they can probably continue to get paid for ADs (also the if YT ads are included, those have really become obnoxious but probably well monetized).

[–] freediver 14 hours ago

But you are not clicking on ads? And they aren't (yet?) in AI overviews?

[–] whizzter 13 hours ago

Not more than accidentally or when actually interested in something that pops up, but as a friend said, I'm not a usual core customer so I've never been the baseline.

The thing they're doing correctly right now imho, is that AI mode is mostly toggled for things that passes a quick questions filter (probably low probability of a purchase, like "global illumination methods" giving a decent overview of the field) while if you just type green shoes it'll put out an assortment of online and local shopping options.

Now if as someone said in the sibling comments, Google is gouging their customers with the new auction model that's another problem, but if I was a shareholder I'd be less worried about an exodus of end users to OpenAI,etc than I was a year ago.

[–] ryanjshaw 14 hours ago

I saw a post on X saying Google changed the ad auction pricing model, but I don’t know much about this to comment if it’s accurate.

[–] mlmonkey 14 hours ago

This post? https://x.com/MaxAnderson/status/2080229375773941871

[–] ModernTimes 13 hours ago

That post is shocking and probably deserves its own HackerNews discussion.

[–] freediver 14 hours ago

Thanks, this does make sense.

[–] andriy_koval 14 hours ago

> that search/ad revenue actually grew 12%

it grew compared to q3 2025, but it is flat (0% grows) compared to q2 2026.

[–] tim333 13 hours ago

The money is mostly paid by companies wanting to find customers and the AI companies like OpenAi and Antropic don't provide much of that. The biggest competitor is probably Facebook who I'm not sure are really booming at the moment?