Levies, Tariffs And Taxes, Oh My!
The tariff mania may have calmed a bit for countries aside from China, but the rest of the world is still preparing for countermeasures should talks fail to reduce tariff rates.
“It’s a turning point with the United States without any question,” EU President Ursula von der Leyen tells the Financial Times. “We will never go back any more to the status quo.”
One such countermeasure that she cites would be to “put a levy on the advertising revenues of digital services.” Translation: The EU may punish US-based Big Tech companies in retaliation for the tariffs.
And that move would be separate from preexisting antitrust suits against Google, Apple and Meta for breaches of the Digital Markets Act, which also complicate Big Tech doing business in the EU.
Global economic disarray and a massive investor downsizing of their economies is definitely not a positive. But perhaps Europe (though not European businesses) will finally get the cut of online advertising revenue that they’ve never much enjoyed.
There’s A Search For That
Google has been expanding its AI Overviews (AIOs), the generative AI responses it shows to some search engine queries, to more countries, categories (e.g., travel, finance and medical questions) and a higher rate of traditional searches overall.
One big concern – an industry concern, that is, not necessarily a concern for Google – is that sites will see their largest source of web traffic evaporate. The anecdotal and early data reinforce the intuitive theory that Google’s new search system is dramatically bad for publishers with meaningful search traffic.
Which is all a lead-up to the update last week that Google has officially begun inserting links within AIOs that simply generate a new Google search, as Search Engine Land reports, instead of linking to a publisher. Google had been spotted testing this already, but now it’s a standard approach in the US.
A Google spokesperson tells SEL it’s a “much better user experience,” since the company finds users often do a parallel or follow-up search of their own. Google also compares the idea to the longstanding “People also search for …” prompt that’s part of the traditional search engine.
Who Creates Sales?
Speaking of search traffic being replaced by generative AI, social media creators think that AI-powered searches will cut out their affiliate revenue, considering new consumer AI agent services directly facilitate purchases and aggregate reviews to do research on that person’s behalf.
“Google is designing its product in a way to keep the user inside of Google and make it less and less obvious and less and less necessary to click out,” Marc McCollum, Raptive’s chief innovation officer, tells The Information.
And it’s not just Google, mind. Earlier this month, Perplexity AI launched new features and an update to its shopper query “answer mode,” which enables not just click-to-cart links but direct purchases. Also this month, Amazon introduced its in-beta shopper AI agent, quite bluntly called “Buy for Me,” which browses third-party shopping sites for that user.
From Google’s perspective: “We’ve seen speculation that any recent traffic change is due to AI Overviews, but the reality is traffic fluctuates for many reasons, including seasonal demand, interests of users, and regular algorithmic updates to Search,” a spokesperson tells The Information.
But Wait! There’s More
Advertisers have budget cuts on their minds, but Meta and Google seem well-poised, somehow, to benefit. [The Information]
Marin Software, a one-time performance and PPC software company, will delist from Nasdaq and dissolve. So it goes. [release]
Can influencer marketing and cheaper pricing bring Gen Z audiences to Broadway theaters? [Ad Age]
Google attempts to win federal government business from Microsoft by offering a 71% discount on Workspace for government agencies. [Ars Technica]
The FTC antitrust trial concerning Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp will begin on Monday. [CNBC]
AI slop channels on YouTube are monetizing fake videos about Trump administration officials and Trump family members triumphing over made-up antagonists. [Mother Jones]