Google's 1st link of AI response is generally so complete that I don't even need to look further. It even offers to give me more details if I tell it more of what I am asking.

Yeah, that’s great for you, maybe not so great for the advertisers who need you to click through to a video (which they support with advertisers) or a website (so they can convert you to a customer) or, for that matter, for Google, which gets paid by the click.

It’s especially not good for a company which gets more than half its revenue from those clicks - but it ain’t good for publishers, influencers, or all those other johnny-come-lately-to-the-digital world entities that have proliferated over the past 20 years.

Not to panic, obviously, maybe Google will find a way to monetize these results - but this is a case where “making it easier for the customer” might not be the way to salvation. (Yes, they have other advertising initiatives, of which YouTube is one (~15% of revenue) and ad spray on other sites is another (~10%), but sending less traffic to other sites also impacts that second figure in a not helpful way.)

Making things easier for the customer is usually a great idea, but not every single time. I wonder if this is going to be one of those rare times where it isn’t?