That's how people want to browse the web. If you block it you won't even get links from those. That's like blocking the search crawler.
Why is it such an issue that publishers and website owners want to maintain the traffic to their website so that they can continue operating as usual? Or should we all just accept every Google decision, even when those decisions result in more engagement on google.com, but 20-35% decreases in traffic to the original websites?
Also I'm going to need a citation that the vast majority of people want and get value out of AI overviews. Because that is certainly not the case from my experience.
This isn't a "google decision" people are changing the way they use the web.
Also - I noticed a pretty huge outcry when AI overviews were introduced to search. Can you show me all the people who enjoy the experience of using them more than not?
> Can you show me all the people who enjoy the experience of using them more than not?
Yes. Most people here have commented that they prefer AI responses to raw search results partly because they don't have to deal with poorly written web sites. Most people I know IRL do too.
Strangely enough, I've seen the exact opposite response on here. Especially since the AI overviews are often plain wrong and/or misleading. Many others like myself also prefer to get information directly from 1st parties, rather than whatever sausage has been produced through the black box information meat grinder we call AI.