Data

Google AI Overviews ‘leading to affiliate revenue drop of 20-40% at some publishers’

Google’s AI Overviews are reducing traffic to review content and buyers’ guides by up to 50%, according to an affiliate marketing specialist. Paul Cunliffe, who works with publishers on their affiliate channels, described the arrival of AI Overviews as a “real challenge at the moment in the affiliate space”. Publishers can earn affiliate revenue by linking to products and services, taking a commission when readers make a purchase by clicking through a link.

Source: Google AI Overviews ‘leading to affiliate revenue drop of 20-40% at some publishers’

Inside the web infrastructure revolt over Google’s AI Overviews

Cloudflare, a web infrastructure company, has updated millions of websites’ robots.txt files in an effort to force Google to change how it crawls them to fuel its AI products and initiatives. There have been lawsuits, efforts to kick-start new marketplaces to ensure compensation, and more—but few companies have the kind of leverage Cloudflare does. Its products and services back something close to 20 percent of the web, and thus a significant slice of the websites that show up on search results pages or that fuel large language models.

Source: Inside the web infrastructure revolt over Google’s AI Overviews

Google AI Overviews Overlaps Organic Search By 54%

New research from BrightEdge offers insights into how Google’s AI Overviews ranks websites across different verticals, with implications for what SEOs and publishers should be focusing on. The data shows that 54% of the AI Overviews citations matched the web pages ranked in the organic search results. This means that 46% of citations do not overlap with organic search results.  Could this be an artifact of Google’s FastSearch algorithm?

Source: Google AI Overviews Overlaps Organic Search By 54%

Publishers with AI licensing deals have seven times the clickthrough rate

Publishers with OpenAI licensing deals benefit from a ChatGPT clickthrough rate almost seven times higher than those without agreements, according to the latest State of the Bots report from Tollbit. This suggests that AI gatekeepers’ discretionary deal-making, which currently largely locks out all but large, premium, English-language titles, will be a key determinant of success as AI adoption and diffusion continues to accelerate.

Source: Publishers with AI licensing deals have seven times the clickthrough rate

Universal and Sony Music partner with new platform to detect AI music copyright theft 

The two major music companies have each partnered with a research lab called SoundPatrol, which has developed a patent-pending method to analyze music. SoundPatrol, which originated at Stanford University, is developing what it calls a “forensic AI model for audio-video fingerprinting,” which it claims “represents a step change from existing detection methods.”

Source: Universal and Sony Music partner with new platform to detect AI music copyright theft using ‘groundbreaking neural fingerprinting’ technology

Google makes real-world data more accessible to AI — and training pipelines will love it 

Google is turning its vast public data trove into a goldmine for AI with the debut of the Data Commons Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server — enabling developers, data scientists, and AI agents to access real-world statistics using natural language and better train AI systems. Data Commons’ new MCP server bridges public datasets — from census figures to climate statistics — with AI systems that increasingly depend on accurate, structured context.

Source: Google makes real-world data more accessible to AI — and training pipelines will love it | TechCrunch

In ‘landmark’ move, SESAC and GMR join ASCAP and BMI’s ‘Songview’ database 

In December 2020, US PROs ASCAP and BMI launched a public performance copyright database called Songview as a “groundbreaking collaboration” aimed to serve as a “comprehensive data resource for music users.” A “landmark expansion” of the platform was announced on Monday (September 29), with data from all four major performing rights organizations in the United States –  ASCAP, BMI, GMR and SESAC – to be integrated into the Songview platform.

Source: In ‘landmark’ move, SESAC and GMR join ASCAP and BMI’s ‘Songview’ copyright database, expanding platform to 38m+ works

Reddit launches tools for publisher to track and share stories 

Reddit on Wednesday launched a set of free tools for publishers to track their article performance and receive suggestions on where to share their stories within the site’s communities. The new features are launching as a part of Reddit Pro, a suite of business tools it debuted last year to help organizations grow their presence on the platform. T

Source: Reddit launches tools for publisher to track and share stories | TechCrunch

RSS co-creator launches new protocol for AI data licensing

A new system called Real Simple Licensing would allow AI companies to license training data at a massive scale — if they’re willing to pay for it. According to RSL co-founder Eckart Walther, who also co-created the RSS standard, the goal was to create a training-data licensing system that could scale across the internet. “We need to have machine-readable licensing agreements for the internet,” Walther told TechCrunch. “That’s really what RSL solves.”

Source: RSS co-creator launches new protocol for AI data licensing | TechCrunch

Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’

For months, Google has maintained that the web is “thriving,” AI isn’t tanking traffic, and its search engine is sending people to a wider variety of websites than ever. But in a court filing from last week, Google admitted that “the open web is already in rapid decline.”  Google submitted the filing ahead of another trial that will determine how it will address its monopoly in the advertising technology business.

Source: Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’

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