Sites deciding whether to stay in Google's AI features now have one estimate of what is at stake. SEO consultant Cyrus Shepard estimates that AI Overviews and AI Mode drove about 21% of his Zyppy site's Google clicks, based on a 28-day opt-out test. He called it a "directional yardstick" from a single site, Search Engine Journal reports. Google's control covers all AI features at once, and Google shares impressions but not clicks, Digiday reports. Google must give U.K. publishers click data by December 3. Meanwhile it is showing links more often in AI answers, which SPUR founder David Buttle said is meant to keep sites opted in. We are tracking this in our story on Google's AI search opt-out.
Publishers show the pressure behind that choice. Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah said Google referrals fell about 37% in Q3 and that "We're not planning on a search recovery." PPC Land cautioned that his impressions-to-clicks comparison is not clean. Merchants that rely on review and coupon partners may want to ask how their referrals have moved. On the ChatGPT side, OpenAI is testing a dashboard that counts brand mentions and clicks, according to Digiday. It hides prompts and competitor rankings, and OpenAI declined to comment.
On agent access, Amazon began inviting a small group of US customers to buy through Alexa for Shopping by text message. It says millions more will get the option in the coming weeks. Our explainer on how Amazon, Walmart, Shopify and Mercado Libre split sets that against Walmart, which lets approved outside agents buy with customer approval by default. Cloudflare argues that sites bear the primary cost in nearly all 14 agent problems it lists, PPC Land reported. HUMAN data cited there found Meta's Muse made 72% of AI agent requests, and Muse is now adding shopping tools. Firmly raised $15 million to connect merchants to agents through one integration, a bet on fragmented checkout rails. The wider split is in our retailer agent access story.
OpenAI released GPT-6 Cyber to approved customers and rates its cyber capability critical. Its claims, including 81 new Firefox flaws, are unverified (agent security story). Shopify researchers describe one generative model for search and recommendation but give no figures in the abstract. A non-binding EU research ethics note flags AI credit scoring and insurance pricing among consumer protection risks.
The marker to watch is the click data Google must hand U.K. publishers by December 3. Google has not confirmed a global release. Until then, opt-out decisions rest on estimates like Shepard's.