How Google systematically transformed its search results from an open portal into a walled garden.
Google's Global Search Market Share
91.46%
(As of Q3 2025)
With near-total dominance, every change to Google's algorithm and layout dictates the flow of the internet's traffic and revenue.
Around 2011, Google began hiding organic keyword referral data, classifying it as "(not provided)". This was the first major step in creating an information imbalance. While website owners lost sight of how users found them organically, the same detailed keyword data remained fully available to those paying for Google Ads. This forced businesses to pay for insights that were once free, shifting the web's focus from content quality to ad spend.
Organic keyword visibility for site owners plunged after 2011.
Throughout the mid-2010s, Google systematically redesigned its results page to prioritize its own properties and paid ads. The classic "10 blue links" were pushed below the fold by ads, shopping carousels, knowledge panels, and featured snippets. This drastically reduced the visibility and click-through rate of even top-ranking organic results, making the prime digital real estate available only to the highest bidder or Google itself.
Share of above-the-fold SERP real estate over time.
The final wall in the garden is the AI Overview. Google now intercepts queries to provide its own machine-generated summary at the top of the page. This "sanitized slop" often removes the need to click through to any website, disintermediating publishers and capturing 100% of the user's attention. The open web, built on a value exchange of traffic for information, is threatened by a future of zero-click searches where Google is not the gateway, but the destination.
🤖 Google AI Intercepts
Generates instant summary