The United Kingdom has imposed tough new rules on Google Search to address competition concerns, mandating clearer attributions to publishers’ content in its AI-powered search features and providing publishers with an opt-out option.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday, June 3, said Google would be required to make sure content from publishers, including news organisations, was properly attributed in AI‑generated search results, using clear links.
The country’s competition watchdog has previously flagged concerns about Google’s dominance in search. For context, Google reportedly accounts for more than 90 per cent of search queries in the UK.
The new rules were imposed under the country’s digital markets competition regime, under which Google has been designated with the “strategic market status” that allows the CMA to set targeted rules to increase trust and transparency.
The regulatory action against Google comes at a time when news websites and other publishers globally are witnessing a sharp drop in click-through rates as a growing number of users turn to AI chatbots or generative AI-powered search features such as Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews to look up information online.
While Google AI Mode and AI Overview display links to source content, there have been instances where the cited sources did not adequately support the AI-generated response to the user’s query. Requiring Google to ensure clearer attribution may help improve the accuracy of AI Mode and AI Overview summaries.
Meanwhile, Google’s search services continue to face regulatory scrutiny across the world, including in the United States and European Union.
“In a world first, publishers will now have effective tools to prevent their content being used to power AI features in search, such as AI Overviews. This will put publishers, like news organizations, in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google,” the CMA said in its notice. “Google has recently announced changes to its search business and the requirements we’ve introduced today are designed to respond to what Google is doing now and in the future,” CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell was quoted as saying by Reuters.
What are the new CMA rules for Google Search?
-Clearer attribution: The CMA’s order on Wednesday requires Google to put clearer attributions and links to publishers’ content in its AI-generated search features. It is also required to publish explanatory information detailing how it meets the new attribution requirement and how it ensures and measures “the factuality of search generative AI features.”
In its decision, the CMA noted that some “stakeholders said there are instances where attribution in search generative AI features has been inaccurate and that the clarity of such attribution could be improved.”
During CMA proceedings in February this year, Google argued, “Excessive attribution of lots of sources may worsen the user experience and lead to fewer clicks; not more.” “But too little attribution and publishers may decide to opt out, depriving Google of their content for grounding Search genAI features,” it added.
-Opt-out mechanism: Google is also required to give publishers a way to opt out of AI features in search. In addition, the opting out should also cover the use of publishers’ content for training and grounding of Google’s broader generative AI services and its AI search features. The options for opting out must be made available to publishers at both the directory and page levels.
In the February proceedings, Google argued that the company’s current opt-outs are sufficient and effective, and that requiring to offer page-level opt-outs would be disproportionate. “Constantly crawling and re-crawling content that is constantly being opted in and out will increase costs for Google, and thereafter increase crawl costs for publishers. It may lead to user confusion and a fragmented and inconsistent user experience,” the company said.
-No penalisation: Google is not allowed to penalise publishers who opt-out of its AI search features by downranking them in general search results, as per the CMA.
-Periodic compliance reports: Google is further required to submit and publish compliance reports, supported by key data and metrics, explaining changes it has made and how it has complied with the CMA order.
-Compliance deadline: Google has nine months to comply with all requirements, with the competition watchdog stating that key parts of the controls should become available to publishers well before that deadline. According to the CMA, nine months is “sufficient time to carry out additional technical work to design and implement these aspects of the control effectively.” Google is also required to provide an implementation plan within one month.
How has Google responded to the new rules?
Google has said that it will fully comply with the CMA’s new conduct requirements, according to ArsTechnica. The company on Wednesday also announced that it is testing a new control that lets publishers manage how their links and content appear in its AI search features.
“With this new toggle in Search Console, website owners can decide if they want their site to appear in and help ground responses in our generative AI Search features (like AI Overviews, AI Mode or AI Overviews in Discover),” the company said in a blog post.
“Sites that opt out will not receive traffic or impressions from our generative AI features. This control will not be used as a ranking signal for search results outside of these generative AI Search features,” it added.
Google further said it was increasing the number of links shown in AI-generated responses while giving website owners more data through the Search Console, including “impressions metrics and information about which pages appear in AI responses and in what countries.”
Some of these changes are being provided first to a subset of website owners in the UK as part of testing, before rolling them out to publishers globally.
Source: The Indian Express
--Agencies
