Chegg sues Google about lost traffic due to AI overviews

[Whitey]

It will be interesting to see where this one goes:

As you can imagine, this is how a ton of publishers and website owners feel. The AI Overviews and the trend we have seen with Google sending us less and less traffic over time, has been really really upsetting and financially hurtful.

[seroundtable.com...]

[tangor]

AI has your stuff (and is showing/using it) so why send traffic?

Or even say "thank you?"

[Whitey]

This is more than just content theft. There are multiple ramifications.

There’s a lengthy analysis that will take around 10 mins to read, from a legal standpoint on the article posted in the OP from @natejhake on X

There’s a fair bit of focus on Google’s monopolistic position rather than just copywrite.

[tangor]

Monopolistic position is ... monopolistic copyright theft. And if their properties are showing other's property without sending traffic is merely more of the same.

"Your stuff is mine, and mine is mine, too."

...and of course the Internet is "free".

The AI aspect is a marginal sideshow as an excuse.

YMMV

[JennyWilson]

I think its the first antitrust lawsuit by a company over AI Overviews.

[Whitey]

There's been some interesting initial analysis that has been done by Kevin Indig :

1/ Chegg's brand search volume and user engagement has been dropping before AI came on the scene. AI has likely accelerated the decline, but the product was shaky before.

2/ Chegg sues Google over AI Overviews (and Featured Snippets) but it seems only 15-20% of its keywords show an AI Overview. While I agree with Chegg's arguments, I think organic has been in decline even outside of AIOs and FS and Chegg needs to find a new growth motion.

[linkedin.com...]

I'm not sure where this will sit in Chegg's arguments and the counter arguments from Google.

[edited by: not2easy at 11:18 am (utc) on Mar 8, 2025]
[edit reason] quote typo [/edit]