Publishers Threaten to Dump Google Search as Traffic Dwindles
Cloudflare is now blocking multi‑purpose crawlers on new and free‑tier sites, forcing publishers to choose between letting Google scrape their content for AI training or vanishing from Google Search. With ad‑driven traffic collapsing, major outlets such as USA Today are already planning a six‑to‑twelve‑month exit, a move that could reshape the web’s traffic ecosystem.