arxivcs.CYcs.AIecon.GN2026-07-08
Answering Without Referring: How AI Search Rewrites the Web's Economic Bargain
Search engines have long allocated attention on the web by routing users from queries to websites. AI search changes this arrangement because information needs can be resolved inside the intermediary. Using URL-level Comscore U.S. desktop clickstream, we compare ChatGPT and Googl…