Google Just Ended the Open Web's 25-Year Deal The Search Report May 2026 Analysis · Digital Industry Google just ended the open web's 25-year deal. From AI Overviews to I/O 2026 — how one company rewrote the rules of the internet, and what every digital team must do next. 60% of searches never leave Google The build-up May 2024 — Google I/O AI Overviews go live Google begins answering queries directly on the results page. Users get the answer. Publishers get nothing. The era of the ten blue links quietly begins to end. March 2025 — Search Labs AI Mode launches Conversational, multi-turn search debuts for Google One AI Premium subscribers. Within a year it crosses 1 billion monthly users — queries more than doubling every quarter since launch. November 2025 — Similarweb data Zero-click reach...