内容来源：https://www.wired.com/story/google-ai-searches-love-to-refer-you-back-to-google/

内容总结：

近日，搜索引擎优化公司SE Ranking发布的一项研究显示，谷歌在其AI搜索模式（AI Mode）中频繁引用自家服务，引发行业对网络生态可持续性的担忧。研究指出，当用户点击该模式下的超链接时，约有17%的几率会跳转至谷歌搜索结果的页面，这一比例在过去一年增长了两倍。在娱乐、旅游等特定领域，该比例甚至接近50%。

这一趋势加剧了出版商与科技公司间的长期矛盾。多家网站运营者表示，近年来谷歌在搜索结果中突出生成式AI摘要（如AI概述和AI Mode），导致其外部流量持续下滑。尽管谷歌搜索业务负责人莉兹·里德曾辩称AI工具能为第三方网站带来“高质量点击”，但业内人士指出，许多AI生成的引用链接实则将用户困在谷歌生态内循环跳转，无法直接获取原始信息来源。

数字营销专家兰德·菲什金指出：“如今谷歌流量的最大受益者正是谷歌自身。”这一现象被行业观察者称为“零点击网络”趋势——即搜索引擎正从流量分发渠道转变为流量闭环保留地。SE Ranking品牌负责人莫迪·奥伯斯坦质疑道：“当大量引用只是让用户在谷歌站内打转时，这对互联网生态有何益处？”

面对质疑，谷歌发言人解释称部分链接旨在帮助用户探索相关问题，类似于“其他人还问”功能，并非替代原始网页链接。但《搜索引擎天地》编辑总监丹尼·古德温指出，谷歌优先展示自有内容已是持续趋势，其去年在AI概述中就已增加对自家搜索结果的引用。

目前，谷歌尚未像OpenAI等AI公司那样，为出现在AI生成内容中的媒体内容支付授权费用。分析认为，若谷歌长期将流量导向内部服务，或将挤压第三方出版商的生存空间，而谷歌可通过提升搜索频次获得更多广告收益。随着AI搜索日益普及，这场关于流量分配与技术伦理的博弈，正在重塑互联网信息的流动轨迹。

中文翻译：

谷歌似乎对自家产品"上瘾"了。搜索引擎优化公司SE Ranking的最新研究发现，当用户点击谷歌聊天机器人式搜索工具"AI模式"中的超链接时，很可能被导向另一个谷歌搜索结果页面。目前，Google.com是AI模式中最常被引用的网站。

许多网站运营者和出版商长期依赖谷歌搜索作为主要流量来源，近年来却纷纷抱怨访问量下降——这家科技巨头通过"AI概览"和"AI模式"功能，将生成式AI摘要置于搜索结果页的显要位置。谷歌搜索业务负责人莉兹·里德曾反驳关于流量下滑的报道，称AI工具能为这些网站带来"高质量点击"。

"即便声称用户经常点击那些引用链接，实际上也无从点击——因为它们只会带你跳转到另一个谷歌搜索结果。"SE Ranking品牌总监、SEO专家莫迪·奥伯斯坦指出。目前AI模式中约17%的引用链接最终指向谷歌自身，这一比例在过去一年增长了两倍。而该模式下被引用次数第二多的网站？正是同为谷歌旗下的YouTube。

在某些细分领域，谷歌在AI模式引用中的主导地位更为突出。根据SE Ranking的分析数据，娱乐和旅游类查询结果中，近半数引用链接指向谷歌搜索结果。

例如当笔者询问AI模式"2026年奥斯卡颁奖典礼需关注哪些看点"时，关于热门影片《罪人》和《接连不断的战斗》的内嵌超链接均导向谷歌结果页。事实上，该AI模式输出的全部17个超链接都指向侧边栏显示的谷歌结果。除这些谷歌链接外，输出内容末尾还附有三个指向第三方信源的按钮。

"报告中提及的部分链接更像快捷方式，旨在帮助用户探索可能的后续问题，从而发现更多网页链接。"谷歌发言人向《连线》杂志解释，"它们并非用于替代原始网页链接。"该发言人将AI模式中的此类链接类比为"其他人还问过"等搜索功能。

社交媒体颠覆性崛起的过往，曾引发硅谷科技公司（试图利用新技术）与出版商（担忧流量下滑）间的激烈争论。谷歌等科技企业与出版商达成的合作协议，正是应对这场剧变的尝试。

对《连线》采访的SEO专家而言，谷歌偏爱自家输出的现象早已司空见惯。"这是谷歌的一贯作风。"搜索引擎资讯网主编丹尼·古德温表示。他去年就注意到"AI概览"更频繁地链接至谷歌自身搜索结果，因此对AI模式新增自我引用的消息并不意外。

古德温曾亲历这种"循环陷阱"："谷歌或许认为这很棒，但当我试图寻找答案却只能点击一个接一个的谷歌搜索结果时，问题依然没有解决。"他指出，这种AI工具制造的循环体验对用户和内容出版商而言都令人沮丧。

受众研究公司SparkToro联合创始人、数字营销专家兰德·菲什金直言："如今谷歌流量的最大受益者正是谷歌自身。"他认为这反映了整体趋势——来自搜索工具和社交媒体的流量正日益内循环。"这是根本性转变：网络从流量分发者转变为流量囤积者，实现零点击闭环。"

谷歌的长期战略仍显模糊。若众多网络出版商被挤出AI模式的显要引用位，转而由谷歌自家站点占据，该公司的直接利益显而易见：更多用户进行更多搜索，从而带来更多搜索广告收入。

当OpenAI等AI公司通过与出版商（包括《连线》母公司康泰纳仕集团）合作，为出现在聊天机器人结果中的知名网站提供补偿时，谷歌虽与部分新闻出版商达成协议，却似乎未为出现在"AI概览"或"AI模式"输出内容的网站支付费用。

当大量引用链接仅将用户带回谷歌站点，那些为AI摘要提供数据的网络出版商恐难以为继。"这对互联网生态有何益处？"奥伯斯坦质问道。当巨蟒开始吞噬自己的尾巴，留下的只会是无解谜题。

英文来源：

Google seems to have a Google addiction. If you click on a hyperlink in Google’s chatbot-style search tool, AI Mode, you are likely to be looped into another Google search, according to a new study from SE Ranking, a search engine optimization company. Currently, Google.com is the most commonly linked site in AI Mode.
Many website owners and publishers have relied heavily on Google Search as their primary source of visitors and have complained about declines in traffic over the past few years as the tech giant has prominently featured generative AI summaries in search results, through AI Overviews and AI Mode. Liz Reid, Google’s head of Search, has previously disputed reports about traffic declines and described AI tools as driving “highly quality clicks” to these sites.
“Even if you're saying that people click on those citations all the time, well, there's nothing to click on, because it just takes you to another Google result,” says Mordy Oberstein, an SEO expert and head of brand at SE Ranking. Currently, an estimated 17 percent of total citations in AI Mode lead back to Google. That’s a threefold increase over the past year. The second most overall cited website in AI Mode? YouTube, another Google company.
Google’s presence in AI Mode citations is even more pronounced in certain niches. In the links analyzed by SE Ranking, around half of all citations in AI Mode for Entertainment and Travel returned to a Google Search result.
For example, I asked AI Mode what to pay attention to during the 2026 Oscars ceremony, and the in-line hyperlinks for top-contender movies, such as Sinners and One Battle After Another, lead to Google results. In fact, all 17 hyperlinks in this AI Mode output lead to Google results that appear in a sidebar. In addition to the Google links, the output included three buttons that link to third-party sources at the end of the paragraphs.
“Some of the links described in the report are more like shortcuts to help people explore likely follow-up questions and therefore find additional web links,” a Google spokesperson tells WIRED. “They aren’t intended to replace links to the web.” The spokesperson compared these links in AI Mode to other Search features, like “People also ask.”
The disruptive rise of social media in the past has sparked heated discussions between Silicon Valley companies seeking to leverage new technologies and publishers worried about potential declines in traffic. Partnership deals between tech companies, such as Google, and publishers were an attempt to adapt to that seismic change.
The idea of Google preferring its own outputs and features is nothing new to the SEO experts WIRED spoke to about the report. “It's a continuing trend with Google,” says Danny Goodwin, the editorial director of Search Engine Land. He noticed Google linking to its own search results more often in AI Overviews last year and isn’t surprised by the news that AI Mode now includes additional self-citations.
Goodwin has experienced the “loops” before firsthand. “Google may think that's great, but I've gone into those loops where I'm trying to find an answer, and the only option is to click on a Google search result that takes me to another search result,” he says. “But, it still doesn't answer my question.” The circular experience of these AI tools is incredibly frustrating, Goodwin says, for users and publishers putting content online.
“The biggest beneficiary of Google's traffic these days is Google,” says Rand Fishkin, a cofounder of the audience research company, SparkToro, and a digital marketing expert. He sees this as part of an overarching trend in which less traffic from search tools and social media sites is going to outside sources. “That's the big shift. Basically, from a web that sends traffic, to a web that conserves it and is zero click.”
Google’s long-term strategy remains murky. If numerous online publishers are muscled out of prominent citations in AI Mode, with preference given to Google’s own sites, the immediate benefit for the company is clear: more people performing more searches, thereby driving more advertising revenue from search.
Some AI companies, like OpenAI, have turned to partnerships with publishers to compensate prominent websites that appear in chatbot results, including WIRED’s parent company Condé Nast. While Google has some deals with news publishers, it does not appear to pay sites for appearing in the outputs of AI Overviews or AI Mode.
Online publishers, which Google pulls data from for its AI summaries, may struggle to stay in business if a large chunk of citations simply circle users back to Google’s sites. “How is that beneficial to the web?” asks Oberstein. When a snake eats its own tail, what’s left behind is a mystery.