Google Shifts from Infinite Scroll as AI Transforms Search

The shift from infinite scroll is seen by some as the end of an era, but it’s also the beginning of AI making search more digestible and opening new monetization opportunities for both Google and content creators. The rise of generative AI has sparked significant discussions about data rights and ownership as Large Language Models (LLMs) abstract content and create monetization avenues.

This change is likely to ignite a battle for monetization among Google, Microsoft/OpenAI, and new players like Anthropic, Cohere, and Perplexity. Amazon Q, a chatbot for enterprise use, is also set to benefit, especially in the shopping domain. As we enter the generative AI era, search will transform significantly, with the “fold” becoming relevant again for consolidated views, such as finding specific data assets within an enterprise related to customer churn based on demographics.

There are already signs of this transformation. For instance, Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler recently introduced Smashing, an AI- and community-powered content recommendation app designed to bring news summaries, key excerpts, and relevant pull quotes to readers.

Google recently announced it is phasing out continuous scrolling of search results, introduced in late 2021, to serve search results faster by loading only explicitly requested results. Desktop users will now see a pagination bar, allowing them to go directly to a specific page of search results or click “Next” to see the following page. Mobile users will soon see a “More results” button at the bottom of their searches.

This change resets the search experience from an endless scroll to a prompt, above-the-fold summary with minimal hallucinations. The true beneficiaries are the LLM makers who need to retrain consumers to use AI in a monetizable way. As we adjust to how large language models provide abstracted results and high-value summaries, endless scrolling will no longer make sense.

With monetization at stake, challenges will arise in prioritizing sources for abstracts versus monetizing sources. These issues will be addressed within the models, but there is a risk that revenue could be favored over accuracy. This shift represents a significant inflection point in the generative AI era. Licensing content to improve abstract quality, as seen with Time Magazine’s recent deal with OpenAI, could become a key revenue model for content creators.

Search providers reliant on pay-per-click behavior and ad-heavy search feeds must monitor how LLM-driven search results change user behavior. If these changes are substantial, it could pose significant challenges for companies like Google and Microsoft. The goal is to provide highly accurate abstracts with high-fidelity results while still monetizing through ads and data.

The shift from endless scrolling has sparked debates about its impact on user behavior and website traffic. Many SEO experts argue that results beyond the first page receive minimal clicks and that infinite scroll helped lower-ranked sites gain visibility. Pagination might reduce traffic for less-visible sites, as results on additional scrolls often led to the serendipitous discovery of new and original content.

This change risks marginalizing small businesses, leaving more visibility to larger entities. As we transition to a new search approach, there are many unknowns, but it is an exciting time signaling further changes. The end of search as we know it might already be here, with only the pace and finality of this pivot left to be determined.