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Reddit’s CEO says Google’s AI Mode ‘does not drive traffic’
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Although Google’s AI-powered modes reduce traffic to Reddit, Steve Huffman says that Reddit is still a ‘top search term’ on Google.
Although Google’s AI-powered modes reduce traffic to Reddit, Steve Huffman says that Reddit is still a ‘top search term’ on Google.
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Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in an earnings call today that Google’s AI-powered search modes do not help with traffic to the platform, echoing problems facing other websites and publishers. As part of its Q3 2026 earnings, Reddit revealed that search traffic in October has “dropped by more than 1 million referrals on average per week,” and he attributes part of the company’s struggles with Google traffic to how AI Mode and AI Overviews change the search experience.
“The reality is, AI Mode does not drive traffic,” Huffman says. “Not for us, and not to anybody, as far as I know. That’s just a fundamental shift in how Google works. It used to be a traffic driver, now it’s not.”
He says that AI Overviews and AI Mode have “evolved a lot” and now, at a “minimum,” push “everyone down the search page.” Huffman also says that Reddit believes its content that’s machine-translated into other languages is being ranked lower in search results, which he says would primarily affect the company outside the US.