Marketing edition
In the third quarter, Alphabet earned almost 9 billion dollars less profit than a year earlier, and its share price fell by almost 12 percent.
Google earns less from AI search, and its share price falls almost 12 percent
Alphabet, Google's parent company, published its results for the third quarter of 2026. Revenue was almost 128 billion dollars, 25 percent more than a year earlier. Profit was more than 26 billion dollars, almost 9 billion less than a year earlier. Analysts had expected more: earnings per share were 2.12 dollars instead of the forecast 3.02 dollars. The share price fell by almost 12 percent. That is one of the biggest drops after results in the company's history.
Google itself gives a reason for concern. Chief business officer Philipp Schindler says that a search in AI Mode earns less money than a similar search on the web. There are fewer ads next to it, and they cost less.
For anyone who advertises through Google, this is the point to watch. If search traffic moves to AI Mode, there are fewer ad spots and they are cheaper. That changes what Google earns from search, and so it may also change how Google sets up its ad offering.
Background for subscribersA search in AI Mode earns Google less than a normal search, because it shows fewer ads. Google wants to fix this with more ads. For you, this could later mean more places to be visible in AI answers, while the number of searches is still growing, by 12 percent.
Three ways to limit AI crawlers, and what the token does differently
The new 'policy token' is not the only attempt to rein in AI crawlers. It is a 'no' signal: a publisher puts it in robots.txt, and AI companies that follow it do not use its content for AI. The RSL licensing standard works differently. With it, publishers can make crawlers pay. That is a different answer from refusing. Cloudflare takes a third route. That company blocks AI crawlers by default. A site then does not have to set anything up itself. So for people who manage content, these are different choices: refuse, charge or block. The token has the advantage that four big AI companies support it.
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