Mastodawn

Don Faulkner Mar 25

Welllllll this isn't great.

Google Just Patented The End Of Your Website

"...a system that evaluates your company’s landing page in real time and, if it decides the page won’t perform well enough for a specific user, replaces it with an AI-generated version assembled on the fly. The user never sees what your team built, they see what Google's machine learning model thinks they should see instead."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joetoscano1/2026/03/06/google-just-patented-the-end-of-your-website

#SEO #Google #AI #enshittification

Google Just Patented The End Of Your Website

A newly granted Google patent could let the search giant replace your brand's landing page with an AI-generated version you have no control over and only your buyers see.

Forbes

Steve Rudolfi Mar 23

More. But definitely go read the full article.

f*cking b*tch club Mar 23

@SteveRudolfi I read it and I’m not sure I understand: can they do this to ANY website? like a .gov website as well as Aunt May’s “mycutegrandkids.com” website?

imagine the Mayo Clinic’s site being taken over and re-assembled with whatever google thinks you wanted to find for medical advice…..

Ryan Aherin Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi I hate that last line "The question isn’t how to stop this from happening, it’s how to make sure your parts are the ones AI wants to work with."

Like nah bro, I'm good. I don't want to just lay down and let this bullshit take over without a fight.

Stuck Here Mar 24

@r_aherin @SteveRudolfi

When something is intrinsically broken there's always someone wanting to sell a product or service to the end user to make them feel they're the ones in the know & are gaming the system.

There's money to be made here! We're disruptors!

@SteveRudolfi, ugh. Also, whoever wrote that doesn't know that “maybe” is not “may be”)…

@SteveRudolfi
Direct link to the patent https://patents.google.com/patent/US12536233B1/en

The Forbes article is too narrow imo. This seems like it's going to be marketed as "making sites easier to navigate" or for "previews" so one "doesn't have to click through."

I will bet that this is going to be used for their "agent mode" or "AI mode" that keeps becoming more prominent in the tabs. Like "this blogger has a bunch of queer content, and we've determined that you don't like that so here's an option to generate one tailored to your worldview that shows you only the parts you want while hiding the rest"
Or "this storefront doesn't have easy to find buttons, would you like your agent to buy this for you?"

I'm too sleepy to write up a whole thing, but I don't think it's going to be simple. Rather it has much more potential for widespread damage to how folks engage with what's left of the internet.

US12536233B1 - AI-generated content page tailored to a specific user - Google Patents

Techniques for generating an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated page for a first organization. The system can include a machine-learned model configured to generate the AI-generated page. The system can receive from a user device associated with a user account, the user query. Additionally, the system can generate a search result page for the user query. The search result page can include a first result associated with a first landing page of the first organization. The system can calculate a landing page score for the first landing page. The system can generate an updated search result page based on the landing page score exceeding a threshold value, the updated search result page having a navigation link to an AI-generated page for the first organization. The system can cause a presentation, on a display of the user device, the updated search result page.

ms_neurodiversity

@SteveRudolfi what the actual fuck!

Dave Robinson Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi
I wholly disagree with the conclusion at the end of this article. This is something that should be vigorously avoided.

Julian Schwarzenbach Mar 24

@dave @SteveRudolfi If a user of the web site receives an AI generated version of the landing page that contains errors, and then tries to sue to owner of the web site, this could get difficult very quickly. The web site owner cannot see and has no control over the AI version of the landing page, so Google should therefore be liable for errors. Good luck suing Google in such cases!

Susan Vanderplas Mar 24

@jschwa1 @dave @SteveRudolfi good luck proving that's what happened, too. Without saving the webpage or archiving it or something, it's going to be hard to show that the user didn't just read things wrong. Gaslighting at its finest.

Mirishuli Mar 24

@jschwa1 A banner disclaimer would go up on my sites. “If you got here through a Goggle search you may not be reading the website u actually created. Please find me via a different search engine or place my url (do not hyperlink) in a non Google affiliated browser.”

Dave Robinson Mar 25

@MiriShuli @jschwa1
Although I guess Google could remove your banner in its "improved" version of your site.

Mirishuli Mar 25

@dave @jschwa1 But I’m not worried about the person who gets there via Google. I want the rest of the traffic to know and understand what Google is doing.

Once a site is bookmarked, the next trip to the site makes Google moot? Yes?

Jonathan Schofield Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi the direction of travel was obvious months ago https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/115276033662934609

@SteveRudolfi I am choosing to look on the bright side of this: it’s an excellent reason to stop using Google as a search engine.

@netzhexe @SteveRudolfi And I would assume also to stop using Chrome if you're still using it

This is exactly the kind of half-baked thing they'll decide needs to be put directly into Chrome

@Jer @SteveRudolfi yes!

… I am actually going to write a how to article about this. I know far too many people who do not understand the difference between the search bar and the address bar, and therefore between accessing a domain directly and going through whatever their default search engine is.

I will explain what a browser is while I’m at it.

Siiiiigh… (to be clear, the sigh is 100% directed at Google. I have infinite patience for non-techies.)

Nicole Parsons Mar 24

#TranslatedFromTheRepublican

"Google takes #PrinceBonesaw money and converts a search engine into "bait & switch" AI Slopware.

Plans for fossil fuel fascist state surveillance platforms proceed."

The fossil fuel industry is going to keep its captive consumers one way or another, no matter what.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/07/heres-a-look-at-who.html

https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-google-hand-dissident-data-to-saudi-arabia-activists-say-2023-7

https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligencer-trump-mbs-meeting-brings-ai-money-2025-11-20/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/technology/saudi-arabia-ai-exporter.html

https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/all-news/article-874567

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-13/google-backs-saudi-ai-fund-as-trump-mbs-tout-new-investments

The Saudi Crown Prince hung out this week with Google execs Sergey Brin and Sundar Pichai

The Saudi Crown Prince came to Silicon Valley this week and met with a handful of executives, including co-founder Sergey Brin

CNBC

Cairo Braga Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi "The question isn’t how to stop this from happening, it’s how to make sure your parts are the ones AI wants to work with." and this is where I was reminded I was reading from Forbes, spineless plutocrats' sycophants that they are.

Sandra de Jong ⁂Mar 25

@cairobraga @SteveRudolfi I agree, I don’t know what disturbed me more: the fact that Google wants to “own, change and design my webite” or this slavely conclusion from Forbes (English is not my native language, so I hope I picked the right words to express myself).

Violet Madder Mar 25

@sandradejong @cairobraga @SteveRudolfi

Over and over again, this fucking refrain: "The question isn't how to stop assholes from burning the world, but how to make sure you are useful enough to them so they'll keep you around a little longer."

Beldarak Mar 24

What the actual fuck?! How is this even legal?

arceuthobium Mar 24

@Beldarak @SteveRudolfi because any site that doesn’t consent will disappear from Google results.

Beldarak Mar 24

@theothersimo @SteveRudolfi

I'm glad I switched to DDGo but we really need a real alternative engine soon

Ivo Limmen Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi so... basically a patented version of a scam site???

That is wrong for so many different reasons that you could fill an entire conference with talks on the subject. Even then, there would surely still be more to say.

stonedonkey 🕹️🎮👾Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi I'm good with starting over, when the web was just research, people who were passionate about a topic and maybe maybe a few webrings.

No ads, no single search engine, no dark patterns, just people who loved building for others and wanted to make the place better.

Tansy Hoskins 🍉 🍉Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi how is anyone supposed to be a journalist if google is going to rewrite articles to make them more 'palatable' for readers?

blob_dizzy_face

Violet Madder Mar 25

@tansy @SteveRudolfi

That's just it:

YOU'RE NOT.

Mike Spooner Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi 'The leap from "the link can appear in a sponsored content item" to "you could be billed for clicks to a page you didn’t create" seems like a radical shift in the way the internet works'

Angus McIntyre Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi @pluralistic Google puts on its Crocodile Dundee hat and drawls "THAT's not #enshittification. THIS is enshittification!”

Gergely Polonkai Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi The article mentions WebMCP which, to my understanding, will play a significant role in this AI-generated crap. I wonder if there are people out there who have already exploited it so the AI sees something completely different than what’s on the actual page…

Gergely Polonkai Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi Maybe @algernon ʼs iocaine? 😉

Hannah Steenbock Mar 24

Well, eff Google, a hundred times.

I hope there will be plug-ins that block this nonsense. I hope WordPress will block this nonsense.

I'm running my Website to express myself, not to create parts for some some AI slop. I will never adapt it to fit Google's slop, either.

Websites are by humans for humans.

Google has gone completely off the rails, they are aiding a fascist government, and want to alter history and facts in real time.

Utterly disgusting!

Matt Vestengen-Cox Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi @leneeeide I think that was the whole premise of Arc browser for iOS:

"Browse for Me would use AI to read webpages related to the user's query to create a new webpage containing quotes, summaries, and embedded videos regarding the query."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_(web_browser)#:~:text=The%20announcement%20also,regarding%20the%20query.

Arc (web browser) - Wikipedia

PickleGlitch Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi I'm sure this will be completely "voluntary." Of course, if you don't "volunteer", your website will probably be de-listed entirely. They will still probably scrape its contents tho.

Personally, I could give a shit if my site shows up in a Google search. I'm not selling anything, so that's easy for me to say.

@SteveRudolfi
How does this work with DNS and HTTPS? Will the URL just show "catnest.net.FAKESLOP.Google.com"?

winterberging Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi boycott google!

sonja dolinsek Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi this should be prohibited

Oliver Koch Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi
WTF?!

AlsoPaisleyCat 🇨🇦Mar 24

This is potentially disastrous for government and other institutions who absolutely require high level vetting and sign off on their public facing communications. In some cases, formats are mandated for accessibility by law or even constitutional obligations.

If Google’s AI doesn’t like what it sees, institutions can have no confidence that what is delivered by governments to their populations has fidelity to legal requirements and respects constitutional rights.

@SteveRudolfi
Hi, patent attorney here, giving a sort of PSA I often drop when I stumble upon articles like this one.

The way the system works, a very significant number of patents are not granted for things that any given company actually has, but rather for things that a company thinks that it might want to have in the future, and sometimes it's even just about having a bigger pile of patents to take into negotiations without any intentions of ever actually using the patented things.

@SteveRudolfi The point of this seems to be to prevent YOU from doing it, without paying them. If you or your provider get the bright idea to do anything like this, you'd have to pay them some kind of licensing fee. Or, you can NOT pay them, and instead have a boring 404 page like everyone else who doesn't want to pay them. It's a form of enshittification, to be sure. But mostly just a crass money grab.

Roland \\Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi This is horrifying, but it reinforces a truth we all already knew: The "Internet" as it exists today, is not a place for people like us anymore. It is a sad, fetid corpse lying in a gutter.

Frankly I don't give a shit if Google shows my page. For me, Google was a write-off about 5 years ago. The people still using Google are not my community (note, I pick my words very carefully here. Visitors to my websites are not an "audience", they are a "community").

1/?

Roland \\Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi The article ends with a comment about how the "web" is "changing". How you need to use WebMCP and make sure your website offers the Google overlords the right "pieces" of the corpse of your idea. I say fuck that.

I put myself on the web because I want to interact with real people doing real things in the real world. Sure, an AI might help them do that faster, better, etc. And yes, maybe I should make sure I use WebMCP because real people might really be trying to use AI to interact with my website. I try to have useful information on there that an AI could feasibly want. But because it's Google, and they have fucked me over more ways than I can count, I say No. That's not who I want in my community.

2/2

Eleanor Saitta Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi
Well, I hope they enjoy direct and indirect liability for all losses that either the consumer or the site can claim as a result of hallucinations

Us©hi | Unverzagte Bürgerin Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi So we switch back to #print! No problem, some of the still living designers know how to handle... #AI will never be able to mix up printed matters. ;-)

@SteveRudolfi
The content replaced will be what best pleases their sponsors

nicole mikołajczyk Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi oh no, they're going to make google ads even worse

why would anyone care, just don't click on them

@SteveRudolfi isn't that impersonation?

Frank Heijkamp Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi
I expect a lot of defamation lawsuits.

Stege 🐜Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi lol.

🔥 Mireille Sillander 🔥Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi So.
Now the question is can you hide your website from Google to prevent it from giving visitors gobbledygook when they look for it?

Administrator Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi AMP on steroids

Thanks, I hate it

@SteveRudolfi with ads.

@SteveRudolfi Let's keep Google away from DNS, because they'll hijack that also, to intercept direct requests.

Oh, they already do DNS. :/

Tyler Smith Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi the great slopification of society continues

Ariaflame Mar 24

@SteveRudolfi I wonder if there's any way to set up these websites containing AI poison?