Google just made a subtle but massive change Last month, Google quietly removed the num=100 search parameter. This means you can no longer view 100 results at once. The default max is now 10. Why does this matter? - Most LLMs (OpenAI, Perplexity, etc.) rely (directly or indirectly) on Google’s indexed results, alongside their own crawlers. - Overnight, their access to the “long tail” of the internet was cut by 90%. The fallout: -According to Search Engine Land, 88% of sites saw a drop in impressions. - Reddit, which often ranks in positions 11–100, saw its LLM citations plummet. Its stock dropped 15%, wiping out ~$5B in market cap. For startups, this is brutal. Visibility just got harder. It’s no longer enough to build a great product you need to crack distribution first. Because if people can’t discover you, they’ll never get to evaluate you. In today’s AI-driven ecosystem: Distribution > Product AuthenCIO Raghav Arora Samiran Phukon
this is the first information rich content i've read in weeks on linkedin. thanks!
This is a massive misread of what happened. Sept 10: Google kills num=100 → Search APIs lose 80% of results → Reddit disappears from ChatGPT → Stock drops 14% ($5B gone) Everyone thinks Reddit lost. They’re wrong. Before: OpenAI scraped Reddit for free via Google Now: OpenAI must pay Reddit directly ($60M/year) Google didn’t attack AI. Google forced AI companies to stop freeloading. The stock dropped because investors saw “citations down.” Smart money sees: “Direct deals now mandatory.” Reddit owns the content everyone needs: • ChatGPT can’t survive without UGC • Google AI needs Reddit answers • Reddit knows this The fact that citations dropping 86% moved their stock 14% proves how valuable their content is. That’s not weakness. That’s pricing power. Google just handed Reddit negotiating leverage by killing free access. This 14% drop is a gift if you understand what just happened. Stock recovers when the new deals drop at higher rates. Mark this.
So here’s my take (opinions are my own, not my employer’s): Have you noticed Google results have become terrible in the past few years? Google has degraded its search quality to boost ad revenue — users have to scroll for longer so they can be shown more ads. Google has now removed the num=100 parameter to prevent ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude from using SerpAPI and other scrapers. ChatGPT and Perplexity were doing a much better job of going through the top 100 results and finding the most relevant answer to users' questions — bypassing Google's entire business model of Ads. So Google tried to close that loophole. Google, which holds a monopoly in the online search market according to a recent U.S. court proceeding, appears to have chosen to disregard the judge’s recommendations while it appeals, and it's betting that the benefits of anti-competitive practices will absorb potential penalties. The AI race is in full swing and the consolidation of services is about to begin — we will only use one service for online searches and it better be Google.
tbh it has become worse, bcoz most of the times I never got the relevant result in just 10 links, and I was looking whole time that where 100+ links went away in the middle. Started using duckduckgo as I can find more relevant results from there.
A product that is seen by everyone > A product known by no one
Distribution to a large extent owned by big tech.
This is a big shift that many people won’t notice at first. If fewer results are shown, smaller sites and new startups will struggle to be discovered.
ChatGPT still relies on Bing which is much more supportive to the start-ups. Thankfully
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