Making AI Headlines · Page 5
Reddit Tells the Open Web to Please Sign In
· New York time
Reddit says it is moving toward a primarily logged-in experience as traffic from search changes and AI reshapes how people find information online. The company announced the shift on its third-quarter earnings call. For years, people looking for human answers have added Reddit to their search queries, sending visitors from search engines to conversations on the site. That route has become less dependable as AI-powered search changes the relationship between search results and the sites supplying information. The move is intended in part to protect Reddit's data from AI scraping and support licensing deals with model providers. It could also help the company increase revenue as it faces declines in daily active users in its largest markets, according to TechCrunch. A more login-centered site changes the bargain for someone who arrives looking for a quick answer. It can give Reddit more control over access to conversations that its users create, while adding a step between a search result and the discussion. The business logic is understandable: a platform cannot pay its bills with the warm feeling that its answers are useful somewhere else. Still, there is a tidy reversal in a site famous for improving search results asking searchers to identify themselves before coming inside. The internet spent years typing Reddit into the search box. Reddit would now like the internet to type in a password, too.
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