1. TECHNOLOGY AND AI
#Chatbots Having Minimal Impact on Search Engine Traffic: Study
AI chatbots have barely made a dent in traffic to popular search engine sites over the past two years, according to a study by SEO and backlink services firm.
The study analysed global web traffic from April 2023 to March 2025. In the most recent year, chatbot sites accounted for just 2.96% of the visits received by search engines. Between April 2024 and March 2025, search engine traffic declined only slightly — down 0.51% to 1.86 trillion visits — while chatbots saw an 80.92% year-over-year spike in traffic.
The modest drop in search traffic suggests that, despite explosive growth, AI chatbots are not yet displacing traditional search behavior in any meaningful way.
“Even with ChatGPT’s massive growth, it still sees approximately 26 times fewer daily visits than Google,” wrote the author of the study, Sujan Sarkar, founder of OneLittleWeb.
The study also maintained that search engines are evolving rather than fading, integrating AI tools to offer a richer, more personalized user experience. At the same time, chatbots are carving out their niche in tasks requiring direct, customised responses.
The study also ranked chatbots by visits. ChatGPT was at the top of the list, followed by DeepSeek, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Blackbox AI, Grok, Monica, and Meta AI.
It noted the fastest-growing chatbots were DeepSeek and Grok. DeepSeek experienced a staggering surge in traffic, with total visits jumping from 1.5 million to 1.7 billion during the two-year study period, an increase of 113,007%. Grok’s growth was 353,787%, increasing from 61,200 visits to 216.5 million.
Vena contended that the real contest isn’t just about traffic. “It’s about controlling the user’s starting point when they have a question or goal,” he said. “Chatbots may win in productivity or assistance, while search engines still dominate for broad exploration and commerce. Integration and default positioning will shape the future more than features alone. The next wave may involve blended experiences that merge the strengths of both.”
Sterling agreed that the simple traffic analysis approach doesn’t tell the whole story about how usage is changing. “As people become more sophisticated about AI, they’re being more discriminating about how to use it versus search,” he noted. “The idea that people either use AI or search is false. Both are being used, but the ways that AI and search are used are evolving.”
Enderle pointed out that the market is at the very beginning of this trend. “I expect by 2030 kids will look back at non-AI search engines like they now look back at dial phones, asking, how anyone lived in these dark times,” he predicted.
(Source: www.techworld.com dated 6th May, 2025)
2. WORLD NEWS
#US loses last perfect credit rating amid rising debt
The US has lost its last perfect credit rating, as influential ratings firm Moody’s expressed concern over the government’s ability to pay back its debt. In lowering the US rating from ‘AAA’ to ‘Aa1’, Moody’s noted that successive US administrations had failed to reverse ballooning deficits and interest costs.
A triple-A rating signifies a country’s highest possible credit reliability, and indicates it is considered to be in very good financial health with a strong capacity to repay its debts. Moody’s warned in 2023 that the US triple-A rating was at risk. Fitch Ratings downgraded the US in 2023 and S&P Global Ratings did so in 2011. Moody’s held a perfect credit rating for the US since 1917.
The downgrade “reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns,” Moody’s said in the statement. In a statement, the White House said it was “focused on fixing Biden’s mess”, while taking a swipe at Moody’s.
“If Moody’s had any credibility,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said, “they would not have stayed silent as the fiscal disaster of the past four years unfolded.” A lower credit rating means countries are more likely to default on their sovereign debt, and generally face higher borrowing costs.
Moody’s maintained that the US “retains exceptional credit strengths such as size, resilience and dynamism and the continued role of the US dollar as the global reserve currency”. The firm said it expects federal debt to increase to around 134% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035, up from 98% last year.
GDP is a measure of all the economic activity of companies, governments, and people in a country. The BBC has reached out to the US Department of Treasury for comment. The downgrade came on the same day as Trump’s landmark spending bill suffered a setback in Congress. Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” failed to pass the House Budget Committee, with some Republicans voting against it.
Figures showed the US economy shrank in the first three months of the year as government spending fell and imports surged due to firms racing to get goods into the country ahead of tariffs. The economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.3%, a sharp downturn after growth of 2.4% in the previous quarter, the Commerce Department said.
(Source: www.bbc.com dated 17th May, 2025)
3. ENVIRONMENT
# ‘Why the mighty Himalayas are getting harder and harder to see
I grew up in Nepal’s capital watching the Himalayas. Ever since I left, I’ve missed sweeping, panoramic views of some of the highest mountain peaks on Earth. Each time I visit Kathmandu, I hope to catch a glimpse of the dramatic mountain range. But these days, there’s usually no luck.
The main culprit is severe air pollution that hangs as haze above the region. And it’s happening even during the spring and autumn months, which once offered clear skies. Just last April, the international flight I was in had to circle in the sky nearly 20 times before landing in Kathmandu, because of the hazy weather impacting visibility at the airport.
Even from the major vantage point of Nagarkot, just outside Kathmandu, all that could be seen was haze, as if the mountains did not exist.
“I no longer brand the place for views of ‘sunrise, sunset and Himalayas’ as I did in the past,” said Yogendra Shakya, who has been operating a hotel at Nagarkot since 1996.
“Since you can’t have those things mostly now because of the haze, I have rebranded it with history and culture as there are those tourism products as well here.”
Scientists say hazy conditions in the region are becoming increasingly intense and lasting longer, reducing visibility significantly.
Haze is formed by a combination of pollutants like dust and smoke particles from fires, reducing visibility to less than 5,000m (16,400 ft). It remains stagnant in the sky during the dry season – which now lasts longer due to climate change. June to September is the region’s rainy season, when Monsoon clouds rather than haze keep the mountains covered and visibility low.
Lucky Chhetri, a pioneering female trekking guide in Nepal, said hazy conditions had led to a 40% decrease in business. “In one case last year, we had to compensate a group of trekkers as our guides could not show them the Himalayas due to the hazy conditions,” she added
On the Indian side, near the central Himalayas, hoteliers and tour operators say haze is now denser and returns quicker than before. “We have long dry spells and then a heavy downpour, unlike in the past. So with infrequent rain the haze persists for much longer,” said Malika Virdi, who heads a community-run tourism business in the state of Uttarakhand.
South Asian cities regularly top lists of places with highest levels of air pollution in the world. Public health across the region has been badly impacted by the toxic air, which frequently causes travel disruption and school closures. Experts believe the Himalayas are probably the worst affected mountain range in the world given their location in a populous and polluted region. This could mean the scintillating view of the Himalayas could now largely be limited to photographs, paintings and postcards.
“We are left to do business with guilt when we are unable to show our clients the mountains that they pay us for,” said trekking leader Ms Chhetri. “And there is nothing we can do about the haze.”
(Source: www.BBC.com Author Navin Singh Khadka dated 13th May, 2025)