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Cloudflare: Google's 'Crawler Monopoly' Is Stacking the Deck in AI
Cloudflare claims Google's dual-purpose web crawler forces publishers to provide free AI training data, giving it an unfair advantage in the AI race.
Key Points
- Cloudflare claims Google's dual-purpose web crawler forces publishers to provide free AI training data, giving it an unfair advantage in the AI race.
- The practice puts publishers in a bind, forcing them to choose between providing data for Google's AI or losing essential search engine traffic.
- Cloudflare is urging regulators like the UK's Competition and Markets Authority to require Google to separate its search and AI crawlers.
Cloudflare is calling out Google for leveraging its search dominance to gain an unfair advantage in the AI race, releasing data showing its web crawler vacuums up vastly more content than its rivals. The networking company states that Google's dual-purpose bot forces publishers to supply AI training data for free, distorting the market.
An offer you can't refuse: Publishers are caught in a bind: either allow Googlebot to crawl their site for search traffic and simultaneously fuel its AI, or block it and risk becoming invisible. Data shows websites are already choosing to block other AI crawlers like GPTBot nearly seven times more frequently, a choice they can't afford to make with Google.
Splitting the stream: Cloudflare's proposed fix is simple: force Google to separate its crawlers for search and AI. The company notes this is technically feasible, as Google already runs nearly 20 specialized bots, and the move has backing from major publishers concerned about AI siphoning off their traffic.
A 'burdensome' burden: The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is reviewing Google's conduct but previously shelved the idea of mandatory separation after Google reportedly called the requirement "too burdensome." Cloudflare counters that the alternative—Google-managed opt-outs—creates "a state of permanent dependency" and fails to provide publishers with real control.
The fight over Google's crawler is a proxy war for a larger battle: whether the foundational data for the AI economy will be openly licensed and paid for, or simply harvested by the incumbent with the biggest moat.
