In March 2025 U.S. browsing data, users clicked traditional results in 8% of Google visits with an AI summary versus 15% without; 18% of studied searches generated an AI summary.

SocioLens project,

Claim LD10-HQ-C14 (v1.0)

In March 2025 U.S. browsing data, users clicked traditional results in 8% of Google visits with an AI summary versus 15% without; 18% of studied searches generated an AI summary.

Research opportunities this claim motivates

What this claim leaves open for research. Each is a hypothesis about a gap, not a finding.

Do AI answers in search cut clicks to outside sites on phones and outside the US?US browsing data show lower click rates on visits with an AI summary, but this is not a causal effect, which is why a randomized replication is needed.

Provenance and status

Claim type: Fact (observational)
Publication status: Eligible for publication, with qualifiers: observational
Verification state: Checked against the primary source. Who checked this claim is not recorded for it; claim checks so far were AI-led, and no person has checked claims against their sources.
Does not license: Causal 7pp treatment effect
Limitations: Query types differ; U.S. desktop/web panel
Source (as cited): Pew Research Center, 22 Jul 2025
Source type: Independent research report (recorded as “Behavioural trace dataset”)
Institutional position: Independent nonprofit
Maturity of the evidence: Rapidly maturing evidence
Recorded date: 25 September 2026
Currentness / correction: This is the current version. No correction or concern is recorded on its sources.

Sources this version cites

Pew Research Center, 22 Jul 2025 (Independent research report)
Read the original

Version

This is the current version, v1.0. Earlier versions stay available, and their records never change.

Versions: v1.0 · current

Raw record: every recorded field, with its coded values

All 25 canonical Claim fields, verbatim, with the coded values derived from them. The plain-language labels above are read from these.

Claim type (coded): FACT (OBSERVATIONAL) (as printed: “FACT / OBSERVATIONAL”)
Publication status (coded): ELIGIBLE (OBSERVATIONAL) (as printed: “ELIGIBLE WITH OBSERVATIONAL QUALIFIER”)
Verification state (coded): CONTENT_VERIFIED_PRIMARY
Source type (coded): INDEPENDENT_RESEARCH_REPORT
Maturity (coded): RAPIDLY_MATURING

#	Canonical field	Canonical value (verbatim)	Normalized (Claim Value Vocabulary v1.0.2)
1	CLAIM ID	LD10-HQ-C14	—
2	PUBLIC-FACING CLAIM	In March 2025 U.S. browsing data, users clicked traditional results in 8% of Google visits with an AI summary versus 15% without; 18% of studied searches generated an AI summary.	—
3	CLAIM TYPE	FACT / OBSERVATIONAL	base_types: FACT · qualifiers: OBSERVATIONAL
4	RESEARCH STRAND	C — Intermediation/search	—
5	MATURITY	RAPIDLY MATURING	states: RAPIDLY_MATURING
6	SOURCE	Pew Research Center, 22 Jul 2025	source_ids: SRC-LD10-PEW-2025-07-22
7	SOURCE TYPE	Behavioural trace dataset	classes: INDEPENDENT_RESEARCH_REPORT
8	INSTITUTIONAL POSITION	Independent nonprofit	—
9	SCOPE	900 U.S. adults; March 2025	—
10	DESIGN	Observational browsing trace	—
11	SAMPLE / DATASET	68,879 Google searches	—
12	MODEL / TOOL / VERSION	Google AI summaries	—
13	COMPARATOR	Pages with vs without summary	—
14	MAIN RESULT	8% vs 15% traditional-result clicks; ~1% clicked cited source; 18% searches had summary	—
15	INFERENTIAL TARGET	Real-world association and exposure prevalence	—
16	DOES NOT LICENSE	Causal 7pp treatment effect	—
17	VERIFICATION STATE	CONTENT VERIFIED	state: CONTENT_VERIFIED_PRIMARY · verified_by: UNKNOWN
18	LIMITATIONS	Query types differ; U.S. desktop/web panel	—
19	CONTRADICTORY / SUPPORTING SOURCES	C12/C13 provide causal support in separate designs	—
20	GEOGRAPHY / LANGUAGE	US / English	—
21	DISTRIBUTIONAL LEDGER	Publisher visibility is lower on summary pages	—
22	R01 / FIELD-MAP LINKS	D7, L-C	—
23	WHAT WOULD CHANGE THIS CLAIM?	New browsing-data vintage or randomized replication	—
24	PUBLICATION STATUS	ELIGIBLE WITH OBSERVATIONAL QUALIFIER	state: ELIGIBLE · qualifiers: OBSERVATIONAL
25	RECORDED DATE	2026-09-25	—

Field 22 references resolved against Field Map v0.2: D7 (DOMAIN); L-C (LENS)

The sources as recorded, with their record IDs and coded source types:

Pinned Sources (field 6, version-specific)

“Pew Research Center, 22 Jul 2025” → Pew Research Center, 22 Jul 2025 (SRC-LD10-PEW-2025-07-22--v1.0) — Pew Research Center, 22 Jul 2025; class INDEPENDENT_RESEARCH_REPORT (explicit public provenance pin)

Cited by Living Debate versions

Persuasion, Intermediation & the Information Order (v0.1) LD-10

Cite this page

SocioLens project. (2026, September 25). In March 2025 U.S. browsing data, users clicked traditional results in 8% of Google visits with an AI summary versus 15% without; 18% of studied searches generated an AI summary [Claim LD10-HQ-C14, version v1.0]. SocioLens. https://sociolens-web.pages.dev/claims/ld10-hq-c14/v1.0/

@misc{sociolens_ld10_hq_c14_v1_0,
  author = {{SocioLens project}},
  title = {In March 2025 U.S. browsing data, users clicked traditional results in 8\% of Google visits with an AI summary versus 15\% without; 18\% of studied searches generated an AI summary.},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-09-25},
  howpublished = {\url{https://sociolens-web.pages.dev/claims/ld10-hq-c14/v1.0/}},
  note = {Claim LD10-HQ-C14, version v1.0}
}

The link points to this version, whose record never changes. For a finding, cite the original study as well: SocioLens summarizes research and does not replace it.

Research-of-record provenance

Materialized by sociolens-materializer 0.6.0 at 2026-09-28T20:00:00.000Z; normalization contract SocioLens — Claim Value Vocabulary v1.0.2 — Pre-Spike Materialization Contract (v1.0.2). Content seal SHA-256 20cb84d5294724242df3d0ca850cefd83c1034e2b60fef8580ac04de8e3bfdab.

Frozen Drive-derived inputs

R07 — LD-10 Canonical Claim Ledger v1.0 — LOCKED (v1.0) — Drive ID 1f9tgGnqv80_UyhW0kCgcnTgWNPlx-DYM; revision: NOT_EXPOSED_BY_DRIVE_TEXT_EXPORT; Drive modified ; block “ENTRY 14 — LD10-HQ-C14 ” SHA-256 764dc0fd3182c3d691d4634fd6710c83adebcc0919c79c2e9b57563a0863491d; SocioLens — Programme Status & Authority Register v0.6 status “CURRENT.”; frozen fixture fixtures/frozen/r07-ld10-claim-ledger-v1.0-canonical.

Builder decisions (not Drive data)

VERSION = v1.0 — basis: Claim version taken from the canonical ledger artifact version (R07 — LD-10 Canonical Claim Ledger v1.0); Implementation Architecture Selection §5 logical_id/version convention.
CURRENT_POINTER = true — basis: SocioLens — Programme Status & Authority Register v0.6 status for "R07 — LD-10 Canonical Claim Ledger v1.0 — LOCKED": "CURRENT."
FIELD_6_SOURCE_REFERENCE = SRC-LD10-PEW-2025-07-22--v1.0 — basis: field 6 of ENTRY 14 — LD10-HQ-C14 cites "Pew Research Center, 22 Jul 2025"; the frozen field-6 segment of this ClaimVersion's ledger block (fixtures/frozen/r07-ld10-claim-ledger-v1.0-canonical); Drive-derived identity authority (Issue #53 Source inventory, factory-hq decision HQ-ESC-sociolens-ld10-t5-20261011T050405Z-01 ruling 3 inventory S8): R07 Batch 02 lines 68, 70; ledger C14 fields 6/7/8; KEY EVIDENCE line 936 of the locked LD-10 Living Debate.
SOURCE_PROVENANCE_PIN = SRC-LD10-PEW-2025-07-22--v1.0 — basis: Issue #5 proof rendering (Architecture Proof Protocol v0.1 AP-08 / Amendment v1.2 §6): explicit version-pinned public provenance of this ClaimVersion — the pinned field-6 Source record "Pew Research Center, 22 Jul 2025"; Drive-derived identity authority (Issue #53 Source inventory, factory-hq decision HQ-ESC-sociolens-ld10-t5-20261011T050405Z-01 ruling 3 inventory S8): R07 Batch 02 lines 68, 70; ledger C14 fields 6/7/8; KEY EVIDENCE line 936 of the locked LD-10 Living Debate.