Reddit has implemented a new policy, blocking all search engines from crawling its site except for Google. This move, reported by 404 Media, means search engines like Bing and DuckDuckGo now display no results from Reddit dating back to the past week, even when using the “site:reddit.com” search query. The reason for this shift is that Google has paid Reddit for access to its website, while other search engines haven’t. This leaves niche search engines like Kagi, which relies on Google’s data, with access to Reddit’s content. DuckDuckGo, however, has been entirely blocked, with Reddit stating “We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us.”
This recent action underlines Reddit’s growing influence and its strategic focus on monetizing its platform. Just last October, Reddit threatened to block Google from accessing its content if Google didn’t agree to their new API pricing, which resulted in the closure of popular third-party apps and a blackout across many subreddits last summer. Following this dispute, Reddit went public in March 2024 and has been actively exploring ways to monetize its forum, primarily through data licensing.
This strategy was evident in the announcement just a few months later, where Reddit partnered with OpenAI to train ChatGPT on Reddit’s data API. In parallel, Google has shown increasing favor towards Reddit in its search results over the past six months, a move announced in February, promoting “more content-forward displays of Reddit information.” This integration into Google’s AI Overviews has yielded some embarrassing outcomes, including surfacing a joke from Reddit about cooking pizza with glue.
