Reddit Colonizes Local I can see the future Atlantic headline now: "How Reddit Ruined Google." Reddit has been showing up more often and for more types of search

AI Overviews = More Traffic? Siege Media CEO Ross Hudgens initially predicted an "11% to 18% decrease in traffic from AI Overviews." That's much smaller than many

Google AI Overviews Backlash? Google is formally rolling out AI Overviews (SGE), on a limited basis, to US users this week and to other markets thereafter. CEO Sundar Pichai'

ChatGPT: Search Successor After anticipating a "search engine" and direct Google competitor, what OpenAI announced instead was ChatGPT-4o ("o" for "omni") – an improved voice

Google Ad-Price Manipulation Last week Google and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) presented closing arguments in the company's long-running antitrust case that focused on Google's

Google's Big Publisher Problem HouseFresh is back to warn us about how Google's favoritism of big brand sites is pushing out independent publishers. In February, the

OpenAI Search Imminent? There's been speculation that OpenAI is preparing a more direct search challenge to Google. That chatter intensified over the past few days, as the subdomain

Google: SGE Is Boosting Search On Google's earnings call, following its "blowout" Q1, the company was upbeat about SGE. CEO Sundar Pichai argued that including AI

Man vs. Money Machine If you haven't yet read Ed Zitron's incendiary article "The Man Who Killed Google Search" you've probably read

Meta.ai: Another Go at Local Last week Meta released its updated AI assistant (Meta.ai), also integrated into Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. It's the latest consumer-facing

Paid Search Is Winning Last year was good for digital advertising, which grew more than 7% and brought in a total of $225 billion in the US. That's

Rethinking Content Strategy The question for many SEOs and content marketers going forward is: how much effort to put into content; how much can we integrate AI to expedite things?

Google's <30 Problem Contrary to early pronouncements, when ChatGPT came out, Google is in no danger of immediately being disrupted by AI. But there are worrying signs

Google: DMA Hurting Local Biz On Friday Google released some early information about the impact of its Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance measures in Europe. (Mike and David were in

Google May Put AI Behind Paywall When Google changed Bard's name to Gemini and introduced Gemini Advanced in February, the company also rolled out a $20 per month

Rumor: SGE Will Launch at Google I/O Google has begun exposing SGE results to some users not enrolled in Google Labs. And there's new SEO speculation that

Maps & Search: Lists + Itineraries Google is further expanding the social and planning features of Maps. The company is adding new lists and list-making tools. Rolling out in roughly 40

SGE Is Coming for Brands Google has started to expose SGE results to users outside of Google Labs. There's been much hand-wringing in the SEO community over anticipated

Can Perplexity Succeed Where Others Failed? When OpenAI launched in 2022, many perceived an existential threat to Google. Bing quickly integrated AI chat into its search results and a host

Google Getting Too Much Credit? Seeking to clarify what he regards as a widespread misinterpretation of his earlier "traffic referral" study, SparkToro's Rand Fishkin published a

Perplexity Taps Yelp for Local Search Perplexity has integrated Yelp data (Fusion API) into its results for improved local answers. The API offers full access to Yelp's data

Zero-Click Search 3X on Mobile Two simultaneous reports provide a snapshot of the current state of the "open web," who's sending and who's receiving

Survey: 77% Look to Multiple Review Sites BrightLocal's 2024 consumer reviews survey report contains numerous interesting findings, though I can only discuss a few of them here. Overall,

Google Search Quality: Up or Down? Microsoft almost sold Bing to Apple in 2018. Reportedly, "search quality" at Bing was the obstacle. The consensus view is that Google&

Google DMA Changes: No Impact In anticipation of Digital Markets Act (DMA) enforcement in March, Google introduced new search-results features to comply within Europe. Google is one of six "

Brands, Links & Clicks Many of you have heard about or read an article from HouseFresh, a small product review site that tests air purifiers and related products. The company

Wither the SERP: Enter AI Search Research firm Gartner published a prediction: "By 2026, traditional search engine volume will drop 25%, with search marketing losing market share to AI

OpenAI Search to Challenge Google According to a story appearing in The Information yesterday, OpenAI is reportedly working on a new search engine that would be more directly competitive with

Google's Self-Disruption In 2009, 15 years ago, then Google employee Marissa Mayer described "the perfect search engine." She said, "It would be one that could

Bing Is the Past, Copilot Is the Future After more than a year of BingGPT, it's clear that the new experience is not going to take meaningful share

SGE Comes to Google Maps Just as Google is seemingly integrating AI into everything it does, last week the company said that AI is coming to Google Maps. "Simply

Google's DMA-Compliant SERP As Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA) kicks in, the mostly US-based tech "gatekeepers" it seeks to regulate are rushing to comply.

Marketing Tools Are Just Tools When you see a ranking chart that looks like the one below, your first thought is that the SEO has gone south. Whether due to

Gemini Comes to Search Campaigns Google's path toward full automation of ad campaign creation and optimization took another step forward with the announcement that Google's Gemini

SGE: Failure to Launch? There have now been several studies of the impact of Google SGE on search results (BrightEdge, Authoritas, others). All conclude, with varying degrees of confidence, that

Where Is Google Business Profile Heading? With the recent demise of Google Business Profile (GBP) Websites and the sale of Google Domains, it raises once again the question of exactly

Study: Internal Links Drive Clicks Internal linking is a much-neglected ranking opportunity. A new study from Zyppy SEO shows us the data. Based an analysis of "23 million internal

Google Business Profile Websites Bite the Dust Earlier this week Google announced that as of March 1, Google Business Profile (GBP) Websites would be shut off and redirected to the

SGE Pushes Everything Else Down In the first really compelling study of the impact of SGE on the Google SERP, Authoritas examined results from 1,000 commercial keywords in the

Google LSA Scammers Are Winning Duct Cleaning scams in Local Service Ads (LSAs) are apparently just the tip of the iceberg. Carpet cleaners and plumbers, with large numbers of fake

Bard Feature 'Wish List' While it's clear SGE will definitely continue, Google isn't quite ready to make it generally available either. Its original December,

These are the 2023 articles, podcasts and videos you read, listened to and watched the most.

LSA Duct Cleaning Fraud Gets Real - Part 5 The consumer and business harms of the LSA Duct Cleaning scam are becoming more obvious. Google did remove one of the

AirBnB: Branding vs. Paid Search It's probably unfair to say Google's almost continuous algorithm updates, UI changes and the advent of SGE are part of a

SGE in 87% of Local SERPs We don't yet have much data on how users are responding to Google SGE: whether it drives clicks or creates more zero-click

LSA Scam Is Worse than We Thought - Part 4 We reported on the LSA scam of stealing reviews on a grand scale and ripping off customers with inflated quotes

Local Hours 'Definitely a Thing' At the end of last week, SterlingSky announced its testing had determined that business hours were a local new ranking signal in Google

The Gemini SERP This week, Google shelved its splashy in-person Gemini launch event in favor of blog posts and multiple videos showcasing the AI's advanced capabilities. One of

Local, Schema Review Abuses In fall of 2019 Google announced it would be ignoring "self-serving" review markup for local business schema and not show review stars in search

SMBs Won't Save X When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, there was initial hope that he could improve the service. But, unless you're a Musk

How often do searchers rely on the Local Pack and Finder to answer their questions? LSA review hijacking abounds and why Google's review moderation is still failing.

Black Friday: Consumers Go Wild Fears about soft consumer spending on Black Friday proved unfounded. Driven by discounts, US shoppers opened their wallets and generated a record $9.8 billion

OpenAI: WTF Just Happened? No doubt many of you have followed the chaotic soap opera surrounding OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman and his reinstatement only days later.

Google Local Goes Vegetarian Google is now highlighting vegetarian dishes at restaurants that don't necessarily identify as vegan or vegetarian. Obviously Google is attempting to help non-meat eaters

Awaiting the New Yahoo Search At the recent SMX Next event Senior VP and General Manager of Yahoo Search Brian Provost said that the site's new search experience

Google to Personalize Rankings At the recent BrightonSEO conference in San Diego, Google spokesperson Danny Sullivan said there were major changes coming to search – beyond the volatility of the past

NYC Orthopedist fined $100k for fake reviews, "reputation management" company manipulates Google Product Experts to get reviews removed, solution for the SAB location bug at hand?

Can the 'AI Pin' Replace the iPhone? The short answer is "no." But Humane's new AI-powered wearable "pin" is an impressive hardware

GPT vs. Search: Battle of UIs Google has been "the front door to the internet" since the early 2000s. But a decade from now, perhaps sooner, search (as

Google Maps Updates - Bloat or Value? Last week Google announced several new features were now available in Google Maps including Immersive View, more EV charging station information, an updated

After nearly 3 years of uninterrupted output and 133 podcasts, Near Media will be taking a short hiatus through November 1. We'll resume publishing on November 3. Will

Plug-ins and Personalized Search Before Apple bought Siri in 2010, its CEO Dag Kittlaus envisioned his digital assistant eliminating the need for a "middle man" (Google) by linking

Local Falcon's New AI Recommendations Local rank tracker Local Falcon just rolled out a new AI-based feature, which CEO David Hunter believes is unique among Local SEO tools.

Agencies: ChatGPT Now #2 Most Used Tool There are multiple "state of digital agencies" survey reports (e.g., Vendasta, CallRail), including one we did but haven't

Google Tried to 'Kneecap' Spotlight The Google antitrust trial started a month ago. And while the war in Israel has now "pushed it off the front page,

Apple Users Prefer Google Maps 2:1 BrightLocal released its second "Local Business Discovery and Trust Report," polling 1,100 on a range of questions, including how many

Google's Call History has a checkered past including cancellation but its now back, The FTC claims that review platforms have perverse incentives to allow fake reviews, we agree and Apple Maps has updated their local Insights

MSFT: 'Google Blocked Bing' Earlier this week Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testifed at the Google antitrust trial. The irony of the companies' role reversal should be lost

Apple Search Redux Google's antitrust trial seemed to clearly establish that Apple isn't going to build its own search engine (and never took it seriously). But

Google's Listings Clean-up Over the past two years, suspensions have been a big percentage of GBP Forum requests, especially for service area businesses (SAB). Google required re-verification, including

Google @25: Iconoclast to Idolater Google began in 1998 as an idealistic company with huge ambition: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and

ChatGPT Finds Its Voice ChatGPT is now a true virtual assistant. It can understand images and speak to you using one of several very human sounding synthetic voices. The image

Ex-Googler: Clicks Affect Rankings Google has always maintained it doesn't use behavioral signals such as clicks or dwell time in search rankings. And it has called such claims

Bard+ Arrives with Extensions After a couple of months with no updates, yesterday Google rolled out Bard Extensions (similar to ChatGPT plug-ins). Bard extensions were first announced at Google I/

Local SGE's Manic Episode   Last week SEO Andy Simpson discovered a Local SGE snapshot with two carousel results and a whole lot of thumbnails. The query was "

Amazon Search Upgrades Answer Google Amazon dominates product search. And Google has been battling back for several years with a range of strategies and tactics: more product results, visual search

US: Google 'Weaponized' Search Defaults The US v. Google has kicked off, with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) arguing Google used default search deals as an anti-competitive

'One and Done' Policy Will Be Global Google has rolled out a new policy and process for reinstatement of suspended listings in Europe. When a business is suspended

Google's Day in Court There have been a dizzying array of antitrust claims against Google in Europe and the US. In the US, Google currently faces two active

Does Yahoo Directory 2.0 Make Sense? The venerable Yahoo Directory shut down, after nearly 20 years, in 2014. It was a victim of exploding online content and an ascendant

People Not Using ChatGPT to 'Search' When ChatGPT launched it was immediately seen as a "Google killer." However, that has not come to pass. In fact,

Google's 'Naïve' SEO Advice Google has long promoted the idea that you should create content for people (e.g., Helpful Content Update) and not for its

Deduping GBP Profiles: There's a Form for That! Google Maps' knowledge graph includes 200 million business listings and captures them from multiple trusted data suppliers and other

Europe's DSA Forcing Change Europe's Digital Services Act (DSA) passed in early 2022; now it's taking effect. A companion to the Digital Markets Act,

TikTok 'Search Ads Toggle' After months of testing with an expanding group of advertisers, TikTik has officially rolled out search ads, called "Search Ads Toggle." The

European regulations are compelling Google to improve Google Business Profile support.

Has BingGPT Failed? When Microsoft announced integration of ChatGPT into Bing this February, the company proclaimed it was "reinventing search." The positive coverage and buzz was a PR

SGE While Browsing Earlier this week, Google announced a number of SGE upgrades, including a new feature called "SGE While Browsing." (Bing has something similar.) To access SGE

GBP Support Using Gig Workers Google has long attempted to reduce or eliminate costs from Google Business Profile Support. We have written up Google's newest effort to try

AI Summaries the Future of Reviews? E-commerce site Newegg introduced AI-generated review summaries (h/t SEL). And Amazon is doing something similar. Newegg is using ChatGPT to extract highlights from

Google's Antitrust Trial Set Earlier this week, a California judge denied Google's summary judgment motion in the $5 billion Chrome "incognito" browser tracking lawsuit.

EU DSA to influence Maps moderation, Google LSAs add new categories, Google Maps listings hijacked again (and again).

ChatGPT Beats Google in Blind Test In blind testing, users appear to prefer ChatGPT search results over Google by almost 2:1. Those are the findings of the test'

Finally, Links in Google SGE Perhaps the loudest criticism of Google SGE has been its failure to cite sources for content that appears in the "AI Snapshot." (Links

GBP's New Policies & Guidelines Google sent out an email today announcing simplified policies and guidelines. Translated from Google speak: We are now actually telling you what the

Meta's Image Makeover   Meta is back. Not long ago, the company was reeling from Apple's privacy changes, a bad bet on the metaverse, the rise of

Google Search Ads Up, Bing's Billion Chats Google and Microsoft announced quarterly earnings yesterday and both beat Wall Street expectations. With $74.6 billion in total revenue, Google

Product Search Shifting Driven by Prime loyalty, Amazon has been the dominant product search site for most consumers, followed by Google. While that remains true, there's some interesting

Can AI Save Siri?   According to a Bloomberg report, Apple has been working on its own generative AI to catch up ro everybody else. Known internally as "Ajax,"

Apple Maps Momentum Last week we discussed the growth of Apple Maps and estimated its iPhone user market share at 37% (others have larger estimates). This week a number of

Fast, Cheap Content For months we've been debating the impact of generative AI on search. Some marketers argue AI will "revolutionize the SERPs." That's

Local: Bing in Fourth Place Monday we published a preliminary analysis of Apple Maps traffic vs. Google for local search/discovery. Mike's conclusion was that roughly 37% of

Google SGE Usage Decline? When Google SGE launched I was super excited (as they say) because I believe that the SERP is broken. But now I mostly don't

Is Apple Maps Driving Traffic? In late 2021 it became obvious that Apple Maps had become a much more powerful discovery tool that could deliver traffic to businesses. The rollout

Cage Match: Twitter vs. Threads By now you've read about or signed up for Threads, Meta's Twitter clone. Threads officially launched yesterday in 100 countries, though

GDPR Gets Some Teeth Meta (née Facebook) built its ad model on massive, largely surreptitious data collection, which fueled highly personalized ad targeting. That capability and model are now in

FTC's New Fake Reviews Rule The FTC has been refining its fake review policy, as part of its endorsement guidelines and forthcoming rules. The guidelines indicate what types

Perspectives on Google's Struggle Google has been battling the perception its SERP quality is in decline, filled with ads and "SEO chum." Google's Helpful

GBP: 3 Videos Now in Default View We reported several weeks ago that Google was starting to display a single video on Google Business Profiles in mobile search results. In

Cost of Fake Reviews: $24B In its blog post announcing litigation against alleged review fraudster Ethan Hu, Google cited an FTC report stating consumers wasted "$125 on average each

How Facebook F'd Up Waze Deal Roughly a decade has passed since Google bought Waze for more than $1 billion. Waze co-founder Noam Bardin tells the fascinating story

Teen TikTok Inspires 1-Star Barrage Marketing today can be a complex and volatile proposition for local business owners. A case-in-point involves a nail salon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that is reportedly

Google AI Feature Dump Google this week released a barrage of AI-driven updates to Search, Shopping and Maps. The company started by reiterating all the things you can do with

Fake Review Summaries Amazon may be in denial about how counterfeiting and review fraud are long-term threats to its brand. According to a recent US-UK consumer survey, 84% of shoppers

Google Finally Focused on Fake LSA Reviews? Google has missed a huge opportunity with Local Service Ads (LSAs) to clean up both local listings and reviews. Within a vetted and

Study: Localized Stories Drive Links Most content marketers publish studies and data for the purpose of lead-generation, press coverage or both. Often they use PR pros to target publications with

Vision Pro 'Feels Like the Future' Whether or not Apple's Vision Pro actually sells next year or is succeeded by more affordable headsets, it appears Apple

Starting today the Monday edition of the newsletter will be written by Mike Blumenthal and have a more tactical focus on GBP and local search. If you have any feedback,

No AI for 70% of Google Queries? Google's SGE has three or four modes: auto-generated AI Snapshots, "manual" AI (push to "Generate"), an AI

Social Beating SEO for B2B The top B2B marketing challenges, according to a new US-based survey (form) from WPromote and Ascend2, are: 1) improving CX, 2) proving digital marketing ROI,

SGE: The New Local Pack Google opened the gates to its AI Search Generative Experience (SGE). There's much to say and we'll provide more analysis soon.

Google Ads: AI Everywhere All at Once The subtext of Google I/O was about convincing investors the company wasn't going to be bested by AI competitors. Search-related

Was Neeva Doomed from the Start? Neeva is shutting down its search engine. The news came out this weekend in an email and blog post from founders Sridhar Ramaswamy and