News Members only 300 Million Queries, Old Google, Cyber Week, Location Data Is Like Ground Beef What 300M Queries Tell Us About Search Rand Fiskin has published a massive new study of more than 300 million Google search queries (Datos data). The study excluded app-based searches
News Apple's $30B Ad Future, Agency AI Ambivalence, Tricks for Ad Clicks Next week most of our content will move behind a paywall; please continue to support us by subscribing. We're thankful to all our readers and subscribers. And to
News DOJ: Sell Chrome, Fake Reviews = $300 Billion, ChatGPT Gaining Share DOJ's Google Reckoning The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed its Proposed Final Judgment in US v Google, which the company lost earlier this year. Here's
News Google Antitrust Part 2, Social + Stores, Local Inventory Google's Second Antitrust Trial Google's antitrust search trial got much more attention than its sibling adtech trial, which recently concluded in federal court in Virginia. To
News AIO CTR, Google Nostalgia, Pre-Fulfillment Reviews AIOs: More Clicks than Snippets Google has repeatedly claimed searchers are responding positively to AI Overviews (AIOs) and that they're driving more engagement and clicks than if they
News Google 'Pardon', Avoiding GBP Mistakes, Google UI Box Please read this message about Near Media's future. Will Trump 'Pardon' Google? Just as Trump will now escape criminal liability, Google appears poised to avoid any
News SearchGPT Boosts Bing, ChatGPT Eclipses Gemini, 230 Must Go Bing Optimization = SearchGPT SEO? The Bing search index is a significant contributor to ChatGPT results, according to multiple sources (e.g., here, here) – although this comes as no surprise given
News LocalGPT, Maps' AI Makeover, London 'Lovebombing' Please read this message about Near Media's future. Local SEO for SearchGPT Yesterday David conveyed his first impressions of SearchGPT, now integrated into ChatGPT. He concluded, "SearchGPT
News Meta AI Search, Google Q3 Mo, 97% vs. 48% Please read this message about Near Media's future. Meta's AI Search Engine Meta is reportedly building a new search engine for its "conversational assistant"
News Slow AI Rollout, Foursquare Done, Do More with Less Apple's Slow AI Rollout Apple's vision of a "personal digital assistant" reportedly goes all the way back to 1987. It took a big leap
News Raghavan Outfoxed, OpenTable's Back, LLinkbuilding Raghavan Outfoxed I met Nick Fox years ago, when he gave me a short demo of what became AdWords Express. He was matter-of-fact and unassuming. Now he's Google&
News Directories Matter, Apple Biz Connect, Trump ❤️ Google Yes, Directories Matter In 2014 - 2015, "local citations" and "NAP consistency" were seen by many SEOs as critical to local search visibility. Since that time,
News AI Search 8%, Mrwhosetheboss, Google DMA Compliance Is AI Search Rising? There's an ongoing debate about whether Google is seeing any usage erosion from social sites or AI. Survey data suggest yes, while behavioral data
News Breaking Up Google, Facebook Local Tab, SearchGPT Ads Breaking Up Google In its filing in the remedies phase of Google's antitrust trial, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed it was considering asking the court to
News Google Loyalty Down, Stock Photos?, NotebookLM Podcasts Google Loyalty Drops 16 Positions Brand Keys' 2024 Top 100 Brand Loyalty Index is out. This is essentially a promotional tool for Brand Keys' consultancy and normally I
News Google AIPs Go Live, FTC Goes After AI, AI Buying Assist AI Organized Pages Go Live At Google I/O earlier this year Google Head of Search Liz Reid teased "AI Organized Pages," which as the name suggests use
News Places Sites Go West, Google's Best Efforts, Chrome Click Surveillance Places Sites Land in North America The Places Sites carousel is one of Google's accommodations for the Digital Markets Act in Europe. It's an effort to
News Reviews Done Right, Potential $30B Fine, GBPs 96% Claimed Local Review Solicitation Best Practices Reputation management platform GatherUp is out with a useful report about review solicitation best practices. (Mike was one of the co-founders but is no longer
News Reddit Search, Marketing Misalignment, Dark Side of DMA Reddit the Search Engine The widely cited article "Google Search Is Dying" appeared in February 2022. It was really a discussion about Reddit as a search engine. Nearly
News Badge of Shame, Second Google Loss?, AIOs + Ads Google Badge of Shame Earlier this week Mike Blumenthal discovered that suspected review abuse in the UK can lead to a 30 day review ban. As a bonus it comes
News Conversion Benchmarks, Brand Demand, 'Illegal' AI Summaries Conversions: Email Still Kicks Ass Unbounce has released its latest Conversion Benchmarking Report (form required). The study contains data from 57 million conversions and 41 thousand landing pages. The median
News Google Legal Woes, SearchGPT Not Enough, Danny Sullivan Google's Legal Woes Mount In many ways Google has never been more successful or powerful; 2023 ad revenue was $238 billion. But the company has probably never been
News Branding & SEO, Google Non-Compliant, AI Eating Social Brand Building Critical for SEO Since the revelations from the Google antitrust trial and Search API leak, there's been renewed interest among search marketers in branding – for several
News Yelp v. Google, SEO Challenges, Section 230's New Crack It's On: Yelp v. Google Yelp has arguably been Google's chief antagonist over the years. For example, it was Yelp's behind-the-scenes lobbying of European
News AIOpocalypse, Alexa Subscription, Reviewed Gets Panned The AIOpocalypse Hasn't Come The AIOpocalypse – the anticipated drop in traffic from Google's AI Overviews (AIOs) – hasn't materialized, at least not yet. During the
News SearchGPT + Bing Index, AIO Grounding, Will AI Sell Smartphones? SearchGPT Uses Bing Index BrightEdge has done a fairly in-depth review of SearchGPT, including side-by-side comparisons with Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. The generally favorable analysis opines, "SearchGPT'
News Local Key for SearchGPT, Default Search Power, Google Naïveté Local Is Key for SearchGPT My earlier hot take on SearchGPT is that it's pretty good already and could be used as a Google replacement for many/most
News SearchGPT, FTC Review Rule, Unproductive AI SearchGPT's Promising Start SearchGPT is already a credible challenger for Google – from the jump (as they say). As a paid subscriber I got access this morning, as I&
News Monopoly Remedy, AIOs Down Again, More Google Revelations End of the Google Era? After the court's finding that Google had illegally exercised monopoly power to maintain search dominance and "earn monopoly profits" from paid
News Google Fallout, Apple Search Speculation, Stores Rule Google Monopoly Ruling: The Fallout Unless you've been in a coma, you know that Google was found this week to be an illegal monopoly in violation of the
News Google Loses, AI Ankle Biters, GBP Menu Optimization Google Loses Antitrust Case Contrary to what you may understand, it's not illegal to be a monopoly in the US. Rather, it's illegal to abuse your
News AIOs Hurt Ad Clicks, Travel Mindtripping, Bing: We Took Share Google AIOs Depress Ad Clicks Based on an early analysis, Tinuiti found that AI Overviews depressed ad clicks on non-branded keyword mobile SERPs. This comes from their Q2 digital ads
News The Anti-Google, Reframing SEO, Marketers Neglect SEO SearchGPT: The Anti-Google Right after we published the newsletter Thursday, SearchGPT was announced. This comes after months of rumors and speculation (and disappointment). However, it's only available to
News Apple Webmaps, Bing AI SERP, Google Q2: $85B Apple Maps on the Web Apple has had a Mac desktop Maps application for years. But now Apple Maps is expanding to the web: Safari for the desktop (Mac) and
News Cookies Are Back, Alexa $inkhole, Pubs Attack AIOs Google Abandons Cookie Deprecation A mixture of UK regulatory objections and ad-industry inertia/resistance has prompted Google to abandon third party cookie deprecation, after multiple delays and deferred deadlines. In
News Travel Places Sites, Mapquest's Demise, Prime Day Mania Study: Places Sites in Travel At Near Media we've been documenting the impact (or lack thereof) of Google's new DMA-SERP features (e.g., Places Sites) on
News GBP Optimization Blueprint, Waiting for Search, Here's AMZN's Rufus Blueprint for GBP Optimization Although Google has "disappeared" most AI Overviews (AIOs), they still represent a (potential) competitive challenge to content publishers. Local is one area that has
News Fake Review Takedowns, Health AIOs, 1M AI-Generated Pages Fake Reviews Need Notice + Takedown Mike Blumenthal reported on a $5 million fine for a Washington-state plastic surgeon who had been faking reviews and using NDAs and payments to suppress
News Zero-Click Data, Google NOT a Publisher, AIO Extreme Caution Study: 29% of Clicks Stay on Google On a recent Near Media podcast Rand Fishkin teased a new US-EU zero-click study. He's now released it. What it shows
News AI Use Hurts Google, SMB Response Times, Local AI Review Tool Heavy AI Fans Use Google Less Google has repeatedly said users like AI Overviews. At least one survey seems to partly support that claim. But that survey also has bad
News Big G's Product Problem, Aggregators vs Local Biz, Section 230 Recklessness Product Search: More Problems for Big G Multiple surveys in the market (e.g., here, here) illustrate seemingly growing challenges for Google in retaining younger users (GenZ). A very recent
News Too Much SEO, Google AIO Caution, Products over Research Overly 'SEO'd' Sites Appear to Suffer A new "winners and losers" study from Cyrus Shepard suggests that SEOs may need to rethink what he&
News AIOs Dumb Search Down, Local Lessons from Ace, Social Product Discovery AI Overviews Make Search Worse That's the case being made by Jess Peck in her article, "How and Why Google Made its Own Product Worse." She
News Apple Intelligence Take 2, Links Really Matter, GenZ's Local Affinity Apple Intelligence: Hot or Not? People appear to be split on the significance and potential impact of Apple Intelligence. Some found the WWDC announcements unimpressive and the much-anticipated integration of
News Apple Intelligence (AI), Impact on Google, More API Leak Local Tactics Apple Intelligence: Better Siri + ChatGPT At Apple's WWDC event yesterday, as expected, the company announced numerous AI features and integrations, including ChatGPT. But it didn't lead
News Search Frustration Growing, AIOs Disappearing, GenZ Socializing Survey: Search Frustrations Growing A new survey from Scorpion, conducted by Dynata (h/t SEL), paints a picture of growing user frustration with "search." The survey of 1,
News Why Local Citations Don't Work, AI Dilemma, RIP Smart Speakers? The 'Why' Behind Citations' Decline It's now clear from the Search API documents leak that Google carefully tracks and grades clicks and links using clickstream
News Google AIO Impact, Apple AI Search, Big Leak Local AIOs Not a Traffic Doomsday Weapon For roughly a year the search world has been anticipating a kind of traffic apocalypse, when AI Overviews (AIOs) rolled out. Several early studies
News Google Ranking Leaks, Long-Tail Citations, AI Overview #Fails Google Rides the Clickstream The various exhibits from the recently concluded Google antitrust trial surprised many, delighted others and contradicted Google's repeated public statements about clicks and other
News Reddit in Local, AI Overview Ads, Service Area Boost 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
News SGE Drives Traffic, Gen-Local Search, Google CEO Evasions 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
News AI Overviews Backlash, Siri Do or Die, SERP 'Cognitive Load' 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'
News ChatGPT Omni, HCU Travel Losses, CPCs Up CVRs Down 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
News Google PPC Games, Search.ChatGPT, Pichai Evades 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
News Big Brand Problem, Forbes Content Farm, Social to Store 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
News OpenAI Search, Google Share Loss, Yelp Assistant 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
News Google ❤️ SGE, Review Response Uplift, Location Data Drought 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
News Google Revenue Culture, Meh-AI Content, Divestiture Drama 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
News Meta.ai Search, Home Services & Local SEO, Social Plateau 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
News Paid Search Winning, Healthcare Review Explosion, Too Big to Care? 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
News Rethinking Content for SEO, SMBs Neglect GBP, Local Virtual Assistants 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?
News Google's <30 Problem, AI + Search Marriage, Next & SGE Mediocrity 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
News Google: DMA Hurtz, Federal Privacy Law, 'Pepsi (Content) Challenge' 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
News Google AI Paywall, Perplexity - Google Overlap, Just Gave Up 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
News SGE Launch Date, AI & Section 230, ChatGPT's New Links 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
News AI Travel Itineraries, 23 for ChatGPT, Personalized Google 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
News SGE Hits Brands, DMA Hot Seat, Altman Reimagines Search 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
News Perplexity ❤️ Google, SGE Coming Soon?, Antitrust Conundrum 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
News Last Click Mindset, Apple-Google AI Deal, Google #3 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
News Perplexity Yelps, FTC Pins Location Brokers, Web at 35 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
News Biggest Traffic 'Referrers,' Online Oligarchy, 79% of Reviews on Google 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
News Review Mix Grows, Google Spam Attack, Informational Vulnerability 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,
News Google Search Quality, Email Appreciation, DMA Dilemma 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&
News Places Sites Fail, More Places MIA, Google Maps in SGE 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 "
News Google ❤️ Brands, Social Acquisition, Gemini Toggle 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
News Wither the SERP, Winning On-Page Elements, Chips and Carousels 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
News OpenAI Search, Reddit Overexposed, 'Clarifying' AI Content Policy 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
News Google's Self-Disruption, How Many Fake Reviews, AI 'Abstraction Layer' 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
News Copilot Is the Future, Local SEO Gap, Jihad vs. McWorld Content 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
News Google Maps.ai, AI Content Working, Gemini vs. Search 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
News New EU Local SERP, Localizing Forums, Ranking Isn't Enough 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.
News Confusing Tools, Reporting Fake Reviews, 'Highly Rated' LSAs 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
News Conversational PPC, Hidden Gems, In-Store AI Assistants 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
News SGE Failure to Launch, Quality Raters Axed, What's Wrong at Google? 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
News Future of GBP, Fake Reviews Rule, Yahoo Local Thryving 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
News Internal Links Drive Clicks, Google Support Decline, Social vs. Search Growth 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
News GBP Sites Going, Google Guarantee Scam Impact, AI & the Future of Search 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
News Google SGE Pushdown, Siri AI 'Overhaul,' Brick & Mortar Halo 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
News LSA Scams in UK, Google Gets Interstitial, You Can't Delete a Listing 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
News Bard Wish List, SEO Pricing Survey, NYT vs. OpenAI 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,
News Near Media's 2023 Top Stories & Trends to Watch These are the 2023 articles, podcasts and videos you read, listened to and watched the most.
News LSA Duct Fraud P. 5, LSAs and Brand Queries, Google's Scrollable Map, App Store Vault Cracks 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
News Branding vs. Paid Search, Location History, Judge vs. Jury 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
News SGE a 'Traffic Destroyer', AI Optimization, SMB Badges 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
News LSA Scam Update, Weak LSA Ad Disclosures, Local CTRs 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
News Hours Ranking Confirmed, Bard Getting Better, AI Content Dilution 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
News Gemini SERP, Hours Now a LRF, Agencies Love AI 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
News Rich Snippet Review Abuse, Organic CTR, LSA Reviewjacking Part 2 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
News X Wants SMB Ads, Google Ratings Inflation, Biz AI Adoption Low 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
News Do Searchers Use Pack Results?, LSA Review Abuses, Google's Failed Review Moderation 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.
News Shoppers Go Wild, Google Map Colors, Fake Reviews News 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
News OpenAI WTF, Green Black Friday, AI for SEO 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.
News Google AI Goes Veg, Apple Maps Ranking Tool, ChatGPT Review Insights 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
News New Yahoo Search, Google SGE Shopping, BOPIS Car Sales 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
News Personalized Google Rankings, Fake Reviews Thriving, AI Trust Growing 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
News Fake Review Doctor, Clever Scam Got Reviews Removed, SAB Bug Solution? 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?
News AI Pin Wants to Kill Your iPhone, Google Mediocrity, Who's Got More Reviews? Can the 'AI Pin' Replace the iPhone? The short answer is "no." But Humane's new AI-powered wearable "pin" is an impressive hardware
News GPT vs. Search, Google (Antitrust) Docs, Will the SMB Attribute Help? 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
News Google Map Bloat, Citations in Decline, GBP Support Issues Update 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
News SEO Is Dead Again, 20% Fake Reviews, Synthetic Media Boom 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
News Plug-in Search, Local Merch Returns, Privacy Paradox 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
News Local Falcon's AI, 15 New LSA Categories, It's All Good 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.
News Agencies ❤️ ChatGPT, DSA vs. Section 230, Google Teen Retention 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
News Google Shuns Spotlight, CA Delete Act, Netflix House 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,
News Local Trust Survey, Fake Review Checker, X Dares EU 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
News Google Call History Returns, Fake Review Incentives, Apple Biz Connect Insights 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
News Nadella Slams Google, Ads vs. Fees, Trust Sells 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
News Apple Search Redux, Assistant + Bard, Google Ads Useful (for 50%) 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
News Google Listings Clean-up, Dashboard Comeback?, Review Fraud Victim 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
News Google @25, Apple Not Serious, Meta's AI Bet 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
News ChatGPT's Voice, Google Fake Reviews, Amazon's Antitrust Moment 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
News Clicks Do Impact Rankings, TikTok-Google Search, Yelp Reviews Survey 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
News Bard Plug-ins, SMB Marketing Impatience, Just Walk Out Again 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/
News Local SGE Manic Episode, Inflated Ratings, Apple's Mother Nature Haters 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 "
News Amazon Upgrades Visual Search, LSA Ad Confusion, Data 'Delete Act' 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
News Google Trial, Apple Maps EU Gains, Hey Dude Reviews 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
News New Google Reinstatement Policy, Repeat Spammers, Review 'Punishments' '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
News Google on Trial, ROI: FB Beats SEO, Zero-Click Packs 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
News Yahoo Directory 2.0, Europe's Gatekeepers, Fees Boost BOPIS 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
News ChatGPT ≠ Search, Unread Reviews, Gen Z SearchTok 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,
News Naïve SEO Advice, Meh or Malevolent AI, AI for B2B 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
News GBP Deduping Form, Video Verification Clarification, GBP Scams Galore 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
News DSA Kicks In, Social Media Hive Mind, BOPIS 32% 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,
News TikTok Search Ads, ChatGPT Most Accurate, No Copyright for AI 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
News GBP Forum Issues, New GBP Verification Form, Mediation Now Available in EU European regulations are compelling Google to improve Google Business Profile support.
News BingGPT Stalls, TOS (AI) Wars, Robotaxis Not Ready 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
News SGE While Browsing, Review Cliffs Notes, TV Dethroned 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
News Google GBP Gig Workers, Timmie Ho's CX #Fail, Apple Maps' Long Game 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
News AI Review Summaries, E-commerce $1T, AI Adoption 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
News Google Trial, SMB AI Hopes, Yelp's Ad Revs Up 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.
News Google Maps Transparency, New LSA Categories, Listings Hijacked Again EU DSA to influence Maps moderation, Google LSAs add new categories, Google Maps listings hijacked again (and again).
News ChatGPT Beats Google, Maps Distrust, Local Inventory Demand 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'
News Google SGE Links, Shrinking Ad Labels, Meta Consent 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
News GBP's New Guidelines, Video Verification Fail, Solicitation Not Deception 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
News Meta Makeover, AI Takeout, Algorithms at Risk 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
News GOOGL, MSFT Beat Xpectations, Twitter –>X, SMB Astroturfing 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
News Social Product Search, ChatGPT 4 Winning, Brand New World 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
News Now AppleGPT, Pay by Palm, Soft Landing Ahead? 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,"
News Apple Maps Momentum, Google Threads AI Needle, Location Sharing 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
News Fast Cheap Content, Threads Cools Down, Prime Day Record 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
News Bing Is #4, State of Digital Agencies, AI and Copyright 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
News Google AI Theater, Twitter's Karma, Blasé Prime Day 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
News Apple Maps Traffic, GBP Call Tracking History, June Forum Insights 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
News Cage Match: Twitter vs. Threads, PeakGPT, Local News Survival 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
News Meta GDPR'd, Yahoo's IPO, Another 'Twitter Killer' 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
News New Fake Reviews Rule, Google News Blackout, MrBeast Burger Flameout 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
News Google Perspectives, Amazon Last Mile, Content Moderation Collision 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
News GBP Videos 3, SAB Ranking Hijinks, Political Spam Reviews 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
News Cost of Fake Reviews, PPC Costs Up, Internet Remorse 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
News Facebook Blew Waze, Prime Dark Patterns, GBP Category Boost 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
News TikTok Review Bombing, Google Whack-a-Mole, EU Acts on AI 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
News Google AI Dump, SGE Pack, SMBs Satisfied with AI 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
News Amazon Review Summaries, AI (Not?) a Threat to Google, Top o' the Funnel 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
News LSA Reviews MIA, Inventory Eye Candy, Apple Nukes UTMs 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
News Link Power of Local, Therapy Bots, Labeling AI Content 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
News Apple's Future Vision, Ratings Inflation, SMB SaaS Sprawl 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
News Review Timing Impact, Missing Review Recovery, Local Pack Video 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,
News No SGE SERPs, Apple Business Disconnect, Glorious XR Failure 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
News Social Beating SEO, LawyerGPT, SMBs and 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,
News SGE Local Pack, Bard Pix, TikTok Local Reviews 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.
News Google Ads: AI Everywhere, Local Invisibility, Yelp + ANGI? 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
News Neeva Search Done, AI Content Discovery, Here's Twittergram 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
News LocalGPT Weak, SCOTUS Punts, Diversify Traffic Now LocalGPT Is No Google Killer Earlier this week I gained access to ChatGPT beta features web browsing and plug-ins. Plug-ins are like Chrome extensions and bring their full datasets (presumably)
News Peek-a-Boo Pack, Altman Testifies, Metaverse RIP? Disappearing Local Pack Appearances of the Local Pack again seem to be in decline. We've written about this in the past but local SEOs continue to raise the
News Review Trust Crisis, Stores Drive Online Sales, Yelp Reserves with Google 84% Wary of Amazon Reviews There's an unacknowledged trust crisis online and one manifestation is fake reviews. We've been tracking growing skepticism about reviews, which is
News New Twitter CEO, Google Perspectives, SMB SEO New Twitter CEO Is a 'WEF' Twitter's new CEO is Linda Yaccarino. Until this week, she was chair of global advertising at NBCU. She appears to
News Dogpile for AI, Amazon Inspire Anywhere, TikTok Search Widget Where's 'Dogpile for AI'? Remember "metasearch" from the late '90s? Sites like Dogpile and Metacrawler displayed results for the same query from multiple
News Snackable SERPs, Map Revolution, AI Content Flood Google's 'Snackable' Magi Google's I/O developer conference starts Wednesday. It will be chock-a-block with AI-related announcements. Among them, it's anticipated that
News Bing Beating Google, AI-SEO Future, Best Assistant Bing Beating Google Never mind the fact that Bing's revival is entirely based on third party technology, Microsoft is now out-innovating Google in search. And while Bing has
News AI Jobs Impact, Spamgraders, Nextdoor Assistant AI's Impact on Jobs A week ago Box CEO Drew Houston announced the company was laying off 500 employees as it frees up headcount for AI hires. This
News Content Farms 2.0, Location Clicks, Automated CS Content Farms: The Next Generation NewsGuard, a site that rates the credibility of information websites, found a range of publications (49) in multiple languages producing content "entirely or mostly
News Dark Social Traffic, SMBs Lack Content Strategy, AMZN Ad Revs +21% Social Traffic Mislabeled "Direct" A new study by SparkToro concludes that a considerable percentage of website traffic coming from social media sites is often mischaracterized as "direct&
News Google Ads Flatish, Yelp Guaranteed, AI Election Search + AI Drive Google, MSFT Earnings Both Google and Microsoft reported positive earnings yesterday. Microsoft beat expectations with ~$53B, while Google posted $69.8B in total revenue. For Microsoft, overall
News Amazon AI Reviews, Image Heavy, Copyright & Consent Amazon F(ai)ke Reviews One of the primary use cases for Amazon has been product reviews. This is well established by consumer surveys. And reviews are obviously a major
News GBP Peak SMB, One-Click Ads, Privacy Permission Slip Peak SMB for GBP? Like other large tech companies publishing "economic impact" reports, Google's is mostly PR. Published annually since 2009, it argues the company'
News SanFranciscoGPT, IBA vs. Contextual, Twitter Survival SanFranciscoGPT At Near Media, we don't equally agree on how disruptive AI will be to local search. I'm probably the most bullish of the three of
News Google Magi, AI Regulation, AI-Curious Consumers 'Panicked' Google Readies Magi By now you've read or read coverage of the NY Times article yesterday that says Google is "panicking" over AI
News Local Pack Intent Gap, Slowing Search Spend, Review Star Chasm Google Throttling Local Packs? What's happening with the Local Pack? Last year, Moz and LocalSEOGuide noticed a drop Local Pack frequency, from 40% and 42% of SERPs to
News Bargle SEO, SaiS for SMBs, GPT Liability Bargle Uses Yelp for Local Results Miriam Ellis at Moz compares local results from Google and Bard and finds Bard wanting. Beyond critiquing the quality of results, her article is
News Post-Cookie Manifesto, Legal AI, CX and Location Google's Post-Cookie Manifesto Victor Wong is sincere when he says that Google's Privacy Sandbox initiative is trying to solve the cookie problem for publishers, consumers and
News Just Bargle It, PSAs & LSAs, Twitter Blue 'Ads' Just Bargle It Google + Bard = Bargle. Google will be integrating Bard into the SERP. That's according to an interview of CEO Sundar Pichai in the WSJ, part of
News Search Movement, Viral PR and SEO, Amazon Theaters Search Movement Afoot There's some evidence that Bing has grown usage modestly since the introduction of BingGPT. However its share vs. Google appears largely unchanged according to other
News Google Assistant Merger, GM Boots CarPlay, BloombergGPT Bard, Google Assistant to Merge Google's tentative rollout of Bard hurt the perception of Google's technology leadership. So CEO Sundar Pichai is now doing PR interviews.
News Fake Review Growth, AI Darkside, 'Kiss of Death' Google: 20% More Fake Reviews in 2022 Earlier this week we discussed how review attacks are becoming more creative. Jason Brown is documenting many of these cases, including how hotels
News 5-Star Attack, Data Privacy Paradox, AI Eschatology Fake Positive Review Attacks? Ever heard of a "5-star review attack"? A hostile party posts obviously fake 5-star reviews -- in order to make a business look bad?
News New GBP Ads, Chat Apps vs Search, GenZ Product Search Google 'Online Conversion Local Ads' Michel Van Luijtelaar of GMBapi.com brought our attention to what he/Google is calling "online-conversion Local Ads." These units can
News Local Ranking Factors '23, TikTok: Stupid Congress, Neighborhood Studios Local Ranking Factors 2023 Whitespark just published the 2023 version of the Local Search Ranking Factors study (LSRF). There's a lot there to digest. We'll discuss
News AI Everywhere, Bard v. BingGPT, Bard Local OK AI Everywhere All at Once Microsoft is all-in on AI. Seemingly, it's everywhere, all at once. This week Adobe introduced Firefly, a set of generative AI tools for
News Whither Local Pack, Made with AI, E-Commerce Ceiling Whither the Local Pack? After the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) passed a year ago, we began to speculate about the impact it could have on Google local
News TikTok Ban, BaT: Trust = Success, CX Degrades TikTok Ban: What Happens Now? Roughly two years of negotiations between the US government and TikTok have come to an impasse. The US is (again) demanding divestiture but China is