Issue 25

Thought Pieces

Google is Using AI to Censor Independent Websites

While you may not really care about the plight of some random travel website getting censored, everyone should care about the way Google is deploying AI to build a censorship cartel that lets it control the flow of information online.

What follows is a lengthy summary of my experiences and my opinions as an independent publisher trying to survive in a monopolist’s information economy.

AI model collapse is not what we paid for • The Register

I use AI a lot, but not to write stories. I use AI for search. When it comes to search, AI, especially Perplexity, is simply better than Google.

Ordinary search has gone to the dogs. Maybe as Google goes gaga for AI, its search engine will get better again, but I doubt it. In just the last few months, I've noticed that AI-enabled search, too, has been getting crappier.

How Google AI Mode Keeps Users in AI Mode | LinkedIn

I have been testing AI Mode extensively, both in beta for several months, as well as the live product (which has been live for a week now). My main takeaways about AI Mode.

Studies & Data

How to get cited by AI: SEO insights from 8,000 AI citations

As AI-generated answers take over the search landscape, understanding what gets cited – and why – has never been more critical.

Explore citation data across leading AI engines, see how B2B and B2C intent shapes visibility, and learn actionable SEO tactics to help your brand get found.

This analysis is powered by Rankscale.ai, a platform tracking AI query visibility across the web.

LLMs, AI Overviews may be quietly driving homepage traffic: Report

Google’s AI Overviews and large language models (LLMs) have severely eroded clicks, click-through rates, and organic traffic to websites. But a new Siege Media report may have found a silver lining: even if your sitewide traffic is down, your homepage may be increasing.

Guides & Recommendations

Google AI Mode is Nu-Goth Search with Trad Goth Roots | LinkedIn

Welcome to Google AI Mode the search evolution that’s part machine learning, part cultural moment.

If traditional Google Search is the reliable, mysterious Trad Goth structured, keyword-driven, never late, slightly melancholic, then AI Mode is Nu-Goth experimental, layered, responsive, and driven by both form and feeling.

This isn’t just a vibe shift. It’s a realignment of how discovery works.

So let’s break it down, seo SUSTAINABLE style: what AI Mode is, how it works, and what we, as modern-day SEOs, can do to stay visible in the fog machine.

SEO vs. GEO for AI Visibility [+ Tools to Add to Your Tech Stack] | LinkedIn

At this point, you’ve likely encountered more acronyms than you can count. If it’s not GEO, it’s AIE, AEO, LLMO, you name it. But really, it all comes down to one thing: GEO is a process that helps your content get retrieved, cited, and used by large language models (LLMs).

In this newsletter, we’ll refer to it as “GEO” to avoid confusion. We’ll talk about why Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) matters, and must-have tools to help you show up.

SEO News

Google's Query Fan-Out Patent: Thematic Search

A patent that Google filed in December 2024 presents a close match to the Query Fan-Out technique that Google’s AI Mode uses. The patent, called Thematic Search, offers an idea of how AI Mode answers are generated and suggests new ways to think about content strategy.

Google: Database Speed Beats Page Count For Crawl Budget

A site with 500,000 pages but slow database queries might face more crawl issues than a site with 2 million fast-loading static pages.

What does this mean? You need to evaluate your database performance, not just count the number of pages. Sites with dynamic content, complex queries, or real-time data must prioritize speed and performance.

Paid News

Ads arrive in Google AI Overviews – here's what they look like

For the first time, ads are appearing directly within Google’s AI Overviews on desktop search, marking a major expansion of monetization within generative search experiences.

Driving the news. The Shopping ads, which appear within AI Overviews, Google’s AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of certain search results, were spotted and shared by independent SEO consultant Brodie Clark on LinkedIn.

Google begins rolling out Performance Max channel performance reporting

Advertisers spotted Google’s new Performance Max (PMax) channel performance reporting — a sign the long-awaited feature is now rolling out. What it does:

Shows detailed reporting on PMax performance by channel — like Search, Display, YouTube, and more.
Lets advertisers spot underperforming networks and refine their scaling strategies.
Enables better asset relevance by clarifying where ad creative excels (or underperforms).
Allows search term analysis to trim wasted spend and optimize further.

AI News

AI Models Show Signs of Falling Apart as They Ingest More AI-Generated Data

As CEOs trip over themselves to invest in artificial intelligence, there's a massive and growing elephant in the room: that any models trained on web data from after the advent of ChatGPT in 2022 are ingesting AI-generated data — an act of low-key cannibalism that may well be causing increasing technical issues that could come to threaten the entire industry.

Other News

Researchers cause GitLab AI developer assistant to turn safe code malicious - Ars Technica

Marketers promote AI-assisted developer tools as workhorses that are essential for today’s software engineer. Developer platform GitLab, for instance, claims its Duo chatbot can “instantly generate a to-do list” that eliminates the burden of “wading through weeks of commits.” What these companies don’t say is that these tools are, by temperament if not default, easily tricked by malicious actors into performing hostile actions against their users.

Researchers from security firm Legit on Thursday demonstrated an attack that induced Duo into inserting malicious code into a script it had been instructed to write. The attack could also leak private code and confidential issue data, such as zero-day vulnerability details. All that’s required is for the user to instruct the chatbot to interact with a merge request or similar content from an outside source.

Yelp launches 15 AI-powered updates for service brands and restaurants

Yelp announced 15 new features and updates to make it faster and easier for users to hire service professionals and for restaurants to manage their front-of-house operations. Many of these upgrades are powered by AI.