Issue 40

Latest News

Bing tests Google-style “Sponsored results” grouping

Microsoft is now testing a Google-like redesign of search ads in Bing, grouping multiple sponsored links under a single “Sponsored results” label and adding a “Hide” button that collapses the entire ad block.

Google Hit By EU Probe Into Unfair Use Of Online Content

The European Commission has launched an antitrust inquiry into Google to determine whether the company has violated EU competition rules, partly focusing on whether Google has used creator and publisher content in ways that leave publishers unable to refuse such use without risking their search traffic.

It is also looking into whether Google is granting itself privileged access to YouTube content for AI in a way that leaves competitors at a disadvantage.

Google rolling out Preferred Sources globally and announces Spotlighting subscriptions

Preferred Sources. Preferred Sources let searchers star publications in the Top Stories section of Google Search, and Google uses that signal to show more stories from those starred outlets. The feature entered beta in June, rolled out in the U.S. and India in August, and is now expanding globally.

Helpful Guides

AIO/GEO: Separating Facts from Theories in AI Search

Every day, LinkedIn is full of posts about optimising for AI surfaces like Google’s AI Overviews, and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. This practice is often referred to as either Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) or AI Optimisation (AIO).

The reactions to these posts are often split. On one hand, there’s plenty of scepticism with people pointing out that bold claims are being made without much evidence, and that a lot of what’s out there is still untested theory. Fair enough. But, on the other hand, I personally find it useful when people share their assumptions and experiments. Even if some of it turns out to be wrong, it sparks fresh ideas and gets me thinking about things I might not have considered otherwise. That’s where the real value is.

With this article, my aim is to help make sense of what we know for sure, versus what’s still speculation. I’ve focused on four tactics that, to my mind, are well-supported and worth implementing, and two that don’t have strong evidence yet, but seem like easy tests to run. I’ve also included a priority matrix of other tactics I’ve collected.

Brand protection in PPC: How to protect your brand and prevent risks

Most brands don’t realize how much traffic they lose each day to unauthorized bidding, affiliate violations, and ad hijacking.

Industry data shows ad fraud reached an estimated $84 billion of global digital ad spend in 2023.

If your branded CPCs keep rising or competitors keep appearing above you in searches for your own name, this PPC brand protection guide can help you understand why – and what to do next.

How to evaluate your SEO tools in 2026 – and avoid budget traps

Evaluating SEO tools has never been more complicated.

Costs keep rising, and promises for new AI features are everywhere.

This combination is hardly convincing when you need leadership to approve a new tool or expand the budget for an existing one.

If this sounds familiar, keep reading.

This article outlines a practical framework for evaluating your SEO tool stack in 2026, focusing on:

Must-have features.
A faster way to compare multiple tools.
How to approach vendor conversations.

Data & Insights

What Black Friday reveals about how LLMs understand ecommerce

Every Black Friday reveals how consumers search, compare, and decide. This year added something new: a real-world test of how AI models interpret commerce under true demand.

So we ran a structured test across major LLMs and analyzed 10,000 responses. The goal was simple: to see how these systems form their internal view of the retail landscape and which signals shape the answers they generate.

65% of AI chats have no commercial intent, new analysis finds

Most AI chats have no commercial intent, users usually ask short questions, and most conversations end after just two turns. Those findings come from a recent analysis by Dan Petrovic, director of AI SEO agency Dejan, who examined millions of conversational turns to show how people actually use AI assistants.

37% of consumers start searches with AI instead of Google: Study

Consumers are increasingly using AI tools — not Google — as their first source of information. This is driven by frustration with traditional search and rising expectations that AI will play a much larger role this year, according to a new report from Eight Oh Two, an SEO and PPC marketing agency.

Good Read

Why Google is deleting reviews at record levels

n 2025, Google is removing reviews at unprecedented rates – and it is not accidental.

Our industry analysis of 60,000 Google Business Profiles shows that deletions are being driven by a mix of:

Automated moderation.
Industry-wide risk factors.
Increased enforcement against incentivized reviews.
Local regulatory pressure.

Together, these forces have significant implications for businesses and local search visibility.

Most SEO research doesn’t lie – but doesn’t tell the truth either

A mirage in the desert looks like water from a distance and can fool even experienced travelers into chasing something that isn’t there.

SEO research can be the same.

It looks like science, sounds legitimate, and can trick even seasoned marketers into believing they’ve found something real.

This article shows:

How unscientific SEO research misleads us.
Why we keep falling for it.
What we can do to change that.

The 2025 Cloudflare Radar Year in Review: The rise of AI, post-quantum, and record-breaking DDoS attacks

The 2025 Cloudflare Radar Year in Review is here: our sixth annual review of the Internet trends and patterns we observed throughout the year, based on Cloudflare’s expansive network view.

In this post, we highlight key findings and interesting observations from the major Year In Review microsite sections, and we have again published a companion Most Popular Internet Services blog post that specifically explores trends seen across top Internet Services.

Issue 40 12th January 2026