The rise of retrieval bots raises questions about data ownership, monetization, and the future of the open web. (Nitasha Tiku, Washington Post)
Tags search (50)
Google’s AI Mode could deal a devastating blow to the web’s business model. (Thomas Germain, BBC)
Metrics mutate: SEO rankings and clicks out, “embedding relevance” and “chunk retrieval” in as GenAI rewrites the rules of engagement. (Duane Forrester Decodes)
Google tests NotebookLM’s chatty AI podcast on Search.
Google is turning search results into podcasts
One click, and you’ve got two AI voices having what sounds like the world's most scripted coffee shop conversation about whatever you just Googled. It’s called Audio Overviews and works like the feature in NotebookLM, powered by Gemini's text-to-speech. As usual, it’s only live in Search Labs in the US for now. And weirdly, it's...
SEO agency analyzes 75k AI Overviews, finds that one-fifth cited media as sources. 31 percent came from BBC, NYT, and CNN.
Comparing Google Search with AI Mode
This is a snapshot of a beta feature. It's June 2025. To test Google's AI Mode, you currently have to beam yourself to the US and go to Search Labs. Or you do a Google search, get an AI Overview, and discover, top left, a new feature called "AI Mode". Asked about layoffs at Business...
Google’s new AI chatbot mimics Perplexity and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, prompting questions about the future of information discovery. (Tripp Mickle, New York Times)
“The best way to get your client’s message into the output of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and the rest is by talking to journalists.” (Ben Smith, Semafor)
AI search is (likely) hurting publishers: “The data is really messy, and … we have no real way of differentiating … to see what is really going on. But overall, it all points to there being a problem.” (Thomas Baekdal)
“LLM grooming”: Russia automates the dissemination of misinformation by exploiting vulnerabilities in AI search. (Joseph Mann, Washington Post)
Google searches in Safari declined for the first time ever last month. Does this signal the collapse of the online ecosystem? (Casey Newton, Platformer)
Data analysis challenges Google’s AI Overviews claims, suggesting 34.5% fewer clicks.
Preparing a feast only to have it eaten by ghosts who don’t leave a tip: Wikipedia plans to regulate bot access and wants new attribution guidelines for web, apps, voice assistants, and LLMs. (Wikimedia)
SEO is shifting to crack AI search: focus on repetition and ‘answer-first’ structured content over rankings. (Threads)
