Shopify CEO Warns AI ‘Slop Grenades’ Shift Work To Coworkers
Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke says unreviewed AI output is landing on coworkers. Freelance marketplace data shows demand for AI cleanup work rising elsewhere too.
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Follow on YouTube. Matt G. Southern is the Senior News Writer at Search Engine Journal, where he’s covered Google, SEO, and AI for over 13 years.
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Google Lighthouse Adds Audit For AI Agent Resource Discovery
Lighthouse 13.5 adds an audit for AI agent resource discovery, but its checks differ from the latest ARD proposal.
Google AI Payment Pilot, Search Profiles At 10,000 – SEO Pulse
Google is testing payments for content contributing to AI answers, Mueller says AI position data is hard to report, and Cloudflare splits training from search.
Google Discover Test Adds Topic Overviews, Starting With Videos
Google is testing a “Dive deeper” button in Discover, starting with videos.
Google Adds Local Businesses To EEA Search Result Units
Google updated its Search documentation to add local business queries to the two result units rolled out in the EEA for directories and direct providers.
Google’s AI Payment Pilot Vs. Cloudflare & Microsoft Models
Google, Cloudflare, and Microsoft are testing different models for paying publishers when AI systems access or use their content.
More People Expect AI To Cut Jobs Than Add Them, Pew Finds
Pew’s 37-country survey finds more people expect AI to reduce jobs than add them, a view more common in high-income countries than middle-income ones.
AI Citation Test Finds Source Order Matters Less Than It Looks
A controlled AI citation test found source order mattered less than raw data suggested, while structured rewrites shifted how citation credit was distributed.
Reddit AI Search Picks Already-Popular Comments, Audit Finds
An audit of Reddit AI search found formal, highly upvoted comments were selected more often, while experiential language appeared less often.
Google UCP Update Lets Merchants Enable Cart Transfer To Site
Google is rolling out cart transfer and checkout testing in the Merchant Center UCP hub, plus a YouTube ads beta and wider AI insights.
Google Search Profiles Now Available At 10,000 Followers
Google lowers Search profile eligibility to 10,000 followers for U.S. websites and creators, with new account tools and updated article displays.
Cloudflare Lets Sites Disallow AI Training Without Blocking Googlebot
Cloudflare’s Disallow AI Training keeps mixed-use crawlers available for search. Google and Apple honor training opt-outs; Bing robots.txt support is pending.
Google Tests Paying Publishers For AI Answers Via Search Console
Google is testing a Search Console pilot that pays publishers when their content contributes to Gemini, AI Overviews, and AI Mode answers.
Google Search Redesign, Business Profile Post Views – SEO Pulse
Google redesigned Search results across the EEA, Business Profile posts get view counts again, and ChatGPT Shopping now leans harder on product feeds.
Google Documents Partner-Only API For Full-Web Search Results
Google’s developer docs for the Web Search Service API show a partner-only path to full-web search results.
What Wikipedia Reveals About AI Overviews And Web Traffic
A University of Washington paper estimates AI Overviews reduced search referrals to Wikipedia by about 5%, a metric Google disputes.
Google Adds Post View Counts To Business Profiles
Google says Business Profile post view counts are rolling out globally for posts published in the past 18 months, combining views from Search and Maps.
YouTube Gives You Feedback On Shorts Before Publishing
YouTube is expanding Get Feedback, a tool that reviews a Shorts before publishing, to U.S. users
Le Monde Says AI Overviews Haven’t Hurt Its Audience So Far
Le Monde says its audience hasn’t dropped since AI Overviews launched in France, while app traffic and subscriber growth complicate the broader traffic story.
ChatGPT Shopping Results Lean Hard On Product Feeds
ChatGPT Shopping is pulling more product picks from what it calls feed-integrated sources, and store visibility moved too.
New Google Guide To Regional Search Features & Eligibility
Google added documentation mapping regional Search features in the EEA, Türkiye, and South Africa, with eligibility and participation steps.
Brands Are Tracking AI Visibility, But Are They Measuring The Right Things?
AI visibility tools track brand mentions and citations, but marketers need outcome data to know what those movements mean and what to do next.
Google Rolls Out Redesigned Search Results Across The EEA
Google rolled out redesigned Search results in the EEA, reworking aggregator units and adding supplier units for hotel, flight, transport, and product queries.
UK Site Loses 98% Of News Search Visibility After .com Move
A UK news site’s trending-query visibility collapsed after moving from .co.uk to .com, and the new domain didn’t pick up what the old one lost.
Google Says Old Low-Value Pages May Affect Site Recovery
John Mueller says Google’s systems may still judge a site by its old low-value programmatic pages, and that showing value again takes time and effort.
Some Sites Use llms.txt Like robots.txt, Common Crawl Finds
Common Crawl analyzed 584,107 llms.txt files and found most came from templates, many had no links, and some carried crawler rules the format can’t enforce.
Search Console AI Reports Go Global, Mueller On Recovery – SEO Pulse
Google says Search Console AI reports are now worldwide, and John Mueller weighs in on recovery timing, markdown for AI crawlers, and sitemap cache-busting.
People Aren’t Leaving Google For AI. They’re Using Both
Research shows how people can keep using Google while making fewer traditional searches and clicking through to fewer websites.
AI Slop Cleanup Job Listings Up 87%, Report Says
The Guardian reports AI cleanup listings are up 87%, while freelancers say clients lowball the work.
Google AI Mode Prices Differ From Product Carousel For Same Items
Data finds Google AI Mode rarely shows the same products as the regular results carousel, and often lists a different seller when it does.