Search Engine Roundtable: Google Search Ranking Volatility Calmed For Just A Second & Heated Again. “I am seeing a huge spike in chatter within the SEO industry over the past 24 hours. This comes a day or so after we saw some Google search ranking volatility cooling, only to see that volatility spike again the following day. It has been an absolute wild time for the Google search results, I […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/11/search-engine-roundtable-google-search-ranking-volatility-calmed-for-just-a-second-heated-again/

Search Engine Land: ChatGPT is using Google Search, multiple tests suggest. “A new Backlinko test adds fresh fuel to speculation that ChatGPT Plus may be relying on Google Search, at least some of the time, to surface web content. Backlinko’s ‘sting’ experiment appears to confirm earlier findings from SEO pros Abhishek Iyer, Aleyda Solis, and Alexis Rylko that visibility in Google’s index […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/08/search-engine-land-chatgpt-is-using-google-search-multiple-tests-suggest/

The Verge: Truth Social’s new AI search engine basically just pushes Fox News. “In our testing, all of the source links that Truth Search AI cited were for conservative publications, including Fox News, Fox Business, The Washington Times, and The Federalist. The vast majority of these links directed users to articles published by Fox outlets, which suggests the Perplexity-powered search […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/08/the-verge-truth-socials-new-ai-search-engine-basically-just-pushes-fox-news/

TechCrunch: Qwant and Ecosia debut Staan, a European search index that aims to take on Big Tech. “European search engines Qwant and Ecosia said on Wednesday that they have both started serving search queries through an index they developed together, Staan, which aims to be a cheaper, more privacy-focused alternative to Google and Bing.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/08/techcrunch-qwant-and-ecosia-debut-staan-a-european-search-index-that-aims-to-take-on-big-tech/

TechCrunch: Google denies AI search features are killing website traffic. “Numerous studies indicate that the shift to AI search features and the use of AI chatbots are killing traffic to publishers’ sites. But Google on Wednesday denied that’s the case, at least in aggregate. Instead, the search giant says that total organic click volume from its search engine to websites has been […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/07/techcrunch-google-denies-ai-search-features-are-killing-website-traffic/

#politics #WebSearch #AI #Perplexity

'Trump Media announced on Wednesday that it began beta testing a new AI-powered search engine on its Truth Social platform. The new feature — called Truth Search AI — is made possible by a partnership with Perplexity.'

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trumps-truth-social-getting-own-193917421.html

Business Insider: Trump’s Truth Social is getting its own AI search engine — powered by Perplexity. “Trump Media announced on Wednesday that it began beta testing a new AI-powered search engine on its Truth Social platform. The new feature — called Truth Search AI — is made possible by a partnership with Perplexity.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/07/business-insider-trumps-truth-social-is-getting-its-own-ai-search-engine-powered-by-perplexity/

Blaugust Blogging: MiniGladys Has Replaced 90% Of My Google “Quick Reference” Searches – No AI Required.

I have been writing about and using Google for decades, so I get it -- it's super-easy to use Google for quick one-off searches like finding official web sites, getting a name spelled correctly, getting a quick topic overview, etc. But with Google's insistence on using water and electricity on AI to summarize...

https://www.calishat.com/2025/08/06/blaugust-blogging-minigladys-has-replaced-90-of-my-google-quick-reference-searches-no-ai-required/

Hey y’all. I mentioned recently that things were happening causing me to be late or missing with issues of ResearchBuzz. I wanted to spend a few minutes here to give you an update and tell you what I’m thinking about going forward. If your interest is minimal, the tl;dr is that my husband and I are buying a house with my mother and her husband. If you’d like more details, read on. If not, I’ll […]

https://researchbuzz.me/2025/08/06/life-update-researchbuzz-will-probably-be-rocky-for-a-few-months/

Search Engine Land: How Perplexity ranks content: Research uncovers core ranking factors and systems. “Want to know how content is scored, ranked, and in some cases, discarded by Perplexity? Independent researcher Metehan Yesilyurt analyzed browser-level interactions with Perplexity’s infrastructure to reveal how the AI answer engine evaluates and ranks content.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/06/how-perplexity-ranks-content-research-uncovers-core-ranking-factors-and-systems-search-engine-land/

TechCrunch: Perplexity accused of scraping websites that explicitly blocked AI scraping. “AI startup Perplexity is crawling and scraping content from websites that have explicitly indicated they don’t want to be scraped, according to internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare. On Monday, Cloudflare published research saying it observed the AI startup ignore blocks and hide its crawling and […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/05/techcrunch-perplexity-accused-of-scraping-websites-that-explicitly-blocked-ai-scraping/

Search Engine Land: Google still leads, but Gen Z and AI are reshaping search behavior: Survey. “Searching is no longer synonymous with ‘Googling.’ While traditional search engines still dominate for information retrieval, Americans are also turning to social media, AI tools, and ecommerce platforms, depending on what they’re searching for and who they are.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/05/google-still-leads-but-gen-z-and-ai-are-reshaping-search-behavior-survey-search-engine-land/

Search Engine Land: Danny Sullivan no longer the Google Search Liaison. “Danny Sullivan has always been a key figure in the search industry. As an independent journalist, he documented much of how search changed over the years. When he moved to Google, he was also very involved with the search community and industry. It is unclear if this new role will change all of that or not.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/04/search-engine-land-danny-sullivan-no-longer-the-google-search-liaison/

TechCrunch: Apple might be building its own AI ‘answer engine’. “Apple has formed a new team to build a ChatGPT-like app, according to according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. This team — reportedly called Answers, Knowledge, and Information — is working to build an ‘answer engine’ that can respond to questions using information from across the web.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/04/techcrunch-apple-might-be-building-its-own-ai-answer-engine/

The Verge: Reddit wants to be a search engine now. “Reddit knows that it has valuable data from actual people — it’s already reached deals with big AI companies like OpenAI and Google to share its data with them. But Reddit is also investing in improving its own search capabilities, and in its latest note to investors, CEO Steve Huffman says that the company is ‘concentrating our resources […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/03/the-verge-reddit-wants-to-be-a-search-engine-now/

Updated with support for setting `~/.kagi_session_token`. Much better!

https://norden.social/@czottmann/114960462999387730

Poynter: Google backs away from search result snippets that address falsehoods. “Google decided to retire ClaimReview, a program little known outside the fact-checking world that highlighted fact checks from reputable news sources like PolitiFact, The Washington Post Fact Checker or Factcheck.org. The program was international in scale, also surfacing results from fact-checkers like Spain’s […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/07/31/poynter-google-backs-away-from-search-result-snippets-that-address-falsehoods/

Ars Technica: Google tool misused to scrub tech CEO’s shady past from search. “Google is fond of saying its mission is to ‘organize the world’s information,’ but who gets to decide what information is worthy of organization? A San Francisco tech CEO has spent the past several years attempting to remove unflattering information about himself from Google’s search index, and the nonprofit […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/07/31/ars-technica-google-tool-misused-to-scrub-tech-ceos-shady-past-from-search/

Fast Company: Exclusive: Google could be reading your ChatGPT conversations. Concerned? You should be. “Google is indexing conversations with ChatGPT that users have sent to friends, families, or colleagues—turning private exchanges intended for small groups into search results visible to millions.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/07/31/exclusive-google-could-be-reading-your-chatgpt-conversations-concerned-you-should-be-fast-company/

Reuters: Russia’s Yandex rebounds from loss to post Q2 profit growth. “Russian internet giant Yandex bounced back from a first-quarter net loss to report a 34% year-on-year rise in second-quarter adjusted net profit to 30.4 billion roubles ($374.61 million), the company said on Tuesday.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/07/30/reuters-russias-yandex-rebounds-from-loss-to-post-q2-profit-growth/