Meta Cracks Down on Scam Ads with Legal Action
At some point the AI Search platforms will build stronger anti-spam systems, have manual actions, take legal action against spammers, etc. I have covered that before. Here is how an established platform like Meta continues to tackle problems like that. ChatGPT and others will need to evolve -> Meta Takes Legal Action Against Scam Advertisers What Meta is doing: *Fighting Celeb-Bait Scams *Exposing Subscription Fraud and Cloaking *Combating Abusive Practices *Our Ongoing Approach to Stopping Fraud https://t.co/jbrnEovQdX
ChatGPT Lets Users Critique Ads, Pressuring Brands
OpenAI's @fidjissimo explained on the ACCESS Podcast with @alexeheath that the ChatGPT ad experience is will be unique since users could even ask ChatGPT about the ads running. The model will not know about the ads but a user could...
Gemini Now Pulls Insights From Google Chat History
In the race to Jarvis, now Gemini can tap into Google Chat -> Google Chat is now a data source for Gemini, making your message history actually useful "In a new update on the Workspace blog, Google announced that Chat is...
Perplexity Computer Orchestrates 19 AI Models for Automated
Only for Max subscribers now, but should expand to Pro in the coming weeks -> Perplexity launches Perplexity Computer, “a general-purpose digital worker” that can route work across 19 AI models, available initially for Max subscribers "There are two aspects...
Major Brands Launch ChatGPT Ads, Activity Rises
Update on ChatGPT Ads: Adthena is seeing an uptick in activity. Their CMO posted more examples this afternoon on LinkedIn of ads they are seeing and pinged me there. Advertisers spotted so far: 🔹 Best Buy 🔹 AT&T 🔹 Pottery Barn...
Google to Display Rival Vertical Searches in Europe
Will soon be rolled out across Europe -> Google plans to test search changes in Europe, displaying results from competing vertical search services next to its own, seeking to avoid EU fines "The previously unreported changes to its search...
Reddit's Coupon Surge Still Lacks Valid, Fresh Codes
Another area where Reddit is surging: COUPONS -> Reddit: A Major Surge in Coupon Search Visibility in 2025 From the post: For the 59 query brands covered by both Reddit and CouponBirds: *Reddit provides valid coupon codes for 25% (15 brands). *CouponBirds provides valid...
Wix Bookings Now Bookable Directly From Google Search
New Wix partnership with Google -> Google Search, Maps, and AI mode can book services through Wix websites "Wix’s new partnership with Google will allow businesses using Wix Bookings to have their services, pricing, and real-time availability shown in Google Search,...
February Discover Update Extends Past Expected Timeline
We are now almost three weeks into the February Discover core update. Google said it could take up to two weeks to rollout. We are beyond that now. It's a tougher one to track since Discover data is personalized and...
Shopify Adds ChatGPT to Merchant Ad Network
Well, that's interesting -> Shopify Shows Ads on Behalf of Its Merchants in ChatGPT "Shopify has started arranging for ads to promote its merchants to run in ChatGPT, the company told merchants, in an expansion of Shopify’s existing ad network. The...
Big $400M Firm Forgets Favicon, Obvious SEO Slip
$400M software company. No favicon in the SERPs. Took me 3 seconds to find the problem. 🤣🤦♂️ https://t.co/KAHXJpjGXY
Health Sites Suffer Core Update; Multiple SEO Factors at Play
Quick update: Some of the biggest health and medical sites on the web got hammered by the December 2025 core update and some have dropped even more with the recent volatility. That said, most that dropped have many moving parts...
AI-Generated Review Spam Overwhelms Feeds—Proceed with Caution
Interesting find and I wasn't even looking for it... Pathetic over-optimized review shows up in my feedly. Gobs of content. Too much. No author listed... Sets off my internal "this looks AI-generated content" flag. Check the page, yep, 99% probability...
Sitemaps Don't Guarantee Indexing Without Valuable Content
Sitemaps aren't a directive. You still need to prove a site's worth to Google... -> From John: "One part of sitemaps is that Google has to be keen on indexing more content from the site. If Google's not convinced that...
Reddit Stock Slides as Search Traffic Shifts, Users Stagnate
And again, one turn of the knob by Google, and visits from Search plummets -> Why Reddit’s Stock Plunged 42% In Past Five Weeks "The number of Reddit daily users in the U.S. who are “logged in” to the service—meaning...
Google Shifts to Continuous Core Updates, Boosting 2026 Volatility
I shared some thoughts yesterday about what we are seeing. Would be great if Google would provide some info... I feel like they are moving to continuous updating of systems (which would align with what they said about 'more core...
ChatGPT Ads Intrude, Miss Targeting, Threaten User Retention
More examples of ChatGPT ads in the wild. The experience didn't sound great for @EmilyForlini. And the targeting might be off -> I'm Seeing Ads in ChatGPT, and OpenAI Broke Its Promise. Here's What They Look Like From Emily: "On mobile,...
Own Your Digital Space: Keep a Website in 2026
It's the digital form of "Renting vs. Owning" :) Yep, you own it, you can do what you want with it, you can monetize how you want to, and you won't wake up one morning to find some network removed...