Rajan Patel, the VP of Engineering for Search, said on X that Google is making “changes to ranking” to remove prediction content from showing up in the Google Search top‑stories and news sections.

This comes after some sites are posting “prediction” content—predicting that some sports trades may happen—though the events have not occurred yet. Those “stories” are appearing in the news section as if they have actually happened.

Matt Mikle shared a number of examples on X since the beginning of the year. When you search for certain sports teams or players, fake news shows up. The truth is that these items are labeled on the site’s “predictions” category, but nowhere in the title or image of the post does it indicate that it is a prediction. You have to click through, scroll to the bottom of the page, and discover that the piece is not news but a prediction that may never happen.

Rajan Patel on X:

“This is definitely an opportunity for us to improve and we're working on it. We make changes to ranking thoughtfully and after considerable experimentation and analysis, so it won't be a quick‑fix type of thing but it is something we're prioritizing.”

— Rajan Patel (@rajanpatel), January 16, 2026

So we won’t see changes tomorrow, but Google is “prioritizing” its efforts to resolve this.

The issue may even warrant a manual action under Google’s misleading content policy, which states: “We don't allow preview content that misleads users to engage with it by promising details which aren't reflected in the underlying content.”

Matt Mikle on X:

“Prediction articles in themselves aren’t bad as long as they say so in the title. But these titles make it seem like the move or trade already happened, which is pure click‑bait.”

— Matt Mikle (@Moneyman2626), January 16, 2026

A forum discussion about the problem is also taking place on X.