Google has just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same again.
//Summary - Level-C2//
Google's recent algorithm updates, driven by AI integration, have significantly altered search results, often favouring large, user-generated content platforms like Reddit over independent sites. While intended to enhance content quality and user experience, these changes have devastated small publishers, leading to severe traffic declines and layoffs. Critics argue that this shift grants Google excessive control over its internet visibility and market dynamics.
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Over the past two years, a series of updates to Google Search have amounted to a dramatic overhaul of the Internet's most powerful tool, complete with an unprecedented AI feature. Will Google save the web or destroy it?
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If you've ever typed "air purifier reviews" into Google, you've probably been looking for the kind of content you'll find on HouseFresh.com. The site was launched in 2020 by Gisele Navarro and her husband, based on a decade of experience writing about indoor air quality products. They filled their basement with air purifiers, conducted rigorous science-based tests, and wrote articles to help consumers cut through the marketing hype.
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HouseFresh is an example of a thriving industry of independent publishers producing precisely the original content that Google wants to encourage. Indeed, soon after the site's launch, the tech giant began showing HouseFresh at the top of its search results. The site grew into a thriving business with 15 full-time employees. Navarro had big plans for the future.
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Then, in September 2023, Google made one of a series of significant updates to the algorithm that powers its search engine.
"It decimated us," says Navarro. "Suddenly, the search terms that used to bring up HouseFresh were sending people to big lifestyle magazines that don't even test the products. The articles are full of information that I know is false.
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The second Google algorithm update came in March and was even more punishing. HouseFresh's thousands of daily visitors dwindled to just a few hundred. "We just got crushed," says Navarro. HouseFresh has had to lay off most of its staff in recent weeks. Unless something changes, she says, the site is doomed.
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A Google spokesperson tells the BBC that the company only changes Search after rigorous testing confirms that the change will be helpful to users. The company also gives website owners help, resources, and the opportunity to provide feedback on their search rankings.
Google is adamant that the changes will benefit the web and that changes to the search algorithm are just the beginning.
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Last week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stood before a crowd at the company's annual developer conference and announced one of the search engine's most significant moves.
In the future, Pichai said, Google Search would provide its AI-generated answers to many of your questions, a feature called "AI Overviews" that's already been rolled out to users in the US. "The result is a product that does the work for you," Pichai said. "Google Search is generative AI at the scale of human curiosity."
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AI Overviews is just the dramatic changes Google has made to its core product over the past two years. The company says its latest efforts to revamp Search will usher in an exciting new era of technology and help solve many problems plaguing the web.
But critics say the opposite may be true. As Google tweaks its algorithms and uses AI to move from a search engine to a search and answer engine, some fear the result could be nothing short of extinction for the companies that make much of your favourite content.
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One thing is sure: Google's work will profoundly impact what we see online.
The changes are happening because Google recognises that the web has a problem. If you've ever used a search engine, you've seen it yourself. The Internet is dominated by a school of website building known as "search engine optimisation", or SEO, techniques designed to tune articles and web pages for better recognition by Google search.
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Google even offers SEO tips, tools, and advice to website owners. For the millions of businesses that rely on search engine mechanics, SEO can be an inevitable game.
The problem is that SEO can be abused. Enterprising website owners have realised that sometimes you can make more money by creating content that pleases Google's algorithms rather than the people they're supposed to serve.
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Google's efforts to address this aren't always successful. If you've ever been frustrated by what comes up when you search for something like "best women's trainers", you know the problem.
Often, the results for popular search terms are cluttered with sites that offer little practical information but lots of advertising and links to retailers that give the publishers a cut of the profits. What's often lost is what you're probably looking for when you open Google: information from knowledgeable people passionate about their subject.
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Google's war on spammy search results has intensified. In 2022, the company issued a "helpful content update" to its algorithm, designed to weed out content created solely to rank higher in Search.
Google issued another update in September 2023 and a third algorithm tweak in March this year. According to Google, the result is "45% less low-quality, unoriginal content in search results." It could be considered a resounding success.
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"Our latest updates aim to connect people with helpful, satisfying and original content from a wide range of sites across the web," a Google spokesperson tells the BBC.
"As we work to improve search, we'll continue to focus on driving valuable traffic to sites and supporting a healthy, open web."
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But the updates have also had some surprising consequences. For example, data from analytics tool Semrush suggests that New York Magazine's website has lost 32% of its Google search traffic in the last six months, while GQ.com has shrunk by 26%.
The data shows that Urban Dictionary, a popular crowdsourced dictionary of English slang, lost around 18 million page views, more than half of its search traffic.
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OprahDaily.com was down almost 58%. (Semrush is an industry-standard tool, but its figures are third-party estimates that may differ from a site's internal measurements. Semrush's data only measures traffic coming specifically from Google searches).
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A spokesperson for New York Magazine said the results were incomplete and didn't reflect the company's internal analysis. Representatives for GQ, Oprah Daily and Urban Dictionary did not respond to requests for comment when this article was published.
However, experts and more than half a dozen media executives and website owners told the BBC that the broad trends in the data were all too real.
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Instead of these sites, there's one platform you'll see much more of on Reddit. According to Semrush, Reddit has seen a spike equivalent to a 126% increase in traffic from Google searches.
The company is already feeling the benefits. Reddit announced its first quarterly results since becoming a public company in March 2024. Revenue totalled $243m (£191m), up a staggering 48% on the previous year.
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"The increase in traffic Reddit is seeing is unprecedented on the internet," says Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy and research at marketing agency Amsive and a celebrity in the SEO world. "Cooking content, adult content, video games, gardening, fashion, it's all on Reddit."
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A Reddit representative declined to comment.
Reddit isn't the only winner from Google's recent algorithm updates. Semrush data shows that other user-generated sites such as Quora and Instagram saw similar astronomical increases, and there were also impressive spikes at LinkedIn and Wikipedia.
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In some ways, Google was following a trend. Over the past few years, savvy internet users have started adding the word "Reddit" to the end of their web searches, hoping it will bring up people sharing their honest opinions rather than sites trying to game Google's system. Google's public liaison for Search, Danny Sullivan, has noticed this.
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"We've found that people often want to learn from the experiences of others, so we surface content from hundreds of forums and other communities across the web," says a Google spokesperson. "Our agreement with Reddit did not include ranking their content higher in search."
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But Google's results are a zero-sum game. If the search engine sends traffic to one site, it must take it away from another, and the effect on the losers in this Reddit equation is just as dramatic.
"Google is just waging war on publisher sites," says Ray. "It's almost as if Google has designed an algorithm update to target small bloggers specifically. I've spoken to so many people who have just had everything wiped out," she says.
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Several website owners and search experts who spoke to the BBC said there's been a general shift in Google results towards sites with big established brands and away from small and independent sites, which seems utterly unrelated to the quality of the content.
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The change was immediate for Daniel Hart, editor-in-chief of UK-based entertainment news site Ready Steady Cut. "After Google's September update, our traffic immediately halved, and it's only worsened. The Reddit stuff, in particular, has just blitzed us, but we're also being replaced by spam sites stealing our content.
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"It makes no sense," says Hart. The revenue loss forced Ready Steady Cut to reduce its 20 writers and editors team to four in the following months.
A Google spokesperson said the company's recent updates have dealt a significant blow to spammy, unoriginal content. Google closely monitors evolving abusive practices that lead to low-quality information in searches.
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After Google's updates, the company offered tips to site owners and said there was a path to recovery. Hart says the site hired consultants and pivoted to focus on Google's recommendations, spending sleepless nights working to update the site.
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After nearly a year, none of it helped. "I wasted the last eight months of my life trying to follow Google's advice," he says. "Google claims they want content from people with first-hand experience and helpful context, and we're a huge example of that. It's just heartbreaking."
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However, according to the website owners and content creators who spoke to the BBC, the most significant offence is AI-generated responses.
Google argues that its AI summaries in search results will benefit websites. In a blog post, Liz Reid, Google's head of Search, wrote that the company's AI search results increase the traffic Google sends to websites.
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"AI summaries get more clicks than if the page had appeared as a traditional web listing for that query," Reid wrote. "As we expand this experience, we'll focus on sending valuable traffic to publishers and creators."
However, the company hasn't shared any data to back up this claim, and many site owners and industry experts worry that the opposite effect is just as likely.
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Katie Berry, owner of cleaning advice website Housewife How-Tos, believes users will stop searching when Google's AI answers their questions.
The AI search results "answer questions superficially and often incorrectly, so people don't visit my site," Berry says. According to Berry, her site's traffic dropped by 70% after Google's 2022 update and fell even more after Google began testing its new AI.
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"My site had more traffic in the first few months than it does now, even though my rankings haven't changed that much," she says.
Others, such as travel writer David Leiter, say the potential consequences are particularly problematic because they feel Google's AI is outright stealing their content.
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For example, Leiter says a search for "Best Slot Canyons Near Las Vegas" used to bring up an article on his World Travel Guy website. But a search earlier this week brought up an AI-generated answer at the top of the page instead.
"Google has replaced my article with the giant AI overview box, and it spits out an answer that is mostly wrong," says Leiter. "
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The first four places it lists are not even slot canyons. A slot canyon is a specific type with a narrow passage, but the AI doesn't understand that. It just lists random canyons and even a hiking trail instead".
The AI overview did include a link to Leiter's article, but only if you took the time to click on a tiny arrow at the bottom of the result. Leiter says he doesn't think he'll get more traffic as the top search result. In any case, that's cold comfort. Leiter says Google's recent algorithm updates have wiped out 95% of his traffic.
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Google acknowledges that AI tools can provide inaccurate information, but it constantly works to improve the results. A Google spokesperson says AI summaries are generally taken from multiple web pages, not single sources, and the answers are designed to highlight relevant links.
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The spokesperson says publishers can use a unique tag on their web pages to control whether or not AI Summaries include a link to their pages. However, once an AI model has scraped your content, it may be impossible to remove the data.
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Media executives aren't the only ones questioning Google's internet control. Google is simultaneously fighting numerous antitrust lawsuits against different parts of its sprawling £1.7tn ($2.2tn) business.
The company is awaiting a decision in a case brought by the US Department of Justice. The case accuses Google of operating an illegal monopoly in the search engine industry. If the tech giant loses the case, penalties could range from massive fines to a forced company break-up.
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Google, which controls more than 90% of the world's search business, argues that its success is due solely to its superior products. A Google spokesman says the company faces "immense competition", and people have many choices when searching for information online.
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"I understand that Google doesn't owe us or anyone else traffic," says HouseFresh's Navarro. "But Google controls the roads. If they decide tomorrow that the roads don't go to a whole town, that town dies. That's too much power to shrug your shoulders and say, 'Oh well, it's just the free market,'" she says.
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"I could just try to work in the offline world, just pack it all up and run a shop somewhere," says Navarro. "Maybe it was naive to think we could be successful just by making original content people want to read."
Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-how-googles-new-algorithm-will-shape-your-internet
IOS18 is here! Moreover, "Apple products will be equipped with dangerous AI." While it will be convenient, your privacy will be exposed! "Is this okay?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta1tBXISep8&t=604s
At the recent WWDC2024, Apple announced the future of
AI 'Apple Intelligence' that will be included in Apple products
and IOS18 were announced in full!
The announcement was met with rave reviews on TV and YouTube! Everyone is in a welcoming mood. But from a security point of view, I didn't see it that way.
AI analyses and stores all the information you enter into your Apple products (e.g., iPhone, iPad, MacBook), the content of your emails, and other interactions.
Convenience and danger go hand in hand. In other words, too much convenience is too much danger. Apple says it will not collect information.
But is this the best way to guarantee safety?
Even Elon Musk said: 'It's a severe security breach! We are considering banning the use of these devices within Tesla.
It's okay for private use.
It's undoubtedly a good idea to refrain from using Apple products to manipulate confidential company information for a while.
What is AI? How should we face it?
It seems to me that it is time to think deeply about it.
[A PC that will change the world has arrived] AI-equipped PCs are amazing! The world's most easy-to-understand explanation of Copilot+PC! [If you don't know, you'll make a mistake when choosing a PC?]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=davj0u6t50M
18 June 2024 Finally, the AI-powered PC Copilot+PC will be unleashed!
You'll be surprised at how awesome it is!
1) Copilot will become an app, and GPT4o can talk to it!
2) Recall allows you to save and search the contents of your PC in chronological order →. This function was changed to be selectable later during installation due to user requests that it was too dangerous.
(3) Real-time simultaneous translation in 40 languages.
(4) Adopt snapdragon x elite with NPU! Performance has exploded!
(5) Video editing and image processing are now possible!
Generative AI is revolutionising the search market, which is why Perplexity, Google's competitor, is making 40% monthly strides.
https://www.sbbit.jp/article/cont1/142387
The emergence of generative AI is about to revolutionise the search market. In the US, traffic from searches for Perplexity, an AI search engine competing with Google, is increasing by 40% per month. It has been revealed in Japan that the company is also earnestly entering the market in cooperation with Softbank. In response, Google is also expected to roll out Search Generative Experiences (SGE), a search system that uses generative AI, to all users as soon as possible. Many digital marketers are interested in how the increase in Search with generative AI will affect Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). What will happen to the search market with the advent of generative AI?
What is Perplexity AI? A thorough explanation of how to use the Japanese-compatible AI search engine and its fees
https://www.ai-souken.com/article/perplexity-ai-explanation
Perplexity AI is a service that provides an innovative AI-powered search engine and a chatbot that utilises cutting-edge natural language processing and machine learning technology.
This article comprehensively explains a wide range of information about Perplexity AI, from essential functions to advanced usage. We will explain in detail the critical points for using Perplexity AI, such as how to use it, its benefits, its fee structure, comparison with other AI services, and how to use it in Japanese.
We will also introduce the features of Perplexity AI, which combines OpenAI's "GPT model" with a search engine to present citations from reliable sources and accurately answer users' questions.
51% of Japanese feel "excited about AI" ~ Ipsos AI Awareness Survey Report 2023 covering 31 countries around the world ~
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000006.000122181.html
Web search is now in the AI-driven era! What is Generative AI "Perplexity"? Next-generation conversational AI search engine
https://expact.jp/perplexity_ai/
Perplexity AI, released in December 2022, is the world's first conversational AI search engine. When a user asks a question, the AI collects information from the Internet and generates an answer based on the results in natural sentences.
It can be used from a smartphone browser, does not require a login, and is more straightforward than ChatGPT. This characteristic allows Perplexity AI to be used as a tool for users to efficiently obtain information and verify its reliability. The URL of the underlying website is shown in the answer, so the reliability of the information can be confirmed.
Explaining the status of AI (artificial intelligence) adoption in Japan, the need for adoption, and use cases by industry
https://aismiley.co.jp/ai_news/ai-adoption-status-and-use-cases-in-japan/
According to information released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan's percentage of "AI active players" is the lowest among the seven countries: China, the United States, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, and Japan.
"AI active players" here refer to companies that have "replaced some business processes with AI" or "piloted AI in some business processes" and have evaluated their own AI adoption as "generally successful."
[Urgent] Masayoshi Son takes on a historic gamble. Fighting against Google! Partnering with the latest AI (Perplexity, Softbank, Softbank Group)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfaLIYJwINU
AI SEO (Artificial Intelligence Search Engine Optimization) refers to efforts to improve search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
