Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 18h

Yep, the March and June core updates were powerful -> Sistrix: among the 10 UK news sites with the highest search visibility scores, six saw double-digit percentage drops in Google search visibility since January

pressgazette.co.uk/media-audien...

4

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 1d

Just another data point regarding the % of traffic from AI Search -> Raptive explains that traffic from ChatGPT makes up just .2% of traffic to its network of sites (5.2K sites as of April 2025). That's .2 with a decimal.

raptive.com/blog/our-tak... via @tomcritchlow.com

4

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 1d

The post includes info about:

*Titles, Descriptions, and H1s
*Q&A formats
*Lists and tables
*Common mistakes that hurt AI visibility
*How schema can help
*How to write clear, structured content for AI Search
*Formatting and punctuation
*How to optimize content for snippet selection

And more...

Microsoft Ad Blog Posts On How To Optimize For AI Search Answers

The Microsoft Advertising blog posted about how to optimize for AI Search Answers. I thought it was weird to see this on the Microsoft Advertising blog and not on the Bing Search blog, because (a) it ...

www.seroundtable.com

1 1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 1d

Don't let the location of this post fool you (Microsoft Advertising blog), it's written by Krishna Madhavan who is a PhD that's part of Bing's team (not ad team). He covers a number of important topics for improving visibility in AI Search

Microsoft Ad Blog Posts On How To Optimize For AI Search Answers

The Microsoft Advertising blog posted about how to optimize for AI Search Answers. I thought it was weird to see this on the Microsoft Advertising blog and not on the Bing Search blog, because (a) it ...

www.seroundtable.com

1 2 2

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 2d

Was your YouTube channel terminated? We heard this was coming -> Starting today, some previously terminated YouTube creators will have the opportunity to request a new YouTube channel

"Over the next several weeks, eligible creators will begin to see an option to request a new channel when they..."

Second chances on YouTube

blog.youtube

1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 2d

Again, the AI platforms will be evolving their core systems to deal with spam. Expect a lot of changes there... and I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of that (in case you are thinking about tricking LLMs).

"ASCII smuggling is an attack where special characters from the Tags Unicode block..."

Google won’t fix new ASCII smuggling attack in Gemini

Google has decided not to fix a new ASCII smuggling attack in Gemini that could be used to trick the AI assistant into providing users with fake information, alter the model's behavior, and silently p...

www.bleepingcomputer.com

1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 2d

Implementing (crazy) tactics to rank in LLMs? Interesting, Google won't fix the issue (and Gemini is susceptible to the hidden commands for now), yet ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude proved secure against the hidden text -> Google won’t fix new ASCII smuggling attack in Gemini

Google won’t fix new ASCII smuggling attack in Gemini

Google has decided not to fix a new ASCII smuggling attack in Gemini that could be used to trick the AI assistant into providing users with fake information, alter the model's behavior, and silently p...

www.bleepingcomputer.com

1 1 2

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 3d

Here's what the publisher-friendly aio looked like for the recipe:

1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 3d

The most important news IMO is that 'Frankenstein recipes' weren't displayed here where AI Overviews mashed together (pun intended) steps from several recipes. @inspiredtaste.net has been all over this from the start. Their recipes were being mashed together with others and presented as one recipe.

Google Testing Improved Recipe AI Overviews

Google is testing a new, more publisher-friendly version of the AI Overviews for recipe results. The new design has the recipe cards at the top, citations at the bottom and a shorter AI response.

www.seroundtable.com

1 1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 3d

AI Mode expands again -> AI Mode is now available in more languages and locations around the world (launching in 35+ new languages and 40+ new countries)

"Now, AI Mode will be available in over 200 countries and territories total, including many across Europe."

AI Mode is now available in more languages and locations around the world.

Starting today, we’re bringing AI Mode in Google Search to more people around the world, launching in more than 35 new languages and over 40 new countries and territorie…

blog.google

1 1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 4d

You call someone's actions "disingenuous" and "not appropriate" and then wonder why someone would come back at you? Seriously, go read back through your comments to me. And the SEL news team should 100% understand what other content will be weaved in there. It's not ads... Bad analogy from you.

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 4d

More AI Mode promotion. Google really wants people using AI Mode... Again, it's hard to change user behavior. Ask average users out there how they feel about AI Mode, apps in ChatGPT, and more. Let's see what sticks...

www.seroundtable.com/google-ask-a...

1 1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 4d

BTW, apps are live in ChatGPT. You can try them now. Zillow was pretty clunky for me to start... It just kept spinning and refreshing with no results. I'll try more soon. :)

1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 4d

There are similarities b/t OpenAI's vision of an AI Graph & Facebook's Social Graph. And always important to remember that users will dictate if it's successful or not. Nobody knows if users will like apps within ChatGPT, if they will know how to summon them, use them, etc. Security is a risk too.

OpenAI’s platform play

Facebook's social graph went down in the flames of Cambridge Analytica. Will the AI graph fare any better? PLUS: Our new approach to links

www.platformer.news

1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 4d

"Disingenuous"? "Throws under the bus"? WTH are you talking about? And btw, where is the news team commenting or replying about all of this? Why are they not saying anything? That's weak. Someone at SEL should have commented about this or replied. Come on...

1 2

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

"Realbox Next". Yep, I see it in Canary -> Chrome’s New Tab Page Search Box Is Getting a Big Redesign, and Google Calls It ‘Next’. It's more like a prompt box than search bar.

"The Tall version, in particular, features a two-row design that resembles a chat or compose box."

Chrome’s New Tab Page Search Box Is Getting a Big Redesign, and Google Calls It ‘Next’

Google Chrome is testing new Tall and Compact search box layouts on the New Tab Page, with smart prompts for planning, learning, and more.

windowsreport.com

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

"Our pilot partners–Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, Spotify and Zillow are also available today in markets where their services are offered starting in English. More pilot partners will launch later this year and we expect to bring apps to EU users soon."

openai.com/index/introd...

1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

Big news from OpenAI: You can now chat with apps directly in ChatGPT

"Developers can start building them today with the new Apps SDK, available in preview. Apps in ChatGPT fit naturally into conversation. You can discover them when ChatGPT suggests one at the right time or by calling them by name."

Introducing apps in ChatGPT and the new Apps SDK

A new generation of apps you can chat with and the tools for developers to build them.

openai.com

1 2

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

In addition, those articles hit the News tab, Discover, etc. Surprising he had no idea how that works tbh. So yes, those are news articles to Google (based on how Google's systems work). Again, bad look.

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

Sounds like they botched the whole thing. Now it's not under SearchBot, but under another author called Insight Engine. And the articles show up on the homepage and in the core SEO category. And it initially said "trained on contributor content". Really bad look for SEL IMO.

1 1

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

If you finally deleted that disavow file, good for you. But you should double check to make sure you REALLY deleted it (from all GSC properties). My latest post covers more about hidden disavow files, how that can happen, how Google handles disavow files, how subdomains are handled, and more.

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

Have you deleted your disavow file? Are you sure it's gone? -> Hidden Disavow Files in GSC – Yet another reason Google just needs to remove the Disavow Tool already

I cover a situation where a new client had deleted their disavow file a while ago, but I found a disavow file in other GSC properties.

Hidden Disavow Files in GSC – Yet another reason Google just needs to remove the Disavow Tool already

Glenn Gabe explains how hidden disavow files in Google Search Console can easily be missed and how that can negatively impact the search performance of a site.

www.gsqi.com

2

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

Semrush commented on my LinkedIn post about the AI-generated content on SEL via SearchBot. Why are they commenting and not someone from SEL?? Oh boy -> "We're proud of what we built and what it's helping us to produce." www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

3 7

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

In case you missed this, I noticed Search Engine Land now is publishing fully AI-generated content via SearchBot, which was trained on all of SEL's content. I wonder how many contributors know their content is training some AI bot for SEL... Also, you have to love the bio.......

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 7d

Ah, Search Engine Land, now with fully AI-generated content written by SearchBot (which was trained on SEL content)

I wonder if all contributors of SEL know that SearchBot is training on their writing? Oof.

searchengineland.com/guides/robot...

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

I also cover how Google handles disavow files (by GSC property), and how subdomains are handled. You might be surprised how this all works...

And then I include a section about how Google can clear up the confusion -- BY JUST REMOVING THE DISAVOW TOOL ALREADY. :)

www.gsqi.com/marketing-bl...

Glenn Gabe @glenngabe.bsky.social · 5d

Have you deleted your disavow file? Are you sure it's gone? -> Hidden Disavow Files in GSC – Yet another reason Google just needs to remove the Disavow Tool already

I cover a situation where a new client had deleted their disavow file a while ago, but I found a disavow file in other GSC properties.

Hidden Disavow Files in GSC – Yet another reason Google just needs to remove the Disavow Tool already

Glenn Gabe explains how hidden disavow files in Google Search Console can easily be missed and how that can negatively impact the search performance of a site.

www.gsqi.com

1 2