👀 Weekend Update: Why It’d Suck To Be Google’s Favorite Website

Happy weekend nerds,

Welcome back to the newsletter that’ll get to the bottom of this one:

Say it ain’t so.

Here’s what’s good this week:

→ First Impressions: ChatGPT Search Arrives On The Scene 🗣️
→ Why It’d Suck To Be Google’s Favorite Website 👀
→ YouTube’s New AI Tools🤖
→ more, obviously 💬

But first…

​This Week's Video 🗣️🎙️​

In today’s video, I’m back with a net worth update, reflecting nearly four years of financial tracking and evolving priorities. From stocks to real estate and cryptocurrencies, each component plays a role in my overall financial landscape. As I break down my most recent numbers, I highlight what’s changed and my thoughts on navigating this financial journey. So tune in for more!

​YouTube​

AI Insight 🤖

→ Probably the top story this week, NGL, but OpenAI’s proper Google competitor, ChatGPT Search / SearchGPT, is officially here. Basically, it comes in the form of a “Search” button that users can toggle before entering their prompt. And, of course, there are takes:

- Sam A says it’s the best feature since the launch of ChatGPT itself
- Goran Majic, on the other hand, says the Search results are “nonsense” and this stems from the fact that “GPT does not evaluate real data, but only performs pattern recognition”
- Marie Haynes noticed that ChatGPT is now “prompting users to add a Chrome extension that makes ChatGPT your default search engine”
- Charles Floate shared his early reflections on what it seems to prefer and prioritize
- @NicheSiteLady says “Bye, Google 👋”

If you’re looking for an article w/ a solid rundown on the ChatGPT announcement, Bloomberg does a pretty good job.

→ If you’re curious about where Meta’s at with its AI, here’s the rundown.

→ NGL, I’m sure this “How to appear in ChatGPT search results without training their AI” will appeal to some of you nerds.

TLDR; “as long as sites exclude OAI-SearchBot in their robots exclusion file, their site content will be eligible to appear in ChatGPT search results.”​​

What’s Going Down @ Google 📊

→ Speaking of AI & Google, AI summaries are finally on their way to Google Maps, “including review summaries, ask about this place and new ways to search for ideas.”

→ On a scale of 1 to insanely, how frustrating is it that Google AI “has quietly released an SEO consulting service.” It’s not particularly good advice, but given Google’s stated position on SEO and AI, I’d call it “insanely” frustrating.

→ The most 2024 headline of all year: Google Says Search Ranking Update Coming Soon But HCU Victims May Not Recover. At least they’re admitting it now.

→ Anyway, here’s a look at the spooky volatility.

→ This article, “Gaslit By Google?”, is another scathing takedown from an attendee of the Google Creator Conversation. This joins the banger titles covered last letter, like I Attended Google’s Creator Conversation Event, And It Turned Into A Funeral and I Drank the Kool-Aid at the 2024 Google Web Creator Summit.

Even by Google’s standard the L vibes emanating from this “conversation” are wild.

→ Also, the most predictable thing in the world: Reddit convos about these articles are outranking the article itself, lol:

→ Performance Max Asset Groups now have a Segmentation function in Google Ads, allowing you to “slice data directly in the Table View, allowing for deeper analysis of campaign performance.”

Social Media Round-up 📲

→ YouTube has expanded its AI-generated video summaries globally for English content, re-invigorated its mobile Studio app, and added AI tools for comment management, among other things. New chatbot, too.

→ Obviously, we’ve all heard a lot about the Google - Reddit situationship (is it a marriage, yet? Idk). This article looks at some of the unexpected downsides of being Google’s favorite website. SEOs out there are all saying “Well THAT sounds like a pretty good problem to have, TBH,” but the article makes a good point…

TLDR; Reddit’s recent profitability is “at Google’s mercy,” and any day Google could “start showing fewer Reddit links, or perhaps start summarizing more of them with AI — it paid for access to all that data, after all…” and that’s not not a problem.

→ With the obligatory Neil Patel trigger warning, this is genuinely useful data on platform engagement by age group.

Jacky Chou​
Founder of Indexsy
hello@indexsy.com
Let's Connect on Twitter👇

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