Jonathan Blaine’s Post

If you’re part of the search community (or haven’t been living under a rock), you surely know Google was declared a monopoly not long ago by the DOJ, ahem… the US Department of Justice. But if this is news to you, let me catch you up! Long story short, Google was entering agreements with companies like Apple and device manufacturers to ensure they were the default search engine on most devices (phones, computers, etc.) These agreements limited competition and, of course, made Google dominate search devices, search advertising, and general search text advertising. What does this mean for the SEO community? Right now, it means nothing. While Google was declared a monopoly, the real impact depends on how the DOJ is going to act. Whether that is implementing regulations or well, tearing apart Google. Still, there are some really interesting takeaways from Eli Schwartz’s newsletter on the topic, which by the way you should subscribe to if you want to learn more about SEO in a more strategic and big-picture way: 1️⃣ Google is as dominant in search as everyone thinks it is: It has 89.4% of the total search market, which climbs to 94% on mobile. 2️⃣ It will be tough for a new search engine—even one as popular as ChatGPT—to take search share from Google even with a better product. People Google out of habit. 3️⃣ Google does not consider any other search engine a competitor, but it does view social media and vertical search engines like Amazon as competition. 4️⃣ Bing is as good as Google, but it can’t break through because of habits and Google’s default relationships. 5️⃣ Google’s default relationships with Apple and others allowed it to become the Google of today; without them, another engine might have been able to grow. 6️⃣ Google pays Apple, but Apple would likely still use Google as the default search engine even if they wouldn't. 7️⃣ Most users search through a default like Chrome or Safari and don’t go to Google 8️⃣ How Google works (specifically from the verdict.) Google uses AI to understand the intent of queries, then classifies all queries by a vertical, and decides which queries deserve freshness and which websites need to be refreshed. This is a hint of a crawl budget. 9️⃣ User data is Google's most powerful weapon, and according to the verdict, this feedback loop keeps Google ahead of every other entrant. 1️⃣0️⃣ According to Google and the court, we are still in the early days of AI, and LLM’s will not replace search. 1️⃣1️⃣ Google used its monopoly power to raise prices on advertisers, and when it conducts pricing tests, it doesn’t consider that advertisers may flock to a competitor. For anyone worried that SEO isn’t relevant anymore, here’s proof that Google is still a giant in the game. Despite all this legal drama, it’s clear ChatGPT, Bard, and other AI tools aren’t a threat to Google and (regardless of any penalties) Google will remain the dominant search engine. What are your thoughts on Google’s monopoly? Any predictions?

Over the course of my 20+ years doing media-related things, I have started, grown and shuttered numerous news and content sites. There are many days when I think about doing it again. I LOVE finding cool, interesting, useful, thought-provoking things and telling other people about them. But this recent investigation into product review + search practices sums up why substantive independent media is fast-becoming impossible to monetize in a meaningful way. Welcoming counterargument. I'd like to be wrong. Hat tip to Cale Guthrie Weissman for sharing this on X so I could discover this almost forensic look at the search landscape today. https://lnkd.in/eaXDK3Sb

Question How do search engines work, and what are the key factors they consider? Search engines operate through a three-step process: crawling, indexing, and ranking. Crawling involves search engine bots, often called spiders, scanning the internet to discover new and updated content. These bots follow links from known pages to new ones, collecting data as they go. Indexing is the next step, where the information gathered during crawling is organized and stored in a database. The index is a massive repository that contains all the web pages that the search engine knows about. When users perform a search, the search engine retrieves relevant information from this index. Ranking is the final step. When a user enters a query, the search engine uses complex algorithms to determine the order in which indexed pages appear in the search results. These algorithms consider hundreds of factors to assess the relevance and quality of each page. _________ 𝑵𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑? Do you want to acquire high-quality backlinks from well-known media and authoritative websites to improve your site's link profile? Collaborating can increase the chances of getting a positive response to your guest post proposal. PS: If you're seeking a link-building strategist who prioritizes results and values exceptional customer service, you'll find the link to each website where you can acquire backlinks provided below: https://lnkd.in/dEdrnfrA Feel free to send me a direct message. Initiating a conversation could be valuable. Certainly! If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.

McKenzie Sadeghi, a researcher at online misinformation tracking company Newsguard, says her team has seen an over 1000 percent increase in AI-generated content farms within the past year Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AQhDO #MetaEmployeesDug #SpewingDubiousPosts #Newspapers #Publishing #Advertising #Tags #PsychologicalWarfareCampaigns #InvestigatedNastinessRanging #PoliticalInfluenceOperations #OnlineBusinessModels

McKenzie Sadeghi, a researcher at online misinformation tracking company Newsguard, says her team has seen an over 1000 percent increase in AI-generated content farms within the past year Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AQiLe #MetaEmployeesDug #SpewingDubiousPosts #Newspapers #Publishing #Advertising #Tags #PsychologicalWarfareCampaigns #InvestigatedNastinessRanging #PoliticalInfluenceOperations #OnlineBusinessModels

What do we do when most traffic is paid traffic because that's the only way to get in front of a user within a distribution platform? The anti-paid narrative is one of those definitely not nice things all publishers should be up in arms over! Even if you have never paid for traffic in your history of publishing, I'm sure you have watched core algo updates with baited breath praying to come out unscathed...I'm sure you can also envision a pay to play future where some amount of marketing is necessary to maintain relevance. "...demonizing paid traffic is literally one of the worst things we could be doing. Paid traffic is the method by which publishers can take control of their future – they can successfully advertise whatever content they may have to audiences that want it, and then find ways to properly engage with those audiences such that they make more money from their users than they have to spend to get additional users."

Have you ever wondered how Google's little black box of news 📰 and the Top Stories algorithm works? Well, so have I. Fortunately for you bedroom dwellers, I've written a crisp 2,200 words on the topic: https://lnkd.in/eHxGRiGP You've got nothing better to do on a Friday night. So put your 2% session ale 🍺 down and get stuck into a little Navboost and Instant Glue jargon. #newsseo #publisherseo

Just bc 70% of “attributed” clicks come from search doesn’t mean search is where most decisions happen. The system has been gamed, with measurement regimes driving us toward the most expensive spend. Go figure, even though only 10% of our content consumption time is spent via search. But if we go to where our people are, how do we measure the impact of that hard to attribute 90% of their time? This is a good exploration.

In 2024, the search engine game has more options than your cable TV 📺. If you're tired of Google playing Big Brother 👁️, check out our lowdown on the search engine underdogs, from DuckDuckGo's nosy-free browsing to Ecosia's tree-planting quests. Dive into our guide to find out if you're missing out on the best of search engines. Check it out right here - https://lnkd.in/gpGmniiw

‼ Useful new tool ‼ Feeling weary of endless sponsored results and buzzword-heavy pages of nothingness? Enter Kagi. https://kagi.com/ A user-centered search tool, allowing you to select what you're looking for up front. Privacy-forward. Usability-forward. I've been experimenting with it and I'm genuinely quite impressed; I didn't even realize how much friction there is in sorting search results til this tool removed it. Plans start at $10/mo. ** I am in no way being compensated for this recommendation. I've been hearing frustrations about brand-name search results and figured I'd share this potential solution. ** If you try it out, tell me what you think!