The December 2025 Core Update continues to roll out, as one does pretty much every year around this time. Some are seeing results early but there hasn't been a major stir or fuss from the SEO community. That might be because it is somewhat harder to judge early outcomes of a core update based on page ranking or page traffic while these metrics are being effected by the transition to generative AI results and search behaviours. At least it's easier to measure now that Google Search Console is reporting fresher results again. Meanwhile, Google is assuring publishers and SEOs that the web is thriving. They are clearly optimizing the look and output of generative AI responses in both AI Overviews and AI Mode to include more links back to content that either informed or is quoted in the generative response. This optimization appears to be leading to better converting clicks, according to both Google and a report from SEMrush. It is also leading to changes in search user behaviours as searchers adapt to generative AI results appearing more regularly. The SEMrush study showed how those AI Overviews first trickled into results, then surged in the summer, before slightly declining to more regular appearances based on search intent in the autumn.

Meanwhile, several Google spokespersons spent a lot of energy in the past few weeks assuring web marketers that SEO is the way to optimize for generative results and that AIO, GEO, and other acronyms are just evolutions of age old SEO techniques rather than inventions of new ways of doing. Google is introducing two new AI features, DISCO and CC. DISCO will help users make instant apps based on data found in the open Chrome Tabs they're working in. The other is CC, an AI informed morning scroll that will include personal, business, news, calendar, and other items drawn from the myriad of Google services most people use. Google reaffirms the need to keep meta data solid in both render and response formats because their crawlers can't keep up with so many goshdarn JavaScrips that need unpacking in an AI driven universe to unpack them. We talk about a lot more Googley stuff too but, speaking of packing, Donald Trump's Truth Social is getting involved in a fusion nuclear generation scheme that might literally leave Trump with what amounts to an unlimited source of power. And on that, all of a sudden it's time for a much needed winter's break. We're back sometime before the New Year with the Webcology 2025 WTF Happened Year End Revue - staring a cast of veteran SEOs looking backwards and forwards and whatever's in between. Happy Holidays to everyone out there. Be save, be well, be loved, and rank well.

It's the middle of December and throughout the Web, all the crawlers are stirring and AI Bots getting fed. The products displayed on folk's sites with due care, in hopes that St. Googlishous would bring traffic there. Suddenly somewhere in GA4 there arose such a clatter, I had to get off of my ass to see what was the matter. And then what from Schwartz's deli of news briefs should appear? Notes that another Core Update was already here... Perhaps it's not such a big deal however as Google confirmed it issues core updates more frequently than previously announced. In fact, Google performs several unannounced core updates each year. This isn't really a surprise but then again, neither is a major update in mid-December. Google seems to do it every year.

We welcomed legendary SEO Jenny Halasz to the show to talk about her new book, "AI Powered Content Marketing and SEO", co-authored with Catherine Seda and published by Pearson O'Reilly. We also talk about the Yext study that reveals more about how the Local Pack gets formed, the 1-year long deal-cap being imposed on Google, Microsoft's pull back on Copilot due to lack of user interest, Disney's $1Billion deal with OpenAI that will bring AI versions of Mickey and Darth Vader together again, Megadrama in the Metaverse, Operation Bluebird, the OAI-SearchBot Crawler, how Google Shopping crawlers are too fast for your JavaScript, more links in AI Mode, and a lot more stuff you need to know before the web slows down for the early winter break.

It was a long week following a long Thanksgiving weekend that opened on CyberMonday with a login-outage at Spotify. Folks who logged out of their Spotify accounts on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday awoke to a virtual lockout which was finally cleared between 3 and 5pm. Google Search Console reports are lagging a couple days behind. This podcast was recorded on a Thursday and that data hadn't been updated since Monday. The Trump administration will add social media inspections of all new H-1B applicants and their H-4 dependents to the list of student and exchange visitors it already inspects. The order forces all applicants to turn their social media privacy settings to "public" in order to allow for inspections. Google and other competitors, mixed with the realities of not owning a the operating system, are causing massive problems of Sam Altman and OpenAI. OpenAI has declared a Code-Red after the release of Google's Gemini 3. OpenAI's ChatGPT needs to urgently improve the chatbot's personalization, speed, reliability, and ability to understand a wider range of queries. Meta is investing a lot more in the Metaverse moving forward. The popular Messenger app is going to be killed quite quickly adding to the resource base being reallocated to the virtual reality project. For transactional or commercial searches, Google's AI Mode is seen delivering traffic for 69% of queries. Google is investing in a massive Gemini App UX overhaul. Google adds LLMs.txt to Search Dev Portal, and then quickly removes them. LLMs.txt documents are present at developers.chrome.com. Do not set-and-forget AI Max or you might max out your budget awfully quick. All this discussion and a lot of Google tips and comments in a nearly two hour long Cyber-Funday edition of Webcology.

Even Google's Gary Illyes is saying it, "the change is hard to accept" in regards to the evolution of AI in search but that SEM and SEO will coevolve with search, just like it has the past 30 years. That optimism is something to be thankful for, even if AI is likely to mess up thousands if not millions of Thanksgiving dinners as it mashes more than potatoes with pinches of this and that drawn from different similar recipes and mixed together to forge something predictably unpredictable. We also talk about how Google unleashed the awesome powers of NanoBanana Pro on Google search and Ads, a Motoko Hunt article on How AI's Geo-Identification failures are Rewriting International SEO, Google Ads in AI Mode, the continuing Zero-Click realities faced by many publishers, how the multiple client Google MCC profiles kept by agencies are seeing a rise in hijacks, and a whole lot of other Googly goodness in a Thanksgiving Week edition of Webcology

Adobe bought SEMrush in a $1.9Billion dollar deal putting SEO back in the middle of the boardroom again. Jim and Kristine discuss the purchase, Adobe's intentions, and the implications of Adobe owning SEMrush, Search Engine Journal, the SMX Conference circuit, and other important assets in the search marketing world. In other breaking SEO related news, someone related to search going by the name Al Seckel, performed reputation management services for Jeffery Epstein according to documents released by the House Oversight Committee. Meta is not a monopoly, according to a federal judge. Google is introducing six options for publishers to control AI crawlers (hint: none of them actually give publishers much control). Tons of Google advice, and much more in an episode that acts like its seen monopolies come and monopolies go.

The relentless shifts towards AI powered everything being everywhere in the digital environment are accelerating and the evolution of digital marketing services is starting to keep pace. Previsible, which recently bought the legendary agency Internet Marketing Ninjas, announced the acquisition of Googlite founded data-driven search agency Improove. Google introduces Opal, an AI tool that it claims can create scalable content and apps for search campaigns as a Google Labs project. This contradicts virtually everything Google's previously said about using AI generated content at scale so it might be Google moving into the search marketing space on purpose or it could be one part of the Googleverse running ahead of another without first making sure their narratives aligned with each other. Meanwhile, we've learned how much it will cost for Gemini to white label itself to Apple's Siri, $1Billion per year. Apple will pay Google a cool $1B to have Gemini act in the background with Siri's familiar tone in the foreground. This while Google is accused in a civil suit of using Gemini to track private communications of users in email, messaging apps and video-conferencing sessions. The case, Thele v. Google LLC, 25-cv-09704, is being heard in a district court in San Jose. Google is also defending its algorithmic actions targeting parasitic SEO programs after the EU announced an investigation into a complaint that Google intentionally demoted several news sites in search results. It may be a case of abuse of a parasitic complaints process. Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta is openly talking about quitting and founding his own startup. LeCun has said he no longer believes in the long term viability of LLMs. Canadian Bitcoin mining giant Bitfarms is winding down its energy on grinding out bitcoins to focusing on becoming an AI data center powerhouse. This, and so much more on a long and sort of flu-ridden episode of Webcology. BTW, PSA --> Sickness sucks. Get your flu shot ASAP.

In a week where Telsa shareholders are likely to award CEO Elon Musk a Trillion dollar pay package, rival technologarch Sam Altman says he'll be ashamed if OpenAI wasn't the first company to be run by an AI CEO. This start a debate between Jim and Kristine in which Jim suggests the C-Level could easily be the right place to replace workers with AI in order to improve corporate bottom lines. Microsoft warns OpenAI APIs are being abused as backdoors for espionage. While they don't elaborate on what kinds of espionage they're warning about, the ability to misuse built in capabilities of the OpenAI Assistants API leaves it ripe for hacking. Google and Bing are now indexing content from Elon Musk's AI written Grokipedia. Google's new agent has been officially named, Google-CWS. If you see this name in your logs, it's a Chrome Web Store fetcher. Meanwhile, Japanese researchers have successfully "mind-captioned" ideas humans are mentally visualizing, Amazon is suing Perplexity after Comet AI agents ignored Amazon's initial cease and desist letter. That C&D was likely as impolitely worded as the C&D the MPA sent to Meta over the use of PG-13 rating designations though it's not like Meta really cares about the niceties of stuff like that... Recent documents reveal Meta knowingly made billions from ads it knew to be fake, deceptive, or outright scams. YouTube has now locked the sidebar on mobile ads, taking away the user's option to close them. Gemini is going to be part of the Google Maps experience helping people better understand places, directions, and that local landmark that sort of looks like Lincoln's hat. Oh... Google's testing a new version of AI Mode in a side-by-side A-B test. Users will be asked which version they prefer based on the tone of the generated response. AI Mode is getting new agentic powers, including the ability to research and book event tickets, beauty shop times, or wellness appointments. Seer Interactive data shows AI Overviews drove a 61% drop in organic CTR and a 68% drop in CTR from paid search. SEO researcher Kevin Indig also noted LLM referral traffic is shrinking. He first reported referral traffic "... grew 65.1% since January," but in a more recent study has noted a drop of 42.6% in LLM referred traffic since July. Google Merchant Center is making it easier to track creative video content with a creative content section. All this and so much more in what was actually a quick edition, made more efficient by our new AI driven CEO.

OpenAI has launched its new browser Atlas built to compete with Comet, Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium based browsers. As with other AI based browsers, Atlas comes with a slew of amazing self-directing features along with the potential for a long term mess of major security flaws, exploitable bugs, and the threat of malicious prompting. These are the earliest generations of AI based browsers so both problems and rapid improvements are inevitable. While AI is being added to virtually everything, two federal judges warn it should not be used in law noting how judges and clerks using AI in their writing have led to serious errors in US court rulings. Meanwhile Microsoft has added Harvard Health sourcing to Copilot. Reddit is suing Perplexity and SerpAPI over their scraping of Reddit data from Google's search index, which contributed to Google's decision to severely limit the size of results sets available to APIs. We get more information about impression loss at GSC. Google notes that links, technical SEO, and migrations can't fix craptastic quality issues. We're assuming they're talking about content but not being as clear as possible. Research shows LLMs are used for research and information and websites are used for buying as conversions from LLM traffic tends to be lower than those sent by Google search. All this and more on a truly browserific edition of Webcology.