March 2025 Google Search Observations

[Micha]

and the next heavy drop. The shop and news page are virtually down today, the ranking has plummeted, and Google traffic is 0 so far... So it goes on...

[edited by: not2easy at 11:16 am (utc) on Mar 1, 2025]
[edit reason] new month, new thread, split [/edit]

[Conro]

I would like to know how Google does not violate some articles of the European Union, such as Article 102 Tfue. After illegally taking over the monopoly, Google is making it close the web companies that depend on him, without giving these web companies the opportunity to gain visibility again, because it does not provide a solution that really works. It's not just a few sites, but millions of sites that no longer know how to move forward. In addition, Google should have huge losses of money, how is it possible that this is not the case?

[goodoldweb]

I did a google search on a biblical figure today. Lo and behold, half the page was plasterd with the "AI response", Wikipedia article plagrisem in broad day light.

If that's not a criminal arrogant disregard to copyrights then i don't know what is. I bet wikipedia lost 98% of thier traffic after this update.

I would love to post a screenshoot but have no idea how. It's truly horrific what they are doing to content creators.

[Micha]

Oh dear, now Google says that Google News in Europe does not contribute to advertising revenue. So it looks like they want to withdraw from the ENP program, but the big publishers here won't like that at all. If it turns out the way I suspect, then Google is messing with the wrong industry here.

[Conro]

@Micha Yes, but who believes it. The Google news and Discovery sites are covered with Adsense advertising. News sites without Google news or Discovery would be unobtainable, just the big names would continue to receive traffic

[Micha]

Especially because Google is not providing any evidence and what the company says should not be believed. By the way, at the moment only large publishers are getting traffic from News, we small ones have been out since mid-February. If Google really wants to get out of the ENP program, then it will inevitably become a matter for the EU, because the publishers here have good lobbies.

[mosxu]

“DOJ demands divestiture of Chrome browser and sets sights on making Google sell Android — calls Google "incompatible with free markets and freedom"

How long to divest? How long ?

[goodoldweb]

@mosxu

About time!

The best news I've heard the whole year. Google well and truly had it coming. They have turned into an uncontrollable, unethical, spamy, super greedy monster looking to devour the free web.

Sundar Pichai will be remembered as the guy who broke Google to little pieces. Now watch him super spam (to death) whatever left, Waze, YouTube, Gmail and that thing we once called a "search engine". Maybe Google would be much better replacing their CEO with AI :)

[Martin Ice Web]

biggest drop since panda algo was released years ago. Drop is about -70%.
And this updated aimed our main traffic pages. They are ALL gone by now.
ebay is down as well. Amazon sales are up again and gained +50% since this updated started.

And what is annoying is that all website that are now ranking at the top are not compliant to googles website guidelines. E.g. very small pics (<300px), duplicate content, very long loading times.(6 seconds , Lighthouse rating <70).
What is this update doing?

[mosxu]

@goodoldweb

Yes good news indeed! AI will not bring them new money they will have to keep moving the cheese….

[Micha]

Shop, the number of visitors is increasing, but sales have dropped to a minimum. Only bots are coming from Google. Result: -75% drop in profits compared to last year, minus 45% compared to last month
News page: Here, the number of visitors is also increasing, but not because of the news, but because of the rest. Google has practically sorted out the news. And as Martin has already written, the nonsense in the top positions on Google is increasing, and there is also more and more nonsense in Google News that does not comply with the guidelines.

This time, the update seems to be targeting small websites and especially shops. I wonder why there is no outcry outside the SEO community...

@goodoldweb it will take time and the buyer takes over a huge ecosystem, without which he will make no profit, no one will buy Android or Chrome

[haramamba]

And what is annoying is that all website that are now ranking at the top are not compliant to googles website guidelines.

I see exactly the same thing.

[Dooku]

Especially because Google is not providing any evidence and what the company says should not be believed.

Not only that, G is now openly threatening the EU Commission to harm businesses within the EU under the pretense of too strict AI regulations:

[archive.is...]

Anyone still thinking G is not a criminal organization is just gullible.

[goodoldweb]

@Micha

Android: Samsung, Sony or even Nokia comes to mind. I will not be surprised to see alot of Chinese intrest too, but offcourse they're not going to have it. The app store can be turned into a massive Gold mine, if not already.

As for chrom, it is my opinion that it is dying a slow death anyway. Edge which i now use exclusively on all devices is quite competative, fast and slick, minus the Google spyware. I see more and more users using it. Microsoft i trust a littel better.

[edited by: goodoldweb at 12:31 pm (utc) on Mar 25, 2025]

[Micha]

@goodoldweb Hand over Android to China? Please don't... I would be in favor of completely open source and several app stores in the hands of entrepreneurs that you can choose when setting up your phone. After all, there are enough of them out there. To be honest, I wouldn't want the entire ecosystem to be in the hands of entrepreneurs.

As for Chrome, people are creatures of habit and few are willing to change their software, even if it were better. But I think a takeover of Android is more likely than of Chrome, because you can't make any money at all with it. In my opinion, the browser can quietly disappear from the market, even though I don't see Edge as an alternative, because, to be honest, Trump's preschool is too big a risk for my data and I have started to throw out software from US companies on my system.

[goodoldweb]

@Micha

Where did i say handover android to China? :)

I said i am sure there will be alot of Chinese intrest but offcourse they're not going to have it.

[edited by: goodoldweb at 12:54 pm (utc) on Mar 25, 2025]

[Conro]

@Dooku Google has already damaged us, I will have to close my regular business, I will not be able to pay taxes on the earnings I no longer have and so who knows how many other companies. Google has done enormous damage

[Dooku]

@Conro, I am very sorry to hear that and hope you have some alternative(s) to go forward.
I guess we are all up sh|t creek until G will finally meet it's demise in some way or form.

[goodoldweb]

Add Elon musk to the likely list of intrested parties for Android.

[Micha]

@goldoldweb: If the crazy maniac takes over Android, my cell phone will fly right out the window. Then Google can keep the system because Musk is far worse than anything Google could do with it. But seriously, there are unfortunately not many options and it would probably be expensive for the end customer, because how else are you supposed to earn money with it than to introduce fees for the cell phone manufacturers? In addition, Google will do everything in its power to somehow gain access to the data, and will offer a lot of money if necessary.

[goodoldweb]

@Micha

I trust him way more than i trust Google. You can always switch to iphone. Lol.

[Micha]

@goodoldweb I still have a good old Nokia 6210, unbreakable those things ;) but now back to the topic ...

[BigKat]

“DOJ demands divestiture of Chrome browser and sets sights on making Google sell Android — calls Google "incompatible with free markets and freedom"

The DOJ needs to demand they sell Youtube as well. Remember years ago, before Google owned Youtube, and videos appearing in the SERPS were from a variety of sources? It didn't take long for Google to push their competitors out of search after they bought Youtube.

[Fluff_Nutz]

@BigKat
Yes, I fully 100% agree with this. Google are practically treating Youtube the same way as their search/ad agency. With random traffic drops. Sudden brick walls (where one minute your traffic is flying, the next it all stops. For no real reason). I am not the only person on Youtube to notice this. All traffic being directed to bigger channels, leaving no room for growth for the more smaller ones. Sudden influx of Youtube Shorts everywhere. These shorts are probably promoted ads with tons of traffic. Again where is the support for smaller channels?

Google practically own all platforms where content creators can earn anything. They need to let go. No one enjoys creating content on either platform because of this. Whilst I am not against Youtube videos being on SERP, if it helps smaller channels. We need the extra support. Alas, if traffic is being directed elsewhere. Away from creators then, yes, they need to let both platforms go.

Anyway, as said by many already. Something needs to be done to bring G down. The sooner the better!

[mhansen]

More news with input from several Google insiders.... overall a very good read and very insightful to what goes on behind closed doors.

"Supporting publishers has always been incidental to Google’s larger aims, according to one former senior executive. “Giving traffic to publisher sites is kind of a necessary evil. The main thing they’re trying to do is get people to consume Google services,” the former executive says. “So there’s a natural tendency to want to have people stay on Google pages, but it does diminish the sort of deal between the publishers and Google itself.”

Paywalled article at Bloomberg [bloomberg.com]

[azlinda]

I am not a fan of AI at all, but I did investigate it by using the title of a recipe. Lo and behold deepai.org even included the name of the website they had stolen it from in the result. There is no debate about whether content is being scraped or not. It is!

[goodoldweb]

@azlinda

Yep, i see this on many searches. Just comes to show how ill thought and half baked this entire concept is. Google are hitching for major copyright infringement lawsuits, from all over the world.

[Conro]

Google's Ai overview has also arrived in Italy, certainly violating the digital market act and of course copyright. The last nail in the coffin has arrived. They will probably be fined but who knows when. It's over now

[Micha]

Google's Ai overview has also arrived in Italy,

It has now officially arrived here in Germany, so let's see what effect it has here.

Edit: I have now been shown this twice, both answers were completely wrong. Why do you need this nonsense?

[edited by: Micha at 9:14 am (utc) on Mar 26, 2025]

[Conro]

Aio It doesn't work with some Google accounts. I'm using one now with which the aio almost always appear, it depends on the search. As expected, the links refer to huge sites or to Google itself. The choice of sites used as a source is really more than scarce. The answers are super basic, perhaps to push the user to ask more and more questions. Vote 0

[RubicCubed]

For those just seeing AI Overviews in their countries for the first time, take a look at Seer Interactive's CTR report. They report organic results had a CTR of 3.97% without AIO in January. When AIO is displayed, the CTR drops to just 0.64%. The massive and destructive traffic loss didn't happen all at once in the US, as Seer's graph shows, but Google's endgame is our destruction.

Seer Interactive's AIO CTR report: [seerinteractive.com...]