Recent Comments on Search Engine Roundtable

Rowan commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

<b>Google to pay $68m to settle lawsuit claiming it recorded private conversations</b> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g38jv8zzwo">https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g38jv8zzwo</a> I find this news very infuriating. Remember how Google kept using ‘Users’ Privacy’ as a way to push their crap to the general public? For example, Manifest V3 to Chromium browsers; how they followed Apple by banning app tracking because of ‘user’s privacy’ (which, of course, is just a move to attack Facebook/Meta’s advertising effectiveness). And, now, they have been caught spying on Android Users just to serve targeted ads. Seriously, fuck Google. Fuck them hard.

Comment ID #6829444870 01/26/2026 03:52 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

They pay Google for being on the first page of SERPs?

Comment ID #6829443291 01/26/2026 03:49 pm

Dark Red Owl commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

People, your work should bring you happiness and meaning. It should be your hobby. If you find such a job, you will be happy for the rest of your life. I have not read a single comment from a person who is happy to work with Google, that is, for Google, because it is the same. There is no happiness in trembling at every Google update, but it shows that you have lost the freedom and meaning of your life. Google is not freedom, but slavery. Drop this stink as soon as possible. The world is beautiful without Google, SERP and SEO

Comment ID #6829422855 01/26/2026 03:10 pm

Sam commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Facebook pay well.

Comment ID #6829343589 01/26/2026 12:51 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

I'm seeing a lot of old timers coming back... @Dan Richardson @oldgooglemaster:disqus @the291iq_equalizer:disqus I noticed Equalizer has increased changed slightly... Still missing among others, Cat, SomeOldOne CamelaHairys ......

Comment ID #6829321798 01/26/2026 12:14 pm

UncleKrusty commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

You would think school administrators and school boards understand why they get free Googleware is because their students are the product. I wouldn't be surprised if those students are also helping to train Google's AI. Since schools won't do the right thing, hopefully parents will demand Google be removed from the classroom so their children are no longer Google's product.

Comment ID #6829314322 01/26/2026 12:01 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Wow, Google is taking inspiration from Bing, the presentation of results are awful. It may have like this for a while but I've been away from Google main search, instead using Web Results. Just look up IC1101 . Facebook, Videos, Facebook and then more Videos. Has it been like this for a while?

Comment ID #6829215028 01/26/2026 08:54 am

Sensei commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Something that looks like this. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f1499bfb9a09f73e265da4b9d4d19c4cf91b2d31a1e26b7c20c2618830b7b4a.gif

Comment ID #6829211738 01/26/2026 08:47 am

John A. User commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

@F1Stevee:disqus sums it perfectly, just a few additional comments of my own. Will add a lot of those that do try to survive will probably go behind a paywall. Review (e.g. Movie (movieweb) /Holiday (almostginger) / Tech (Mark's site) ) sites will go first because they won't have the income to get what they want to review. AI can't review a site and all AI reviews are based on other reviews like so much of every other AI crap. Google needs to stop with the quality visitor crap, all visitors are quality. Wikipedia will feel the heat one day although the AI companies of Microsoft + Google finance the site. They'll have no sites to reference and they'll be forced to slim down because their reference sites will have disappeared.

Comment ID #6829209216 01/26/2026 08:42 am

Sensei commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Infuriating but not too surprising. Googlers are all woke AF, and woke is all about indoctrinating children. It figures soulless shitdemons at Google found another way to exploit kids as part of their corrupt business model to prey on the youngest for future profits. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f0b6ccc2b4369779b632b6d3dfd7e2b9365287019b97ceda83a6b66dea36b409.jpg

Comment ID #6829206574 01/26/2026 08:36 am

DataDonkey commented on Google Ads Gambling and Games Certification Eligibility Requires Good Policy Health

Maybe next American judges will be able to get Google Certified, with the main requirement being no punishment or fines.

Comment ID #6829206293 01/26/2026 08:35 am

DataDonkey commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Almost missed this story which states internal Google documents prove Google puts Chromebooks and their Education Suite into schools to manipulate youth into becoming lifelong Google users. <b>Google's work in schools aims to create a 'pipeline of future users,' internal documents say</b> - <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/google-schools-aims-pipeline-future-users-internal-documents-rcna255175">https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/google-schools-aims-pipeline-future-users-internal-documents-rcna255175</a> <blockquote>Newly filed internal documents show how Google viewed its work with schools as a way of turning children into lifelong customers — while the company simultaneously acknowledged research suggesting that YouTube, one of Google’s main platforms, can be unsafe and distracting.</blockquote><blockquote>One internal Google presentation, which is undated, conceded that using YouTube for learning is hard because the platform is distracting and disorganized. It showed an example in which YouTube recommended “Will Ferrell Hilarious Acceptance Speech” from user “cocksandballs123” to someone who had searched for content about “linear equations.”</blockquote>

Comment ID #6829196474 01/26/2026 08:10 am

Mark commented on Google Ads Gambling and Games Certification Eligibility Requires Good Policy Health

<blockquote>Meaning, you need to have a good account history and have a number of violations on your account.</blockquote> umm

Comment ID #6829188854 01/26/2026 07:50 am

Mr Bob commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Long term Google becomes the internet for information with a few choice partners like reddit which themselves will be eradicated slowly over the following years and a few partnered news sites for breaking information. Google will become a marketplace for all products, removing the need for ecom websites and taking a slice of all internet sales worldwide competing with Amazon and Ebay. Payment platforms will go under like paypal & stripe as Google pushes Google Pay taking another since from the transaction. Hosting companies and domain registrars go out of business leaving only AWS, Azure and Google in that area, allowing them to push up prices to premium levels for any sites left. Short term, every quarter Googles profits go up, publishers/ecom profits go down as the ecosystem is finite. More and more western publishers/business go out of business quarter by quarter replaced with 3rd world country publishers/Business who's living/business costs are far lower than the west so can scratch out a living on far less for far longer, essentially becoming cheap content farms for Google AI to harvest until it has enough.

Comment ID #6829172786 01/26/2026 06:58 am

Sam commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

What do you think the future will hold in this mess?

Comment ID #6829171211 01/26/2026 06:52 am

Rod Cruz commented on Google Falls Back To Featured Snippets When AI Overviews Do Not Generate

Has anyone seen this affecting Local Pack results?

Comment ID #6829128955 01/26/2026 03:48 am

FF222 commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

So, you don't know what the word "bubble" means. Following your "logic" there wasn't a dotcom bubble, because we still have .com sites, and there wasn't a tulip bubble either, because we still have tulips. AI is a bubble. And a huge one. Period.

Comment ID #6829128585 01/26/2026 03:47 am

kyavanyaisback commented on Google Falls Back To Featured Snippets When AI Overviews Do Not Generate

We need an option to use featured snippets or AI overviews as the default.

Comment ID #6829112658 01/26/2026 02:21 am

DataDonkey commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Maybe because of the shrinking user base, and getting back in the Play Store not stopping the slide, Epic was ready to wheel and deal with Google in other ways? Since I'm not a player, I don't know anything about Fortnite really. But I do know what Google did in this case may be a blueprint in how they limit the damage caused by other lawsuits.

Comment ID #6828985261 01/25/2026 06:41 pm

Sensei commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Makes sense. Those years were the last gasp for blogs of all kind before HCU came to nuke everything.

Comment ID #6828954718 01/25/2026 05:32 pm

Sam commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

okay well were all suffering over here.

Comment ID #6828946193 01/25/2026 05:15 pm

Sam commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Fornite is dead, user base shrinking. No-one buys from the item shop anymore - just takes the game for free. It is too commercial. Lost 75% of username. I only play reload.

Comment ID #6828945301 01/25/2026 05:13 pm

Jerome H commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

I think Daddy blogging had its peak back in 2017-2020.

Comment ID #6828933438 01/25/2026 04:49 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

AI will burst the same way the .com bubble did, investors will get hurt, and not all the AI companies around today will still be around when the bubble bursts. Anthropic & ChatGPT are losing more money than they are making; they are being helped by the big 2 (Microsoft/ChatGPT) and (Google/Anthropic). When the bubble bursts, MS & G will consume the best bits of the companies that they were supporting. AI will likely stay around for a very long time because it is being pushed down our throats whether we like it or not. We are not getting any alternative, well, Google does have web results, but hides that and even then, for my sites, they push YouTube all the effing time. All the videos are the same scenes from games.

Comment ID #6828922335 01/25/2026 04:27 pm

The291IQ_Equalizer commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

on a side note, I also checked ed zitron that I followed around 23-24 guy's every post is still "the ai bubble" he had very good posts and exposed google's evil ad policies and stuff but he is also kinda copping and in a loop of his own AI is not a phucking bubble in the sense that it will stay here forever it's not going to deliver as fast as expected (it's still stuck in 2022) also many of his posts are paid well phuck that whoever wants to pay for "AI is losing money how they gonna find money vol. 4000" is free to do it everything is dead, stangant, even the opposition it's gg to anyone who just go his sitre destroyed - go back on this site and read the comments you can go as far back as 2012- it's all the same loop

Comment ID #6828910806 01/25/2026 04:07 pm

Sensei commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

That was a good idea. These guys probably took over that "daddy" blog now. <a href="https://x.com/Aku_700/status/2014572847604404522">https://x.com/Aku_700/status/2014572847604404522</a>

Comment ID #6828910761 01/25/2026 04:07 pm

Jerome H commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Hi, I can ensure you I moved on from that daddy blog in 2016 or something like that. Then I launched my new website, even the name dadmadeinbritain was not very good!

Comment ID #6828869210 01/25/2026 02:52 pm

Jerome H commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

Don’t worry, I’m actually glad you noticed, because I genuinely had no clue. Honestly, I’m very confused with Google right now. In my niche you now have loads of Indian/Chinese sites ranking above everyone else when they clearly haven’t reviewed anything. Google keeps talking about E-E-A-T, and I get it (I’m all for that ) but I don’t understand why Search is boosting websites that don’t seem to have any real E-E-A-T in the first place. It also looks like there were updates around 7 January and again around 21 January. Last year, in April, I got hit hard but I bounced back quite quickly. This time, though, it feels different like the algorithm is a really broken.

Comment ID #6828860349 01/25/2026 02:37 pm

Sensei commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

What you said was spot on based on his now deleted original comment. That's why I also replied to that thread in agreement. Like you said, assuming he's telling the truth that the site is no longer his, he at least deserves the benefit of the doubt since he posted that clarification.

Comment ID #6828822167 01/25/2026 01:34 pm

Mark commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Again January 21

No problem at all, any feedback was solely based on that site still being yours, if its not then its obviously all null and void and I've absolutely no idea why you've lost your traffic :D I've complained multiple times about my little hobby site, sounds similar - blog, amazon links and whatnot. I just can't make it viable to keep going with it. Reviewing items costs me too much, potentially dozens of hours of time and however much £ buying, using, photographing, writing up etc etc To then be outranked by some indian tech blog or an office junior on a uk newspaper who's so fat they couldn't even have safely used the product, using amazon pics and descriptions.... I can't do that. im out

Comment ID #6828818598 01/25/2026 01:28 pm

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