Recent Comments on Search Engine Roundtable

Barry Schwartz commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Got it.

Comment ID #6835988075 02/10/2026 05:39 am

Dan commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Tell me about it, haven't had a good night's sleep in months, and now I'm very scared I won't be able to keep a roof above my head. Crushed basically overnight, no recovery, no idea what happened. November, ironically, was one of my best months in terms of growth across News, Search and such and that all ended on December 12. Since then, nothing but bot traffic, no impressions, no clicks and yeh... at one pont 120,000 clicks in a day, now I am lucky if I hit 80.

Comment ID #6835967512 02/10/2026 03:52 am

Dan commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Bing for comparison, not all that much traffic here if I'm being honest. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1c8bbad747cf87aaefbf412dee97971a3c1581767bad8bfa7fc05eb906447903.png

Comment ID #6835967191 02/10/2026 03:50 am

googleisjoke commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

what about bing? can you share that for comparison?

Comment ID #6835964529 02/10/2026 03:35 am

Rowan commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

That's fucking heartbreaking... Jesus...

Comment ID #6835951509 02/10/2026 02:15 am

Rowan commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Ugh, my reply-post got flagged. Barry?

Comment ID #6835951462 02/10/2026 02:15 am

Rowan commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

You guys want to know something more wtf? It turns out that Reddit’s quarterly earnings were great. They made huge ad revenue again despite some of us reporting that Reddit’s traffic fell last November-December, according to SEO tools like Semrush. But the stock has dropped like a rock. Reason? Their user growth has slowed, and the CEO announced that they will stop disclosing logged-in vs logged out users in future financial reports. <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/maybe-wasn-t-wrong-reddit-171109326.html">https://finance.yahoo.com/news/maybe-wasn-t-wrong-reddit-171109326.html</a> I guess even the CEO knows they will have issues getting new users, especially with AI overviews and AI mode. And it is apparent that Reddit has many fake user signups. Sometimes you can see Redditors posting very weird questions that just don’t make sense. It is like karma and engagement farming. And these users feel like bots because they will either stop posting later, or their other posts feel so bot-like. I won’t be surprised if Reddit is flooding its platform with its own bots to manipulate engagement and registration numbers (that’s what Pinterest was caught doing some years back).

Comment ID #6835951272 02/10/2026 02:13 am

Rowan commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Yeah, it is getting really worrisome and absolutely WTF. Last year, I remember seeing some AI edited video of Warren Buffett saying he believes Bitcoin is the future and how one can make huge fortunes out of it. What’s scary is that the AI even generated his fake voice, and it sounds so real. Like, absolutely WTF. And Big Tech aren’t doing anything about it. Google and Facebook always claim they’re clamping down on scam ads, but they never do so because it is good money. You guys should read this if you’re interested: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/">https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/</a> Oh, and another: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jbryanporter_google-allows-scam-sites-to-advertise-on-activity-7374108479508328449-OGzy">https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jbryanporter_google-allows-scam-sites-to-advertise-on-activity-7374108479508328449-OGzy</a> More than a decade ago, I remember Google didn’t allow anyone to bid a company’s name. But then, they allowed it later. The impact was almost immediate – competitors bidding each other’s brand keywords, and they were practically just stealing each other’s business. And, of course, scammers came in to create fake tech support websites. Now add this with AI, and it is a blackhatter’s galore.

Comment ID #6835950102 02/10/2026 02:05 am

John A. User commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

It's scary, AI is getting so real and with watermarks being removed, they can be used to tarnish people's reputations. Governments make these videos illegal but it won't stop and they'll be hard to disprove that they were fake once they've gone viral.

Comment ID #6835948331 02/10/2026 01:53 am

Rowan commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Many are using for propaganda purposes too. There’s just no end to it now. It is ironic that Google once detest AI generated content, but then allows it. Then they created tools to let others generate even more AI slop everywhere. But, at the same time, they’re harvesting content from everyone to ‘train’ their AI. https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTg5OGZmOWM5bHhoaWRjbHp0Zm4yN2ZrajhtempoNDIwYTRnOXoyN2dmZGxpZnRsbyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/I9ETGDiI3MN8s/giphy-downsized-small.mp4

Comment ID #6835941280 02/10/2026 01:01 am

Rowan commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

It is happening on social media websites like Facebook, too. My mom loves surfing Facebook as her friends are on there. Recently, she saw a video of an AI video of Starmer (Prime Minister of the UK) saying the people should know the truth, and he was blabbering about cryptocurrencies. It is obviously a scam video. But my mom thought it was real, and she asked me (thankfully) about it. I don’t know how many innocent seniors out there would have fallen for this. I also saw videos of fake “CCTV” videos, like someone eating at a restaurant, and the whole pot exploded. The caption was like, “OMG! HOTPOT EXPLOSION CAUGHT ON CAMERA! BEWARE!” It is so obviously fake because when it exploded, some of the people at the restaurant had no reaction or they’re slow to react; the guy who had hot materials all over him from the explosion wasn’t screaming or reacting in pain; the CCTV recording time was moving very awkwardly and went back and forth. What’s sad? The comments section was filled with people engaging with it, thinking it is real and it has racked in millions of views and tens of thousands of shares. I mean, it is viral enough to be shown to me. And, like all of you have said, YouTube is just as bad. I think at least 50% of the time, the homepage is filled with AI slop.

Comment ID #6835940521 02/10/2026 12:55 am

ExposeTruth commented on Reddit On Google & ChatGPT AI Citations

The Reddit CEO writes like a dumb middle schooler. My lord…

Comment ID #6835916008 02/09/2026 10:21 pm

Pankaj Jangir commented on Google On If A New Web Site Can Beat An Older Website In Google Search

I run a question-and-answer website. I started my website in 2018, while another website started in 2016. Whenever I publish new questions, my pages initially get indexed, but after a few days the other site copies the content from my website. Later, my pages stop appearing in Google results, and their copied pages start ranking at the top for those questions. It feels unfair that original content is not being rewarded while copied content ranks higher.

Comment ID #6835910295 02/09/2026 09:55 pm

Dan commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Lost it all on December 12, no recovery. Over the last two days, I've had 30 impressions from Discover from India across a one-hour period, but no clicks. That has now dropped off, and GA4 is showing 0 users. Three months ago GA4 said 500 users every 30 minutes.

Comment ID #6835901377 02/09/2026 09:18 pm

snuffy commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

People should revolt over these puppets posing as George Will, Warren Buffet, etc. There are no deserving substitutes. And the videos are convincing enough to fool a lot of people.

Comment ID #6835895011 02/09/2026 08:52 pm

Golden Phoenix commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

I was searching for Epstein and half the videos were fake Piers Morgan. This is ridiculous. They are finishing off the internet. It's just disgusting.

Comment ID #6835879894 02/09/2026 07:59 pm

DataDonkey commented on Google On If A New Web Site Can Beat An Older Website In Google Search

These days the main competition is AI Overviews. If AI Overviews is present, even a #1 rank won't be seen by users to get any amount of worthwhile traffic.

Comment ID #6835869773 02/09/2026 07:23 pm

DataDonkey commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Any updates from those with Discover traffic? In today's Google Crime Syndicate news, Autodesk is suing Google for trademark infringement. <b>Google sued by Autodesk over AI-powered movie-making software</b> - <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/google-sued-by-autodesk-over-ai-powered-movie-making-software-2026-02-09/">https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/google-sued-by-autodesk-over-ai-powered-movie-making-software-2026-02-09/</a> <blockquote>Google has been sued by Autodesk for allegedly infringing its "Flow" trademark to market competing AI-enabled software used to make movies, TV shows and video games. In a complaint filed on Friday in San Francisco federal court, Autodesk said it began using Flow in September 2022 for visual effects, production management and other products, and was surprised when Google launched Flow software in May 2025 aimed at the same customers.</blockquote>

Comment ID #6835866445 02/09/2026 07:11 pm

Dan commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98bc3a7d4dd5d942603ec8c32e722e405442ac5cf16f5e716f024743a1266515.png We love a good ol flatline

Comment ID #6835863225 02/09/2026 06:59 pm

snuffy commented on 1955 Ford F-100 At Google Office

Maybe its a violation for hogging three spaces with one vehicle. That's a really cool color (I'd call it "Sleeping Beauty"... the name of a mine in Arizona that produces turquoise of the same color! It is a robin's egg blue... <a href="https://americanwestjewelry.com/products/exclusively-ours-sterling-silver-sleeping-beauty-turquoise-concha-cluster-lever-back-earrings">https://americanwestjewelry.com/products/exclusively-ours-sterling-silver-sleeping-beauty-turquoise-concha-cluster-lever-back-earrings</a>

Comment ID #6835851689 02/09/2026 06:20 pm

snuffy commented on Reddit On Google & ChatGPT AI Citations

Open AI / ChatGPT gets the same questions (with slight variation) over and over and over again - every day. So, if Open AI has a list of resource links for those questions, then why not put them out there to be indexed and followed. Wikipedia has that on their articles.

Comment ID #6835848264 02/09/2026 06:10 pm

Durant Imboden commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Yeah, I'm really sick of having YouTube promote deepfake commentaries by faux celebrity pundits. YouTube seems to have decided that identity theft is legit.

Comment ID #6835846107 02/09/2026 06:03 pm

Golden Phoenix commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

What happened on Google is also happening on YouTube. It is not inundated with AI slop, so when you search for something, you get a ton of impersonations, irrelevant shorts, AI videos, everything is buried. They are doing this on purpose

Comment ID #6835824031 02/09/2026 04:57 pm

John A. User commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

A proper choice screen for AI / 10 blue links would be a great start. They have Web Results but not many people know about that plus its littered with everything that is bad about the ALL results but as links.

Comment ID #6835821199 02/09/2026 04:49 pm

Sam commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Yes good points. I am not keen on Google being forced to sell Chrome either.

Comment ID #6835811027 02/09/2026 04:23 pm

John A. User commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

I would like it, but as judge Amiteur Mehta said in his summing up, that the choice screen didn't do much when you look at European data, most people would choose Google anyway. It might dent Google by 10%? Random guestimate. I thought choice screens were on the UK, I can't remember since the last time I bought a new device. I do remember once seeing a choice screen I think or maybe its the "Mandela Effect" or have they dropped it since we left the European Union? I don't know about selling Chrome because whoever buys it might be like Brave and turn off adverts as default. If they were to be forced to sell, adverts on would have to be the default; otherwise, it would hurt business a heck of a lot, and many people won't turn on adverts. Forcing Google to sell Chrome might result in say ChatGPT or Anthropic and they are also walled gardens, ChatGPT do not give sources by default so we'd still be in the rut. I'd prefer forcing Google to change than sell. They're main things I can think of at the moment. How many people were in the meeting today?

Comment ID #6835801247 02/09/2026 03:59 pm

Sam commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

Yes good idea to make submission. The one today was talking about presenting a screen to users so they have a choice of search engines or LLM providers. On all devices in the UK. Like a pop up box. Personally, not sure its good for user to have more to do etc.

Comment ID #6835789112 02/09/2026 03:29 pm

John A. User commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

I won't be able to make it, I'll make a submission the weekend.. I've had a look at https://connect.cma.gov.uk/google-search-conduct-requirements Quite a lot to read.

Comment ID #6835782782 02/09/2026 03:14 pm

Sam commented on Google February 2026 Discover Core Update

[email protected] is the email to ask for invite.

Comment ID #6835771241 02/09/2026 02:47 pm

Saurabh Guttedar commented on Google Preferred Sources Deeplink Button Broken

I noticed this a day before yesterday lol, wasn't expecting this to land as news anywhere

Comment ID #6835727150 02/09/2026 01:09 pm

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