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Webcology

Keeping up with F.U.D. - The #4 Greatest March Core Update Ever Edition

·52 min·5 clips
Jim Hedger reveals that most SEOs are feeling messed up right now, urging them to talk about it.
The episode opens with Jim Hedger acknowledging widespread emotional and professional distress among SEOs, encouraging listeners to seek support. He and co-host Christine Schrader then shift to discussing the looming changes from Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE), noting its uncertain rollout and design variations. Christine explains that SGE likely isn't a true large language model because it directly quotes website text and would be too costly at scale. The conversation turns to broader AI impacts, citing Larry Summers and Sam Altman's predictions that AI could replace most cognitive labor, with 47% of white-collar managers planning to use AI to replace labor. They mention a Wall Street Journal study and IMF report on job exposure. Next, they cover a 23% drop in daily app usage for X since Elon Musk's takeover, with Musk offering free premium features to boost engagement. Jim shares his habit of checking Google Search Console on mobile, welcoming news of an Android app. The hosts discuss Google suspending 5.5 billion ads in 2023, highlighting ad policy enforcement. They touch on potential TikTok divestiture by ByteDance and Google's new AI travel tools in Gemini, which plan itineraries and offer style advice. A significant segment warns against using ChatGPT for coding without expertise, as hackers are embedding malware in AI-generated code that could propagate through training data. They emphasize legal risks for publishers. The episode concludes with advice on website design, stressing that Google is a key user and sites must cater to both humans and bots, especially as SGE may reduce direct traffic. They reflect on Google's evolution from a simple search interface to a cluttered portal, akin to Yahoo's past.

As heard by us

A loose search-industry discussion tests X's subscriber math against its free-premium pitch.

Webcology frames platform upheaval as a business problem with a human annoyance underneath it: people trying to work out where attention is going as the search industry moves through a strange, economically bleak moment in early 2024.

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Why you'd press play

You want to know what X's free premium push says after a sharp usage drop? Press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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