Industry News

Catch up on interesting new discussion and industry news.

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 9, 2026

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 9, 2026 at 7:00 AM
    Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

    Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Volatility, Personalized Google AI Answers, Microsoft Copilot Checkout & More SEO & PPC News

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 9, 2026 at 5:01 AM
    This week, yep, we had another story on Google Search ranking volatility. I posted the Google webmaster report for January 2026. Google Discover seems to be showing too many...

    Google Talks On Hiring A GEO/AEO/SEO & Buying AI-Optimization Tools

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 9, 2026 at 4:51 AM
    Google's Danny Sullivan and John Mueller spoke on the Search Off the Record podcast about whether hiring an AEO/GEO or buying an AI-optimization tool is any different than hiring an SEO or buying an SEO tool. In short, the advice is the same - both Googlers said.

    Google: Don't Turn Your Content Into Bite-Sized Chunks

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 9, 2026 at 4:41 AM
    Google's Danny Sullivan said on the Search Off the Record podcast that was published yesterday that Google does not want you to turn your content into bite-sized chunks to rank well in LLMs. He said, "we don't want you to do that" and he even spoke to Google engineers about this.

    Microsoft Agents: Copilot Checkout & Brand Agents

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 9, 2026 at 4:31 AM
    Microsoft announced its AI-agents agentic experiences under the names of Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents. Copilot Checkout lets you shop and checkout directly in the Copilot chat experience and Brand Agents lets you add AI-chat experience to your site, and the AI is trained on your product data.

    Bing Tests Retro Local Pack In Search Results

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 9, 2026 at 4:21 AM
    In September, we posted about a number of local pack design tests from Microsoft Bing. But now, Bing might be testing a more retro, older-looking interface for the local pack in the Bing search results.

    Microsoft Advertising Reminds Advertisers To Configure Email Settings

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 9, 2026 at 4:11 AM
    Navah Hopkins, the Microsoft Ads Liaison, posted a reminder on LinkedIn, encouraging advertisers to ensure the email settings are all configured properly. You can get monthly invoices, billing alerts, account notifications, ad and keyword rejection notices, optimization and performance tips and more.

    How to Set Up OpenCode as Your Product Second Brain

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Jan 8, 2026 at 10:20 AM
    This is the hands-on companion to How I Use AI for Product Work and How My AI Product Second Brain Evolved. Those posts explain the philosophy; this one gets you to a working OpenCode setup in 30 minutes.

    By the end, you’ll have a folder structure, three useful slash commands, and a context file that makes the AI actually useful. Prerequisites

    You’ll need OpenCode installed and configured. Follow the installation guide to get started. If you can run opencode in your terminal and get a...

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 8, 2026

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 8, 2026 at 7:00 AM
    Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

    Microsoft Hiring Very Senior PM To Fight Spam On Bing & Copilot

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 8, 2026 at 4:51 AM
    Microsoft is hiring a "very" Senior Product Manager who will initially work on fighting spam across Bing and Copilot. Fabrice Canel said this is a "very" senior PM role and the job description says the "initial focus on reducing Spam in Copilot, Bing, MSN and Ads."