Industry News

Catch up on interesting new discussion and industry news.

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

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 9, 2026
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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."

    PSA: Don't Create Separate Google Business Profile For Department Listings

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 8, 2026
    Greg Gifford, a veteran automotive and local SEO, published a hard warning to vendors suggesting that they tell automotive dealerships to set up separate Google Business Profile department listings for separate services. He said, do not, do not, do this and that it can lead to your Google Business Profiles being suspended and removed from Google Search and Google Maps.

    Google's John Mueller Answers If You Should Invest In GEO

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 8, 2026
    John Mueller, a Google Search Analyst, responded to a question on Reddit named Is SEO still enough, or do we need to start thinking about GEO too? In short, John said you should look at the "full picture, and prioritize accordingly."

    Tailwind CSS Lets Go 75% Of Engineers After 40% Traffic Drop From Google

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jan 8, 2026
    Adam Wathan the creator of Tailwind CSS posted that he had to let go of 75% of his engineering team because of AI. He said traffic to the Tailwind help documentation is down 40% and that is where most people learn about his solution and then buy commercial products. He added his revenue is down 80%.