Industry News

Yep, back on comments from Google on the LLMs.txt file. Another question came up on Bluesky asking if the fact that some Google properties still have the LLMs.txt files up, if that is some sort of endorsement from Google. John Mueller from Google said, simply, "no," it is not an endorsement.

Navah Hopkins, the Microsoft Advertiser Ads Liaison, asked on LinkedIn if you will be adding Microsoft Advertising part of your marketing mix in 2026? The poll had over 200 responses, with most saying it is already included in that mix but 36% saying they will be adding it to the mix.

Google AI Mode is showing really light colored fonts for product pricing and inventory when you click on a product. This differs from the normal font type in the main Google Search results interface.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

OpenAI will be testing ads in ChatGPT very soon. Google's Gemini 3 Pro now powers some AI Overviews...

Google announced late on Friday that Gemini 3 Pro is now powered Google AI Overviews for complex queries. Google actually said this last November, but then edited its story to say it was just AI Mode that was powered by Gemini 3 Pro and not AI Overviews. Now both AI Overviews and AI Mode can use Gemini 3 Pro.

Google is appealing the ruling that it is an illegal search monopoly - which surprises no one. Plus, Google asked the court to pause the remedies during the appeal phase.

Google's John Mueller once again warned about hosting your website on free subdomain hosting service because they are magnets for a "lot of spam & low-effort content."

OpenAI announced on Friday it will begin testing ads in the ChatGPT responses in the coming weeks. The ads will show on the free product and low-cost subscription tier, ChatGPT Go. The ads will show under the main response and not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you. Advertisers will not get conversations with ChatGPT. The ads will be clearly labeled as ads.

Google's John Mueller said that link spam left in the comments section have no effect on Google Search or SEO, (and maybe even your website's performance in Google Search?). He wrote on Bluesky, "These links all have no effect - they're from spammers dropping links into comments. These would not have any effect, positive nor negative, on your site."

Jason Knight wrote about a fascinating disconnect between how B2B product leaders rate themselves and how their teams see them. The data from his survey is striking:

Across the board, B2B Product Leaders think they’re doing pretty well in all of these areas, but B2B IC PMs are not convinced. The difference is stark, and they can’t both be right.

The survey measured six core responsibilities—setting strategy, aligning teams, enabling prioritization, fostering ownership, removing...