Industry News

Catch up on interesting new discussion and industry news.

    How not to lose your job to AI

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Jul 20, 2025
    There are a lot of these “how to beat the AI cookie monster” posts out there right now, but this one by Benjamin Todd is well-researched and articulated, with lots of practical examples on how to do the one thing that we all need to do anyway: keep learning.

    I break this down into four key categories of skills likely to increase in value: Hard for AI: data poor, messy, long-horizon tasks where a person-in-the-loop is wanted Needed for deploying AI: the skills of organising and auditing...

    The Most ‘CD Album’ Albums Ever, Ranked

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Jul 20, 2025
    This is a great Xennial list. And I am glad I’m not the only one who thinks R.E.M.’s Monster is actually pretty good.

    Monster is commonly regarded as the most “used CD” CD of all time. Which I think is somewhat unfair and due in large part to how conspicuous the blaze orange packaging is. I would bet that Come Away With Me or Eric Clapton’s Unplugged or my beloved New Miserable Experience are just as common. They just blend in with the pack better. Though I don’t think being the most...

    Google Search Ranking Volatility Very Heated Days After Core Update Completed

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jul 20, 2025
    Google told us the June 2025 core update completed early on Thursday, July 17th, but now, four days later, we are still seeing incredibly heated volatility, even through today. The tools and community are still experiencing significant ranking movement and instability, even today.

    The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Jul 18, 2025
    You know how those of us who read The Lord of the Rings before the movies came out got all weirdly and annoyingly upset about all the “new fans” and how they should have “read the books years ago”? That’s how I feel about the em dash and its AI takeover.

    The real issue isn’t me—it’s you. You simply don’t read enough. If you did, you’d know I’ve been here for centuries. I’m in Austen. I’m in Baldwin. I’ve appeared in Pulitzer-winning prose, viral op-eds, and the final paragraphs of...

    Daily Search Forum Recap: July 18, 2025

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jul 18, 2025
    Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

    Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June Core Update Done, Local Ranking Update, AI Mode Updates & AI Calling Businesses

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jul 18, 2025
    Google's June 2025 core update finished on Thursday after running for 16 days. It was a volatile Google update for a while with some recoveries. Google AI Mode gets Gemini 2.5 Pro and Deep Search but you need to pay...

    New Google Business Profile Check Edit Status

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jul 18, 2025
    Google launched a new feature for Google Business Profiles that lets you check the status of your edits. So if you made a change and you want to see what the status of that change is for your Google local listing, now you can.

    Google: Login Service Pages Are Hard To Rank In Search

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jul 18, 2025
    Google's John Mueller said it is hard for service oriented login web pages to rank in the search results. Like, if you have a landing page where people can login to their account and check on analytics, billing, etc, those types of login pages can be hard to rank well in Google and Bing Search.

    Google AI Overviews For Movie Queries

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jul 18, 2025
    Google is supposedly showing AI Overviews for movie-related queries. Apparently, this is new, although I don't have firsthand knowledge since I don't typically search for movies. However, I've been told it's new by a number of sources.

    Google Ads Rolling Out Smart Bidding Exploration To Some Advertisers

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jul 18, 2025
    Google Ads is rolling out its new Smart Bidding Exploration bidding update to some advertisers. At Google Marketing Live, Google called this its "biggest update to bidding in over a decade."