Microsoft is testing showing the “See more” button at the top of the Bing local pack, instead of the bottom of the local pack. I suspect this is a test and not a bug, but who knows.

This was spotted by Khushal Bherwani who posted this screenshot on X:

This was spotted first by Sachin Patel in January:

It looks like Bing is testing a new design for map results.@rustybrick pic.twitter.com/Nmdctzw2LO

— Sachin Patel (@SachuPatel53124) January 20, 2025

In comparison, this is what I see for the local pack:

I tried numerous browsers and I cannot trigger this experience.

Forum discussion at X.

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A recent discussion on Google’s Search Off the Record podcast challenges long-held assumptions about technical SEO, revealing that most top-ranking websites don’t use valid HTML.

Despite these imperfections, they continue to rank well in search results.

Search Advocate John Mueller and Developer Relations Engineer Martin Splitt referenced a study by former Google webmaster Jens Meiert, which found that only one homepage among the top 200 websites passed HTML validation tests.

Mueller highlighted:

“0.5% of the top 200 websites have valid HTML on their homepage. One site had valid HTML. That’s it.”

He described the result as “crazy,” noting that the study surprised even developers who take pride in clean code.

Mueller added:

“Search engines have to deal with whatever broken HTML is out there. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it’ll still work.”

When HTML Errors Matter

While most HTML issues are tolerated, certain technical elements, such as metadata, must be correctly implemented.

Splitt said:

“If something is written in a way that isn’t HTML compliant, then the browser will make assumptions.”

That usually works fine for visible content, but can fail “catastrophically” when it comes to elements that search engines rely on.

Mueller said:

“If [metadata] breaks, then it’s probably not going to do anything in your favor.”

SEO Is Not A Technical Checklist

Google also challenged the notion that SEO is a box-ticking exercise for developers.

Mueller said:

“Sometimes SEO is also not so much about purely technical things that you do, but also kind of a mindset.”

Splitt said:

“Am I using the terminology that my potential customers would use? And do I have the answers to the things that they will ask?”

Naming things appropriately, he said, is one of the most overlooked SEO skills and often more important than technical precision.

Core Web Vitals and JavaScript

Two recurring sources of confusion, Core Web Vitals and JavaScript, were also addressed.

Core Web Vitals

The podcast hosts reiterated that good Core Web Vitals scores don’t guarantee better rankings.

Mueller said:

“Core Web Vitals is not the solution to everything.”

Mueller added:

“Developers love scores… it feels like ‘oh I should like maybe go from 85 to 87 and then I will rank first,’ but there’s a lot more involved.”

JavaScript

On the topic of JavaScript, Splitt said that while Google can process it, implementation still matters.

Splitt said:

“If the content that you care about is showing up in the rendered HTML, you’ll be fine generally speaking.”

Splitt added:

“Use JavaScript responsibly and don’t use it for everything.”

Misuse can still create problems for indexing and rendering, especially if assumptions are made without testing.

What This Means

The key takeaway from the podcast is that technical perfection isn’t 100% necessary for SEO success.

While critical elements like metadata must function correctly, the vast majority of HTML validation errors won’t prevent ranking.

As a result, developers and marketers should be cautious about overinvesting in code validation at the expense of content quality and search intent alignment.

Listen to the full podcast episode below:

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The 5 Top AI Challenges in Marketing (and How to Solve Them)

AI was supposed to make life easier.

Your team’s churning out more content than ever—but half of it reads like polished-up garbage. It’s actually taking longer to manage, edit, and approve. You’ve got tools for everything, but workflows are breaking. Everyone’s experimenting, but no one’s aligned. And somewhere along the way, “efficiency” started turning into extra work.

Sound familiar?

You’re not alone. As AI shifts from shiny new toy to everyday tool, marketers are coming across a new wave of problems. The challenges of AI in marketing aren’t just technical—they’re organizational, strategic, and (at times) downright frustrating.

In this post, we’re breaking down five of the most common AI challenges in marketing—plus what to actually do about them.

1. You’re using AI, but your content still sounds like everyone else’s.

AI has made it easier to create more content, faster—but that speed often comes at the cost of originality. Many brands are unknowingly publishing bland, robotic material that blends into customers increasingly crowded feeds instead of standing out. If your content isn’t reflecting your brand voice, it’s not AI’s fault—it’s yours.

How to fix it:

Codify your brand voice (and teach it to the AI)

Document your brand tone, values, vocabulary, and personality traits. If it isn’t clearly defined, then AI isn’t going to stand a chance trying to replicate it. Create a simple brand voice guide with examples of on-brand content, and feed it directly into your prompts (or use it to fine-tune custom GPTs).

Stop settling for first drafts

AI is fast-but it isn’t one-prompt-and-done. Whether you’re drafting a campaign brief, summarizing research, or using an AI article generator for content creation, treat the output as a starting point, not a finished product. Layer in nuance, specifics, and personality. Ask yourself: “Would only our brand say it this way?” If not, keep editing.

Ditch general prompts

Prompts like “write a blog post about SEO trends” are guaranteed to sound like everyone else (and get flagged as poor quality content by the SERPs). Instead, provide AI with specifics on your audience, tone, stance, preferred structure, and past content examples.

2. You’ve added five new AI tools (and broken three workflows)

AI tools promise efficiency—but too many marketers are piling them on without a plan. The result? A cluttered tech stack, broken processes, and teams spending more time switching between tools than actually driving results. What was supposed to streamline your work is now slowing it down.

How to fix it:

Audit your stack

List out every AI tool in use across teams. What does the tool do? Who’s using it? What problem is it solving? You might discover you’re paying for tools with overlapping functions, or worse, tools that no one’s using effectively. Eliminate overlap and don’t be afraid to cut an underperforming tool.

Automate strategically

Identify high-effort, low-value tasks first. Don’t just add AI onto what you already do. Sketch out your ideal workflows (ex. blog production, campaign planning), then identify the exact steps where AI can save time or add value.

Designate tool owners and document use cases

Every AI tool in your stack should have an internal champion. That person owns training, onboarding, and documenting best practices. Centralize this in a shared AI playbook so your team doesn’t waste time reinventing the wheel.

3. You’re automating the wrong things.

Marketers love efficiency. But, if you’re automating content ideation while still manually pulling reporting every week, something’s off.

Don’t rush into automating whatever looks easiest. Many of the biggest problems with AI in marketing come from trying to automate without clear priorities—focus on what actually drains time or slows down results. Take a step back to map where AI can actually make the most impact for your organization or team.

How to fix it:

Track your team’s time

For one week, have team members log the top 3 tasks they spend time on each day. Yes, you’ll probably get pushback for asking everyone to do this, but it’s critical to be able to spot patterns. 

Rank tasks by impact v. effort

Create a simple grid comparing the impact and effort of tasks. Low effort/high impact tasks (like repurposing blog content into social posts) are your quick wins. Avoid automating complex, high-effort processes until you’ve built a foundation.

Create reusable prompt templates

If your team is manually writing new prompts every time, that’s another inefficiency. Build a prompt library for repeated tasks (ex. social caption generation, title variations, post outlines) and store them in a central doc or tool.

4. AI isn’t helping you grow.

Prompting is great, but does it help you find new market opportunities? When you only use AI to rephrase what you already know, you miss its potential to surface what you don’t. AI growth comes from uncovering new customer needs, whitespace opportunities, and better strategic bets (not from just speeding up your blog calendar).

How to fix it:

Shift your AI prompts from “create” to “investigate”

Instead of “write a post about X,” ask “what unmet needs do customers in [niche] have?” or “how are competitors positioning around [trend]?” Use AI as a research analyst, not just a writer. 

Feed AI real data.

Input CRM insights, top-performing content, customer reviews, or past campaign metrics. Then ask AI: “What patterns stand out?” or “What’s under-leveraged in our current strategy?” That’s where real opportunity starts to emerge.

Involve AI early in the funnel

Most teams use AI when they’re already locked into a plan. Instead, bring it in during brainstorming, audience mapping, or campaign planning to widen your thinking before narrowing your execution.

5. Everyone’s experimenting and nobody’s aligned

It’s not just about using different tools—it’s that every team has a different vision of what AI is for. Content sees it as a speed hack. SEO wants better scale. Product wants to automate support. And leadership just wants to say “we’re using AI” in board meetings. 

Without a shared north star, AI efforts drift. One team’s success story doesn’t ladder up. Another team’s failures get repeated. Everyone’s moving—but not together. This isn’t a tooling issue. It’s a strategic alignment issue.

How to fix it:

Define your AI mission

Get leadership and team leads together and agree on the role AI should play in your marketing org. Is it about speed? Personalization? Cost efficiency? Innovation? You don’t need one answer—but you do need clarity.

Make “why” part of every AI rollout

Every new experiment or tool should be introduced with a one-sentence purpose: “We’re using this to [XYZ].” That clarity helps teams prioritize, track value, and evaluate success on the same terms.

Align on shared use cases

Instead of each team choosing their own adventure, align around 2–3 cross-functional priorities where AI can make the biggest difference—like campaign production speed, multilingual SEO, or first-draft automation.

Want to take it further?

If you’ve started tackling these problems, feel stuck on what to try next, or need help moving forward, join Spotlight on October 29 in Amsterdam.

Mastermind sessions are where marketers dive into actionable tactics while networking with experts. These small, expert-led roundtables are designed to help you tackle real challenges, get tailored advice, and walk away with next steps you can put into practice immediately.

Here are some recommended sessions to overcome the toughest problems with AI in marketing:

Problem: You’re using AI, but your content still sounds like everyone else’s

→ Solution: Stefan Maritz (CXL) – Let’s Build a Custom GPT for Your Brand Voice

Problem: You’ve added five new AI tools (and broken three workflows)

→ Solution: Luis Guzmán (n8n) – Five Levels of AI Adoption to Succeed in Marketing

Problem: You’re automating the wrong things

→ Solution: Jeremy McDonald (Kaizen) – Pioneering Marketing Through AI: Automation Techniques to Maximise Output

Problem: AI isn’t helping you grow

→ Solution: Kevin Indig – How to Identify Market Growth Opportunities With AI

Problem: Everyone’s experimenting and nobody’s aligned

→ Solution: Liz Lohn (Financial Times) – Building AI-Powered Products: Strategies to Turn Innovation Into a Growth Driver

Tip: And if you work in SEO, Semrush’s first-ever bootcamp on October 28 will help you design smarter, faster workflows and automate large-scale SEO tasks using Semrush’s latest AI tools. You can become a Semrush expert and take your SEO strategy to the next level.

AI isn’t going anywhere—but the way we use it has to evolve.

Most marketing teams aren’t short on tools. They’re short on strategy, alignment, and clarity about where AI can truly make a difference. Whether your content feels off-brand, your workflows are getting messier, or your automation efforts are misfiring, it’s not too late to course-correct.

Start by fixing the foundations: define your voice, streamline your stack, choose what to automate (and what not to), and align your teams around a shared AI mission.

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Google Search is testing yet another way to indicate to Google that you prefer specific sources, news sources, and publications, so that Google can show you fresh content from those sources. It is a Search Labs feature called “Preferred Sources” and is available for English in the US and India.

You can turn on the feature in Labs over here and once you do that, you should see an icon in the Top Stories section to star sources. After you star those sources, those sources should come up more often in the Top Stories section of Google Search, going forward.

Google wrote:

If you opt in to the experiment, you can tap the starred icon to the right of the Top Stories header. Then, you’ll have the option to select your preferred sources (if a site is publishing fresh content). You’ll start to see more of the latest updates from your selected sites in Top Stories when they have new articles or posts that are relevant to your search. Your sources will be clearly labeled and will appear in addition to other results in Top Stories, so you can see what your favorite sites have to say along with a range of sources.

Here is a mock-up from Google:

Here is how you set it up:

Then when you see the top stories carousel, you see a star icon on the top right, clicking on it brings it up as well:

As Glenn Gabe said on X, “Are you a news publisher? A BIG heads-up. Google is testing a “Preferred Sources” experiment for Top Stories.”

Google’s New ‘Preferred Sources’ test. Super interesting and shows how important it is to build an audience, a brand, a strong reputation, etc. Once you click the star in Top Stories, you can choose your preferred sites. Then hit ‘reload’ and Top Stories now contains those… pic.twitter.com/efrzinSDrD

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) June 27, 2025

If this rolls out beyond labs, asking your loyal readership to star you can lead to more traffic from Google Search.

Special block “from your sources”

Example with “Search Engine Land” pic.twitter.com/XHJ996mYbh

— Damien (andell) (@AndellDam) June 27, 2025

Forum discussion at X.

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Google is testing a new feature that allows you to customize the Top Stories section in search results by selecting preferred news sources.

Currently available through Search Labs in the U.S. and India, the experiment gives people more influence over which publishers appear in their news-related queries.

How It Works

Those who opt into the experiment will see a new starred icon in the Top Stories carousel. Tapping it opens a menu where you can choose preferred publications.

Articles from selected sources will be more likely to appear in Top Stories when relevant. These entries will be marked with a star icon next to the site name, but they won’t replace Google’s algorithmic selections entirely.

Google may also display a secondary “From your sources” carousel beneath the main Top Stories section.

A Broader Shift Toward Personalization

The Preferred Sources feature builds on Google’s existing personalization tools, including the ability to highlight content users have frequently visited or show updates since their last search.

A “Try without personalization” option remains available at the bottom of search results, maintaining transparency and user control.

What This Means

For publishers, this change could offer increased visibility, especially for those with loyal audiences who choose them as preferred sources.

However, smaller or newer outlets may struggle to compete with established brands if user selections skew toward familiar names.

The experiment highlights the growing importance of brand recognition, direct audience relationships, and consistent content freshness.

Looking Ahead

This initiative is part of Google’s effort to balance algorithmic discovery with user-driven customization.

While it’s still an experiment, the move suggests Google is exploring ways to give users more say in how information surfaces, without fully abandoning its ranking systems.

If rolled out more broadly, the Preferred Sources feature could reshape strategies for publishers and marketers seeking consistent visibility in Google Search.

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

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Is AI Changing How Local Customers Find You?

If your clients rely on local search to drive business, the landscape is shifting faster than ever. 

AI-driven updates are changing how users see results, how trust is built online, and how businesses get chosen in 2025.

The real question is, will your local SEO strategy keep up or fall behind?

Get Ready For The New Rules Of Local SEO

In our upcoming webinar, you will explore the latest insights from a major study of over 15,000 businesses and 1,200 consumers. This is your opportunity to stay ahead of AI changes and lead your clients to stronger local visibility.

What You Will Learn In This Local SEO Webinar

✅ Current local SEO ranking signals every agency should know.
✅ How Google’s AI updates are reshaping local results and map packs.
✅ New ways to boost visibility and build consumer trust in 2025.
✅ How to turn these insights into a new local SEO service offering.
✅ How to identify and fix technical review signals that may be hurting your rankings.

Why This Webinar Matters Now

Local search behavior is evolving quickly. New AI tools are not just changing how results appear, they are also reshaping what customers trust and choose. 

This webinar gives you a real-world strategy to protect your local presence and turn SEO insights into agency growth.

Your Speaker

Mél Attia, VP of Marketing at GatherUp, will guide you through the major shifts happening right now and how to position your clients for success.

Can’t Make It Live

No problem. Register today, and we will send you the full recording so you can watch it on your own time.

Turn reviews and local signals into real SEO results for 2025 and beyond.

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WordPress has dominated the content management system (CMS) space since launching in 2003, and while it’s still the leader, the market is shifting in ways worth paying attention to.

As of May 2025, WordPress powers 43.5% of websites surveyed and holds a 61.2% share among sites that use a CMS, according to W3Techs. That’s still a commanding lead, but down nearly four percentage points from its 2022 peak.

For the first time in its 20-year reign, WordPress’s market share has shown a sustained decline, and competitors like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify are quietly chipping away at its dominance.

At the same time, the share of websites not using any CMS has dropped from 32.3% in 2023 to 28.9% in 2025, showing continued adoption of managed platforms and hosted builders.

In this report, we’ll break down the current CMS landscape, compare major platforms, and explore what these shifts mean for SEO professionals and digital marketers.

How Large Is The CMS Market?

According to W3Techs, 71.1% of websites have a CMS, and Netcraft reports just under 200 million live websites.

From this, we can assume that the current market size for content management systems is approximately 143.5 million websites.

Top 10 CMS By Market Share (Globally), May 2025

Data from W3Techs, May 2025. (WooCommerce and Elementor are not listed in the table above since they’re WordPress plugins and not standalone CMS platforms.)

*Graphs are separated due to the dominance of the WordPress market share.

WordPress

WordPress has held the dominant market share almost since its launch in 2003.

Between 2014 and 2022, its usage across all websites grew by 105.7% – a surge that helped cement its position as the default choice for much of the web.

However, we’re seeing a market share decline by nearly five percentage points in the last three years.

This marks the first sustained dip in its growth trajectory. It’s a trend that could continue as easier-to-use platforms gain ground and some users report frustrations with plugin compatibility, core updates, and security management.

Read more: Should You Still Use WordPress?

Shopify

As the second-most popular CMS today, and a long way behind WordPress, Shopify market share currently stands at 6.7%

It is used by 4.7% of all websites surveyed.

Wix

Wix continues its slow and steady climb, powering 3.8% of all websites.

Its growth could be attributed to the work they do on branding.

Squarespace

Squarespace has shown steady growth over the past decade, with its CMS market share growing from 0.3% in 2014 to 3.3% in 2025, and usage across all websites rising to 2.3%.

Its growth could be attributed to the increasing demand for low-maintenance, design-forward platforms.

Read more: WordPress Vs. Squarespace – Which One Is Better?

Joomla And Drupal

Joomla and Drupal have seen a steady decline in market share, dropping from the top 3 to positions 5 and 6.

This shift likely reflects a broader trend where more user-friendly, SaaS-based platforms are capturing the attention of small businesses and non-technical users.

No CMS

Between 2024 and May 2025, websites operating without a CMS dropped by 8%, continuing a trend away from custom-coded solutions.

During the same period, websites using WordPress grew by just less than 1%.

The decline in “no CMS” websites signals an ongoing trend toward more structured, manageable platforms for site creation.

WordPress Vs. Joomla Vs. Drupal Market Share

Screenshot from W3Techs, May 2025

Since 2024, Joomla has decreased its market share by 16%, while Drupal has declined by 25%.

Together, they once held 14.8% of the CMS market share in 2014 – now that figure sits at just 3.3%.

They’ve slipped from the No. 2 and No. 3 spots to No. 5 and No. 6, overtaken by faster-growing platforms like Wix and Squarespace in 2022.

Joomla, in particular, had strong momentum early on – briefly surpassed WordPress in search interest until around 2008, according to Google Trends – but it hasn’t kept pace with modern platform demands.

Screenshot from Google Trends, May 2025

Why did these popular content management systems decline so much?

It’s most likely due to the strength of third-party support for WordPress with plugins and themes, making it much more accessible.

The growth of website builders, such as Wix and Squarespace, indicates that small businesses want a more straightforward managed solution, and they have started to nibble on market share from the bottom.

Website Builders Market Share: Wix Vs. Squarespace

Screenshot from W3Techs, May 2025

From January to May this year, Wix’s market share grew by 13%, while Squarespace rose by 3.1%.

If we look at the website builders, their growth is a strong indication of where the market might go in the future.

Zooming out, between May 2024 and May 2025, the market share of:

• Shopify grew by 6.3%.
• Wix grew by 35.9%.
• Squarespace grew by 10%.

When we compare the 2.7% market share contraction of WordPress over the last year to the other players, we have to ask, “What’s driving the shift?”

SaaS web builders such as Wix and Squarespace don’t require coding knowledge and offer a hosted website that makes it more accessible for a small business to get a web presence quickly.

No need to arrange a hosting solution, install a website, and set up your own email. A web builder neatly does all this for you.

WordPress is not known as a complicated platform to use, but it does require some coding knowledge and an understanding of how websites are built.

On the other hand, a website builder is a much easier route to market, without the need to understand what is happening in the back end.

Read more: Wix Changed How Websites Are Built And Why You Should Pay Attention

Elementor

Elementor is the most widely used WordPress page builder, installed on 17.3% of all websites with a known CMS and 12.3% of alls sites surveyed (not shown below) – more than Wix and Squarespace combined – though it functions as a plugin within WordPress, not a standalone CMS.

Screenshot from W3Techs, May 2025

While not a CMS on its own, it’s a major player in shaping how WordPress is used.

However, because it’s a third-party plugin and not a CMS, it isn’t listed in the top 10 CMS above.

If we compare the volume of traffic to the number of CMS, we can see that WordPress is in the golden section, up and to the right, clearly favored by sites with more traffic.

Based on usage among higher-ranked domains, Joomla fits into a niche of fewer installs but more high-traffic sites, indicating that more professional sites are using it.

Squarespace and Wix are to the left and down, highlighting that they are installed on fewer sites with less traffic. It strongly indicates that they are used more by small websites and small businesses.

Elementor bridges the gap between the two and has the weight of the WordPress market share, but is used by sites with less traffic.

The appetite is growing for drag-and-drop, plug-and-play solutions that make having a web presence accessible for anyone. This is the space to watch.

Ecommerce CMS Market Share: WooCommerce Vs. Shopify

Screenshot from W3Techs, May 2025

WooCommerce has a market share of 12.7%, while Shopify has 6.7%.

The ecommerce CMS space echoes a pattern similar to that of website builders.

WooCommerce powers 9% of all existing websites, making it the most widely adopted ecommerce plugin by far.

It doesn’t appear in W3Techs’ top CMS list because it is a WordPress plugin, but it’s a key factor in WordPress’s enduring popularity.

Looking at the distribution, we can see a clear pattern emerge. In comparison to other ecommerce CMS platforms, WooCommerce is dominant.

It has more market share than its competitors combined: Shopify (6.7%) + PrestaShop (0.9%) + OpenCart (0.6%) + Magento (0.5%) = 8.7% market share.

Screenshot from W3Techs, May 2025

Smaller sites might favor WooCommerce, but it has the WordPress platform’s weight for market access and, therefore, more installs, much like Elementor.

Shopify surged during the pandemic, with market share growing by 52.9% from 2020 to 2021 and then 26.9% from 2021 to 2022 – far more than any other platform.

It dipped in 2023 and recovered in 2024. By 2025, it held steady at 6.7%.

Why Does CMS Market Share Matter To Someone Working In SEO?

For SEO professionals, keeping a close eye on CMS market share trends is essential because they influence site architecture, plugin availability, and technical SEO flexibility.

As the market fragments, one-size-fits-all optimization strategies no longer cut it.

WordPress continues to lead, but website builders such as Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify gain traction, indicating where market growth lies, especially for small businesses.

If more SMBs are switching to website builders, understanding the limitations and intricacies of these platforms for SEO could be a competitive advantage.

Shopify now runs on 4.7% of all websites surveyed (not just sites with a CMS) – that’s a potential market of 61 million sites.

With their increasing market share, specializing in Shopify SEO could be a strategic move for an SEO professional.

Wix and Squarespace are growing, too. As more small businesses adopt these platforms, getting fluent in their ecosystems could set you apart in a crowded market.

WordPress might be dominant now, but it’s also where the most competition is. Sometimes, aligning with a more niche CMS can be a strategic move for new client opportunities.

More resources:

All data collected from W3Techs, May 2025, unless otherwise indicated. 

See the W3techs methodology page for where the data is gathered from.

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

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Google co-founder Sergey Brin says AI is transforming search from a process of retrieving links to one of synthesizing answers by analyzing thousands of results and conducting follow-up research. He explains that this shift enables AI to perform research tasks that would take a human days or weeks, changing how people interact with information online.

Machine Learning Models Are Converging

For those who are interested in how search works, another interesting insight he shared was that algorithms are converging into a single model. In the past, Googlers have described a search engine as multiple engines, multiple algorithms, thousands of little machines working together on different parts of search.

What Brin shared is that machine learning algorithms are converging into models that can do it all, where the learnings from specialist models are integrated into the more general model.

Brin explained:

“You know, things have been more converging. And, this is sort of broadly through across machine learning. I mean, you used to have all kinds of different kinds of models and whatever, convolutional networks for vision things. And you know, you had… RNN’s for text and speech and stuff. And, you know, all of this has shifted to Transformers basically.

And increasingly, it’s also just becoming one model.”

Google Integrates Specialized Model Learnings Into General Models

His answer continued, shifting to explaining how it’s the usual thing that Google does, integrating learnings from specialized models into more general ones.

Brin continued his answer:

“Now we do get a lot of oomph occasionally, we do specialized models. And it’s it’s definitely scientifically a good way to iterate when you have a particular target, you don’t have to, like, do everything in every language, handle whatever both images and video and audio in one go. But we are generally able to. After we do that, take those learnings and basically put that capability into a general model.”

Future Interfaces: Multimodal Interaction

Google has recently filed multiple patents around a new kind of visual and audio interface where Google’s AI can take what a user is seeing as input and provide answers about it. Brin admitted that their first attempt at doing that with Google Glasses was premature, that the technology for supporting that wasn’t mature. He says that they’ve made progress with that kind of searching but that they’re still working on battery life.

Brin shared:

“Yeah, I kind of messed that up. I’ll be honest. Got the timing totally wrong on that.

There are a bunch of things I wish I’d done differently, but honestly, it was just like the technology wasn’t ready for Google Glass.

But nowadays these things I think are more sensible. I mean, there’s still battery life issues, I think, that you know we and others need to overcome, but I think that’s a cool form factor.”

Predicting The Future Of AI Is Difficult

Sergey Brin declined to predict what the future will be like because technology is moving so fast.

He explained:

“I mean when you say 10 years though, you know a lot of people are saying, hey, the singularity is like, right, five years away. So your ability to see through that into the future, I mean, it’s very hard”

See also: Google’s CEO On What Search Will Be Like In 10 Years

Improved Response Time and Voice Input Are Changing Habits

He agreed with the interviewers that improved response time to voice input are changing user habits, making real-time verbal interaction more viable. But he also said that voice mode isn’t always the best way to interface with AI and used the example of a person talking to a computer at work as a socially awkward application of voice input. This is interesting because we think of the Star Trek Computer voice method of interacting with a computer but what it would get quite loud and distracting if everyone in an office were interacting audibly with an AI.

He shared:

“Everything is getting better and faster and so for you know, smaller models are more capable. There are better ways to do inference on them that are faster.

We have the big open shared offices. So during work I can’t really use voice mode too much. I usually use it on the drive.

I don’t feel like I could, I mean, I would get its output in my headphones, but if I want to speak to it, then everybody’s listening to me. So I just think that would be socially awkward. …I do chat to the AI, but then it’s like audio in and audio out. Yeah, but I feel like I honestly, maybe it’s a good argument for a private office.”

AI Deep Research Can Synthesize Top 1,000 Search Results

Brin explained how AI’s ability to conduct deep research, such as analyzing massive amounts of search results and conducting follow-up research changes what it means to do search. He described a shift in search that changes the fundamental nature of search from retrieval (here are some links, look at them) to generating insights from the data (here’s a summary of what it all means, I did the work for you).

Brin contrasted what he can do manually with regular search and what AI can do at scale.

He said:

“To me, the exciting thing about AI, especially these days, I mean, it’s not like quite AGI yet as people are seeking or it’s not superhuman intelligence, but it’s pretty damn smart and can definitely surprise you.

So I think of the superpower is when it can do things in the volume that I cannot. So you know by default when you use some of our AI systems, you know, it’ll suck down whatever top ten search results and kind of pull out what you need out of them, something like that. But I could do that myself, to be honest, you know, maybe take me a little bit more time.

But if it sucks down the top, you know thousand results and then does follow-on searches for each of those and reads them deeply, like that’s, you know, a week of work for me like I can’t do that.”

See also: Google’s Ex-CEO on AI: What SEOs Should Pay Attention To

AI With Advertising

Sergey Brin expressed enthusiasm for advertising within the context of the free tier of AI but his answer skipped over that, giving the indication that this wasn’t something they were planning for. He instead promoted the concept of providing a previous generation model for free while reserving the latest generation model for the paid tiers.

Sergey explained:

“Well, OK, it’s free today without ads on the side. You just got a certain number of the Top Model. I think we likely are going to have always now like sort of top models that we can’t supply infinitely to everyone right off the bat. But you know, wait three months and then the next generation.

I’m all for, you know, really good AI advertising. I don’t think we’re going to like necessarily… our latest and greatest models, which are you, know, take a lot of computation, I don’t think, we’re going to just be free to everybody right off the bat, but as we go to the next generation, you know, it’s like every time we’ve gone forward a generation, then the sort of the new free tier is usually as good as the previous pro tier and sometimes better.”

Watch the interview here:

Sergey Brin, Google Co-Founder | All-In Live from Miami

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Google Ads announced they will “now allow relevant Search ads from advertisers who showed amongst top ads to also participate in the bottom ads auction.” Honestly, I thought this update happened last month when they started to allow double serving ads (well, Google now says it is not double serving, so maybe that is the announcement here…).

Google said, “This means a user scrolling lower down the page might see a highly relevant ad from the same advertiser, but not necessarily the exact same content they saw earlier.”

Why is this being done? Well, Google said because it is better and their data says it is better. Google said they “tested this for several months and found that allowing advertisers who showed amongst top ads to also compete in the bottom auction increased rates of highly relevant ads by about 10% and increased bottom ad conversions by about 14%, improving both the user experience and advertiser value lower down the page.” So it is better.

For some history, as a reminder, on April 14, 2025 Google updated its Unfair advantage policy to say it is allowed to show the same ad, from the same company, going to the same page, as long as the ad is in a different ad location. Google was just experimenting with double serving ads earlier and now it is officially going to be allowed. This is how Google does its new thing with showing ads in different ad locations. Google changed its definition of top ads and began mixing ads with organic results last year.

The issue is, the different ad locations drive different CTR and impression rates and how can advertisers measure that? Currently, they cannot. Julie Bacchini wrote, “how, if at all, will this be reflected in data advertisers can access? In other words, how/will advertisers see if their ads showed in more than one slot in a SERP?”

The way metrics such as impressions, clicks and conversions are counted and reported is not changing.

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) April 22, 2025

Correct, there is not new reporting to show if ads show in both top and bottom locations.

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) April 22, 2025

Thanks for the questions @NeptuneMoon.

There isn’t new reporting to indicate if your ads show in both top and bottom ad locations. However, segmenting your metrics by “Top vs. other” can help you understand performance for top and bottom ad locations https://t.co/pWN55YpK9O.

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) April 22, 2025

Ad Rank is still used to determine whether an ad is eligible to show and in which location it appears relative to other eligible advertisers’ ads (https://t.co/fERMWM5XCw).

The only thing that is changing “behind the curtain” is that advertisers who have ads that show in the top…

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) April 22, 2025

Anyway, here is the FAQs Google posted on this change – note, Google said this change is not considered double serving:

1. Is Google Ads changing its policy around double serving for Search Ads?

No. The unfair advantage policy for Search ads applies to ads that compete with each other to show in a single ad location and we recently updated our language to make this clearer. With this change, we are allowing advertisers who show up in the top ad location to also be eligible for ad locations further down the page. However, within a single ad location (either top or bottom), we will continue to apply and enforce the existing policy.

2. How will this change affect the Search ads auction?

With this change, we will now allow relevant Search ads from advertisers who showed amongst top ads to also participate in the bottom ads auction. There are no changes to the auction that we run for top ads. Advertisers will continue to never bid against themselves with this change either in the top or bottom auction.

3. Will the same ad always appear at both the top and bottom of the search results?

No. We show the most relevant Search ad for each specific placement on the Search results page, whether it’s at the top or the bottom. The specific ad content shown to the user may be similar or different from the top to best suit the context of the bottom placement.

4. Does this change loosen query matching or ad load constraints?

No, our query matching systems and controls remain the same, as do our guidelines around the number of top ads we show on the page. This change is solely focused on the bottom of the page.

5. How can I understand the impact of this change?

This change, which will provide more opportunities for relevant Search ads at the bottom of the page, may impact your overall metrics. To understand the impact on your campaigns, we recommend that you segment your metrics by “Top vs. other” if you’re interested in understanding performance for different ad locations. The search terms report will continue to show query-level clicks, whether your ads are clicked on in top or bottom locations.

6. How do I best prepare for this change?

Since this update provides more opportunities for relevant Search ads to be seen, ensure your keywords, ad copy, and landing pages are well-themed with what users are searching for. As more opportunities become available at the bottom of the page, you will likely see higher conversion volume at your current targets. We recommend using bid simulator tools to explore potential performance changes and adjust your bids or targets strategically.

We believe this update will lead to a better experience for both users and advertisers by connecting people with more relevant information, regardless of where they are looking on the Search results page. As always, we will continue to monitor performance and gather feedback.

Forum discussion at X.

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