Is Google updating right now?The live answer from Google's Search Status Dashboard, checked daily, with the last 12 months of confirmed updates.
Google algorithm update historyEvery Google update this section documents, 2010 to 2026, one table per year, each row linked to its own page.
E-E-A-T: what Google actually saysExperience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust, quoted from Google's rater guidelines and documentation, with the ranking question answered in Google's words.
What is Google Discover?The queryless feed that sends publishers most of their Google traffic, explained from Google's own pages. The levers that exist, and the ones that do not.
What is Google AI Mode?Google's conversational search tab, explained from Google's own posts. What it is, how to reach it, what it costs and how it differs from AI Overviews.
What are Google AI Overviews?The AI summaries above Google's results, from the 2023 SGE beta to 2.5 billion monthly users. The on-and-off question, answered honestly.
Search Console and Googlebot changesDated and sourced: the Search changes that are not ranking updates. Search Console reports and bugs, Googlebot behaviour, documentation changes and scraper blocking.
AI slop and Google SearchWhat the term means, what Google's rules say about AI-generated pages, and how enforcement works. Plus what Google's own research on "AI slop" networks does and does not show.
AI search optimization: what the studies sayGEO, AEO and LLM SEO without the sales pitch. Every measurement we have covered of how AI answers pick, cite and send traffic, each dated and sourced.
AI model releasesEvery new model across the assistants and AI search products we track. Each row is a dated entry with a primary source.
Publisher AI deals and paymentsWhich news publishers have signed with which AI companies, and what the deals cover. What is known about the sums, and how Google's pilots differ from licensing.
AI search lawsuits and regulationCourt cases, settlements, fines and regulatory orders touching AI search and AI assistants. One dated table, a primary source for each.
Statistics
SEO statistics, each with its sourceGoogle search volume, market share, zero-click rates, CTR with AI Overviews, publisher traffic and update counts. Every number names who measured it and when.
AI search statistics, each with its sourceUser counts for ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews and the rest, referral shares, AI Overviews prevalence and click effects. Every number names who measured it and when.
Social platforms
How the Instagram algorithm worksInstagram's ranking, per Instagram: one system per surface and the signals it names. Plus a test for the invented "algorithm updates" that circulate every month.
Reddit in Google Search: the three strandsHow Reddit ranks in Google, how much it depends on it, and what Reddit's own search is doing. From Reddit's filings and the studies we track.
X's forty-sixth release, 99 files, flips three video-carousel dedupe defaults to on. EnableVideoCarousel stays false, so none of them runs under the published defaults.
Google's privacy policy, effective 16th Oct, lets Search use data users connect from Gmail and Photos "to personalize content, including ads". The connected-apps help page gained the same answer.
A 16th Oct release note updates GPT-6 Pro in the chat tab for Pro users. It promises faster responses, better tool use and several agents working on one task at once.
Google announced four link changes for AI Overviews and AI Mode on 15th Oct, plus two tests. Preferred Sources use has grown "more than 7x" this year, with no base figure given.
Compiled by Claude from primary sources, checked by Akash Mansukhani before publication. Every entry links its primary source; see the methodology.