Google Declared a Monopoly, AI's Impact on Google's Market Share & Search Console Recommendations
SEO TL;DR #35 - 12/08/2024
General SEO
Google Declared a Monopoly!
A US federal judge has ruled that Google is a monopoly, marking a significant turn in the long-running antitrust case against the tech giant.
The 286-page decision declares that Google has violated the Sherman Act by maintaining its monopoly through exclusive and anti-competitive agreements.
The ruling emphasises Google's deals with companies like Apple and Samsung, which ensure that Google remains the default search engine on most smartphones and browsers. These agreements have helped Google solidify its position as the world's most-used search engine, driving over $300 billion in annual revenue, mostly from search ads.
Google threw its toys out of the pram shortly after, releasing the following statement.
This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available. We appreciate the Court’s finding that Google is ‘the industry’s highest quality search engine, which has earned Google the trust of hundreds of millions of daily users,’ that Google ‘has long been the best search engine, particularly on mobile devices,’ ‘has continued to innovate in search’ and that ‘Apple and Mozilla occasionally assess Google’s search quality relative to its rivals and find Google’s to be superior.’ Given this, and that people are increasingly looking for information in more and more ways, we plan to appeal. As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use.” – Kent Walker, President, Global Affairs
This landmark ruling could reshape how Google operates, with implications for default search settings on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. As the case progresses, the potential outcomes could lead to significant shifts in the search landscape.
AI
AI Making Little Impact on Google’s Dominance
While the monopoly ruling might impact search, one thing that hasn’t is AI. Despite the hype, new research from Sonata Insights reveals that AI hasn’t yet made a significant dent in Google’s dominance.
The study compared desktop visits to Google with those to major AI search platforms, showing that while AI engines like Perplexity are growing, they’re still far behind.
In May 2024, Google saw a 1.4% increase in desktop visits compared to the previous year, while Perplexity, the largest AI search competitor, grew by 42%. However, Google still had 290 times more search users than Perplexity, with its users being far more active on the platform.
While AI search engines are gaining traction, they aren't taking much market share away from Google. Instead, they seem to be adding to the overall search landscape. Google’s search activity continues to rise, with desktop searches per user up by over 10% year-on-year.
Moreover, the report shows that only a small percentage of traditional search engine users have started using AI platforms, and nearly all still rely on Google. This suggests that, despite the noise around AI, it’s not yet a serious threat to Google’s search dominance.
Read Rank Fishkin’s full breakdown at SparkToro.
Technical SEO
Google Introduces Search Console Recommendations
Google has introduced a new feature in Search Console called Search Console Recommendations, designed to help website owners improve their presence on Google Search. This feature offers optimisation tips based on your data, including indexing, crawling, and serving.
I’m fortunate to have access to around 90 active properties in Search Console, but I’ve yet to see it in action, so it’s a slow rollout for sure. From the screenshot above, it seems to do an OK job of highlighting some concerns, such as pointing out gaps with your Structured Data/Rich Results and issues with video indexing, which could help you prioritise what to fix.
General SEO
OpenAI Scraps ChatGPT Watermarking Plans
A quick update from Search Engine Journal reports that OpenAI has abandoned ChatGPT text watermarking due to user concerns and technical limitations. A company survey found that almost 30% of users said they'd use ChatGPT less if watermarking were implemented. OpenAI is now exploring alternative methods like metadata embedding for AI content identification.
The potential of watermarking has put many people off using ChatGPT for SEO, out of fear Google would penalise them (if you are using GPT word for word, Google already knows this!).
Google has no issues with people using AI to help write content, any more than it has problems with you using something like Grammarly. Recent algorithm updates show how good the search engine is at determining quality and user experience, which should be the primary focus when creating content.
Technical SEO
Google doesn’t track how expensive it is to crawl a page
There’s been a theory in the SEO industry for a while that if you have large, JavaScript-heavy pages, google won’t crawl them as often because they are expensive to render. Martin Splitt from Google recently addressed this on LinkedIn, stating
We don't keep track of "how expensive was this page for us?" or something. You don't need to worry about the fact that rendering is expensive, we got you covered.
While rendering and crawling are resource-intensive processes, Google focuses on delivering the most relevant results, regardless of the cost involved.
JavaScript is a big part of modern-day web development, and Google understands that. So, even if your pages are more resource-demanding, Google will still crawl and index them to provide the best possible search results.
Content SEO
Google Trends Makeover
Google has recently updated its “Trending Now” feature, offering users enhanced filtering options and more accessible keyword data.
You can now filter trends by country, time range, active trends, and relevance, making it easier to zero in on the data that matters most to you. The new design allows you to export this data in more ways.
This upgrade is super valuable for any content creator wanting to leverage real-time search data for SEO, social media engagement and local optimisation.