AI Search
It is January 2026, and it is now time for the monthly Google Webmaster report, where I recap the most important Google organic stories of the past month. Obviously, the Google December 2025 core update was the big one, it ran for 18 days and it really had a large impact on many sites – more on that below. Google once again confirmed it does smaller, unannounced core updates and cannot pre-announce them.
Google released Gemini 3 Flash in AI Mode but the horrific AI-Frankenstein recipe results scared many of us off. Google keeps pushing AI Mode in various ways including + signs, with new links and introductions and we also had link AI-generated snippets and AI-powered article overviews.
Search traffic to news publishers continues to dwindle, not just because of the core update. Numerous Googlers say SEO for AI is the same as SEO for traditional search. Google also said Discover is minimally aligned to search rankings. We also got a number of SEO posts from Google this month, which is pretty rare these days.
Search Console had a bunch of announcements including AI-powered configurator, social channels in the Insights report and smoothed out reports. After a long long delay in data, the performance report and the indexing report seemed to have caught up.
Google’s preferred sources went global, the Web guide expanded to the all tab but it is still opt in. Google review appeals had a big delay right before the holidays.
Oh and to top it all off, Google sued SerpApi for scraping its results. Plus so much more…
Those were the some of the larger changes over the past month, make sure to check out the December 2025 Google webmaster report if you missed that.
Here are the bigger Google SEO stories from the past 30 days:
Google Core Update & Algorithm Updates:
- Google December 2025 Core Update Is Rolling Out
- Google December 2025 Core Update Has Finished Rolling Out
- Google December 2025 Core Update Intense Impact Early
- Google December 2025 Core Update Volatility On Saturday – December 20
- Some News Publishers Saw Big Declines With The Google Core Update
- Google Search Ranking Volatility Heated Over This Past Weekend
- Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up December 3rd & 4th
- Google Algorithm Updates 2025 Infographics
- Google: Pre-Announcing Google Core Updates Isn’t Possible
- Google Updates Docs: We Do Smaller Core Updates Without Announcements
Google AI:
- Gemini 3 Flash For Google AI Mode – Now Rolling Out
- Google’s AI Frankenstein Recipes Are A Horror
- Google Search Bar Adds Upload Image/File That Goes To AI Mode
- Google AI Mode Links Updated & Adds Contextual Introductions
- Google AI Overviews Tests Speaker Play Button In US
- Google Tests Very Long Expandable AI-Generated Search Result Snippets
- Google News AI-Powered Article Overviews Go Live For Some Publishers
- Google Pushes Timeline For Gemini Replacing Assistant Into 2026
- Google Discover Notifications That Go AI Mode Responses
- Google Gemini Local Results In Visual Formats
Google SEO:
- Google Search Traffic To News Publishers Drops From 51% To 27%
- Google’s Danny Sullivan & John Mueller On SEO For AI: It’s The Same
- Google: Optimization For AI Search Is The Same As For Traditional Search
- Google: Discover Minimally Aligned To Search Ranking
- Google Questions Need For ccTLDs For Some International Websites
- Google: Why 404s Don’t Matter For SEO
- John Mueller (Personally) On If Schema Helps With LLMs & Google
- Google Merchant Center New Regional Member Pricing (Beta)
- Google JavaScript Doc Now Says Non-200 HTTP Status Code Might Not Be Rendered
- Google Updates JavaScript SEO Doc With Setting Canonical URL Advice
- Google Warns: Don’t Use NoIndex Tags In Pages That Use JavaScript
- Google Shopping Crawlers Are Too Fast For JavaScript Generated Structured Data
- Google API Doc Hints Service Areas Not A Local Ranking Factor
Google Search Console:
- Google Search Console Performance Report Tests AI Powered Configurator
- Google Search Console Adds Weekly & Monthly Views Granular Data
- Google Search Console Insights Adds Social Channels
- Google Search Console Performance Reports Finally Caught Up
- Google Search Console Page Indexing Report Now Up To Date
- Google Search Console Links Report Missing Data?
Google Local:
- Google Business Profiles Review Appeals Are Delayed Before Holidays
- Report: Google Deleting Local Reviews More Than Ever
- Google Reviews Disappearing Bug Reportedly Fixed
- Google Removing Q&A Feature In Google Maps For AI-Powered Ask Button
Google Features & User Interface:
- Google Preferred Sources Now Global & Adds Spotlighting Subscriptions
- Google Web Guide Expands To All Tab Officially (Opt In Still Needed)
- Google Search Tests Blue Send Button In Query Box
- Google Rolling Out Read More Links Search Result Snippets
- Google Search Bar Tests Teases For AI Mode With Animation In Box
- Google Search Testing New Sports Features
Misc Google:
- Google Sued SerpApi Over Scraping Search Results
- Google’s John Mueller & Other Googlers Working On New Year’s Day 2026
- Google’s John Mueller Working On Christmas (2025 Edition)
- Google Displays New Year’s Eve Doodle On New Year’s Day
- Google’s New Year’s Eve & New Year’s Day Doodles
- Google Displays New Year’s Eve Doodle On New Year’s Day
- Google Search Forgot The Holiday Decorations In 2025
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