Google has released an emergency security update for Chrome 138 to address a critical zero-day vulnerability that is actively being exploited in the wild.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-6558, affects the browser’s ANGLE and GPU components and has prompted immediate action from Google’s security team to protect users from ongoing attacks.
Google’s Threat Analysis Group discovered a high-severity vulnerability in Chrome’s ANGLE and GPU processing components, officially designated as CVE-2025-6558.
The flaw involves incorrect validation of untrusted input, which can potentially allow attackers to execute malicious code on affected systems.
Security researchers Clément Lecigne and Vlad Stolyarov from Google’s internal threat analysis team identified this vulnerability on June 23, 2025.
The most concerning aspect of this discovery is Google’s explicit acknowledgment that “an exploit for CVE-2025-6558 exists in the wild”. 
This designation as a zero-day vulnerability means that attackers were actively using this flaw before a patch became available, potentially compromising users’ systems and data.
The emergency security update has been rolled out across all platforms through Chrome version 138.0.7204.157/158 for Windows and Mac, and 138.0.7204.157 for Linux.
The Android version of Chrome will receive the same security fixes through Google Play over the coming days.
Beyond the critical zero-day vulnerability, this update addresses multiple other security issues discovered through Google’s ongoing security research initiatives.
The update includes fixes for an integer overflow vulnerability in V8 (CVE-2025-7656) and a use-after-free vulnerability in WebRTC (CVE-2025-7657).
Google’s security team continues to utilize advanced detection methods including AddressSanitizer, MemorySanitizer, and various fuzzing techniques to identify potential vulnerabilities before they reach the stable channel.
Users are strongly advised to update their Chrome browsers immediately to protect against active exploitation.
The update process is automatic for most users, but manual updates can be initiated through Chrome’s settings menu.
Given the active exploitation of CVE-2025-6558, delaying this update could leave systems vulnerable to ongoing attacks.
Google has implemented access restrictions on detailed bug information until the majority of users have updated their browsers, following standard security disclosure practices.
This measured approach helps prevent additional exploitation while ensuring widespread protection deployment.
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Google has confirmed that its upcoming Chrome 138 browser update will be the last version to support macOS Big Sur. Going forward, Chrome 139 and later versions will no longer support macOS 11, which Apple released in November 2020.

In a platform status update, Google says that on Macs running Big Sur, Chrome 138 will continue to work, but the browser will display a warning infobar and will not update any further. For new installations of Chrome 139+, macOS Monterey or newer will be required. Chrome 139 is set to ship at the end of the month.
To stay up-to-date with the latest browsing standards and to maintain online security, users on Big Sur are advised to update their macOS version (assuming their machine supports Monterey or later) or choose another third-party browser like Firefox that is still receiving updates for their version of macOS.
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Mobile drives traffic, but AI search favors desktop. New data reveals a growing divide and a huge opportunity for marketers to rethink device strategy.
The AI search revolution has arrived with fanfare, transforming how users discover information across platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews.
Yet, beneath the headlines lies a counterintuitive reality that’s reshaping how we approach the age-old debate and strategies on desktop vs. mobile: Over 90% of AI-powered search referrals originate from desktop devices.
While mobile accounts for more than half of global web traffic, AI search engines are making their biggest impact on desktop – a complete reversal of typical user behavior patterns that creates both challenges and more mobile opportunities for marketers.
Currently, some of the findings I share below contradict conventional wisdom.
Recent analysis of referral traffic across leading AI search platforms in the U.S. and Europe shows a striking disconnect between where users consume content and where AI engines drive meaningful traffic.
This gap represents one of the most significant untapped opportunities in the current search landscape.
The data from BrightEdge Generative Parser (my employer for disclosure) paints a clear picture of desktop dominance across virtually every AI-powered search platform.
The lone exception? Google Search itself maintains the mobile majority at 53% mobile vs. 44% desktop, but this reflects its entrenched position as the default search engine across mobile browsers, particularly Safari on iPhones.
The disparity isn’t about user engagement; AI search activity on mobile is likely booming.
Instead, it’s about architectural design choices that fundamentally alter user flows and referral patterns.
Mobile AI platforms often intercept the first click on citations, showing content previews within their own interfaces.
This creates a multi-step process where users must click again to reach external websites, significantly reducing referral traffic compared to desktop experiences, where first clicks typically lead directly to source sites.
ChatGPT exemplifies this pattern. On desktop, citation clicks immediately redirect users to source websites. On mobile, the app frequently displays in-app content previews, requiring users to take additional action to generate actual referrals.
Desktop and mobile AI searches serve fundamentally different user intents.
Mobile users often engage in discovery-oriented searches, seeking quick answers, product comparisons, and immediate problem-solving.
Desktop users tend to gravitate toward comprehensive research, detailed analysis, and tasks that require sustained attention.
This behavioral split suggests AI platforms are evolving into distinct experiences rather than responsive versions of the same product.
Google’s AI Overviews demonstrate this evolution clearly: Ecommerce queries are three times more likely to trigger mobile AI Overviews (13.5% vs. 4.5% on desktop), treating shopping searches as educational discovery rather than direct product promotion.
Meanwhile, desktop AI Overviews command 80% more screen real estate (1110 px vs. 617 px) and appear for 39% more keywords than mobile devices, but show more consistent day-to-day patterns.
This suggests Google is actively experimenting with mobile AI formats while maintaining predictable desktop experiences.
Apple’s role as mobile web gatekeeper cannot be understated.
With Safari as the default browser on nearly a billion devices, Apple controls mobile search behavior in ways that could reshape the entire landscape overnight.
Current data shows that 58% of Google’s mobile search traffic to brand websites originates from iPhones, making Apple’s browser defaults critically important for AI search adoption.
Unlike Google, which has integrated AI features across its mobile search experience, Apple has not yet embedded AI-powered search into its mobile web stack.
This creates a massive structural opportunity. A single change in Safari’s default search provider or the introduction of native AI search features could trigger a significant redistribution of AI-powered traffic across the mobile ecosystem.
Traditional SEO focuses on keywords and rankings, but AI search requires understanding device context and user intent patterns.
Mobile AI users prioritize quick discovery and shopping-oriented queries, while desktop users seek comprehensive information and detailed analysis.
The current desktop dominance in AI referrals represents a temporary market condition rather than a permanent state.
As mobile AI platforms mature and address current referral limitations, early movers will capture significant advantages.
Responsive design excellence becomes critical when AI engines start citing mobile content more frequently.
Ensure your site adapts seamlessly across various screen sizes, orientations, and device modes to maximize citation potential regardless of how AI platforms display your content.
Optimize for speed and accessibility with fast page load times and mobile-friendly content that includes appropriately sized text, images, and interactive elements.
We are seeing AI engines increasingly factor user experience signals into their citation decisions. Schema markup is recommended so AI engines can interpret the structured data on your mobile pages and present users with content that they need and want.
Improve Core Web Vitals as these metrics become crucial for mobile AI performance. Core Web Vitals measure webpage quality beyond loading speed, correlating directly with user experience.
For mobile AI optimization, every millisecond matters – small improvements can have a significant impact on citation likelihood.
Monitor AI Overview differences using keyword reporting tools that switch between desktop and mobile AI Overviews.
This enables you to observe performance gaps and identify platform-specific opportunities.
The data reveals striking differences:
Create mobile-first educational content and product guides rather than traditional product pages.
Mobile AI engines favor discovery-oriented content that helps users understand products and make informed decisions.
Ensure dual-platform accessibility by configuring your site’s crawling capabilities for both mobile and desktop views. Your content must be prepared for AI citation regardless of screen size or platform interface.
Watch Apple and Google industry moves: With Apple’s potential entry into AI search, content strategies should account for possible Safari integration changes that could dramatically shift mobile search behavior overnight.
While mobile AI search matures, desktop presents immediate opportunities for brands ready to optimize for AI-powered referrals.
The current 90% desktop dominance in AI referrals represents a temporary market imbalance rather than a permanent shift away from mobile. Several factors suggest significant mobile AI search growth ahead.
Platform incentives align toward mobile expansion. AI search companies understand that capturing mobile market share is essential for long-term growth, and current referral limitations likely drive the active development of mobile-optimized solutions.
User behavior patterns favor mobile AI adoption. Once technical barriers to mobile AI referrals are addressed, user preferences for mobile-first interactions should drive rapid adoption.
Apple’s AI integration timeline creates a sense of urgency. With Apple controlling mobile browser defaults and reportedly developing AI search capabilities, the mobile AI landscape could transform rapidly.
The AI search revolution is creating two distinct experiences: desktop-focused referral traffic and mobile-focused engagement that don’t yet translate to website visits. This divide presents both immediate opportunities and strategic imperatives for marketers:
Immediate opportunities exist in desktop AI optimization. With 90% of AI referrals coming from desktops, brands can capture significant traffic by optimizing for desktop AI search patterns and citation preferences.
Mobile AI strategy requires different thinking. Mobile AI optimization isn’t about responsive design. It’s about understanding discovery-focused user intent and preparing for different referral mechanisms as more AI search engines hit the market.
Apple remains the wild card. Any changes to Safari’s default search behavior or introduction of native AI features could reshape mobile search overnight, making preparation essential.
The brands that recognize this desktop-mobile divide and develop device-specific AI strategies will gain significant competitive advantages as the AI search ecosystem matures.
The question isn’t whether mobile AI search will grow. It’s whether your plan will be ready when it does.
The future of AI search lies not in choosing between desktop and mobile but in mastering both experiences as distinct opportunities to serve different user needs and capture referral traffic across the entire search journey.
Unless otherwise indicated, any data mentioned above was taken from this BrightEdge study. The data was for May 2025 and is based on thousands of actual website referrals for medium to large brands across the world.

More Resources:
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Lemuel is the founding CTO of BrightEdge. He brings 15 years of industry knowledge and experience in building enterprise-class solutions …
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Google appears to have updated its Core Web Vitals metrics within Google Search Console a few days ago. The weird thing is that good URLs and URLs need improvements metrics all went down around that date but the poor URLs stayed the same.
Rafael Rubio posted about this on X and he seems to be right. I checked a number of random sites I have access to in Search Console and they all seem to shwo the good URLS and URLs need improvements dropping around July 11th or so.
Google’s John Mueller responded to the questions about these changes and pretty much said these are normal and this is not some sort of bug. But Barry Pollard from Google, who helps manage the core web vitals project did say back on July 8th on Bluesky:

We’ve noticed another dip on the metrics this month, particularly on mobile. We are actively investigating this and have a potential reason and fix rolling out to reverse this temporary dip. We’ll update further next month. Other than that, there are no further announcements this month.

I should add, the dip seems to be on desktop, not just mobile, for most sites – from what I can see.
Here is one screenshot:

Here is Rafael Rubio’s screenshot:

Rafael Rubio wrote, “is there a known issue or bug with Core Web Vitals reporting in Search Console? Seeing a sudden massive drop in reported URLs (both “good” and “needs improvement”) on mobile as of July 12.”
It seems pretty widespread, so it might be some sort of Core Web Vitals update? Do you see it?

We see something similar in our properties, and the unusual behavior is that the good and those that need improvements decline, but the poor ones do not improve -looks like a glitch for sue

— Juan C Vargas (@juancvargas) July 15, 2025

We see something similar in our properties, and the unusual behavior is that the good and those that need improvements decline, but the poor ones do not improve -looks like a glitch for sue
John Mueller from Google did respond on Bluesky but he didn’t seem to address the more global issue around this? He wrote, “These reports are based on samples of what we know for your site, and sometimes the overall sample size for a site changes. That’s not indicative of a problem. I’d focus on the samples with issues (in your case it looks fine), rather than the absolute counts.” When quesitoned about it happening to many other sites, John added, “That can happen. The web is dynamic and alive – our systems have to readjust these samples over time.”
Even Jamie Indigo asked John to confirm, she asked, “It seems like … everyone beyond the usual ebb and flow. Confirming nothing in the mechanics have changed?” And John replied, “Correct, nothing in the mechanics changed (at least with regards to Search Console — I’m also not aware of anything on the Chrome / CrUX side, but I’m not as involved there).”
John later added, “The sampling fluctuations apply to the structured data reports, AMP, CWV, HTTPS, and I think backlinks – I assume that’s just what you’re seeing there.”
Here is Barry Pollard’s post on Bluesky:

We’ve noticed another dip on the metrics this month, particularly on mobile. We are actively investigating this and have a potential reason and fix rolling out to reverse this temporary dip. We’ll update further next month. Other than that, there are no further announcements this month.

🧵 3/3 🏁 FIN

— Barry Pollard (@tunetheweb.com) July 8, 2025 at 5:28 AM

We’ve noticed another dip on the metrics this month, particularly on mobile. We are actively investigating this and have a potential reason and fix rolling out to reverse this temporary dip. We’ll update further next month. Other than that, there are no further announcements this month.
🧵 3/3 🏁 FIN
I should note, the change is interesting but don’t worry about this for your search rankings.
Finally, core web vitals has no relation at all to Google core updates.
Forum discussion at X.
Update: Barry Pollard from Google added more on Bluesky, explaining his other reply was maybe unrelated to this. He said:

There’s potentially two different things going on here.
First up, on the Chrome side, we are investigating some Core Web Vitals regression in the last month, particularly on Android. That’s in the realm of a few percentage points dip, so not massive, and suspect only the most diligent web performance nerds would have even noticed this without my highlighting it, but it is something we on the Chrome side keep an eye on and like to give an eco-system update on our monthly CrUX BogQuery releases.
The GSC graphs in Barry Schwartz’s post do NOT appear to me to show Core Web Vitals regressing, but instead a drop in the number of URLs with eligible Core Web Vitals. A subtle difference, but an important one.
My reading of those graphs are that the same percentage of URLs are passing or failing but for some reason there are just less overall URLs showing in the graph. I don’t know why as this is managed by the Search team and that’s kept quite separate from the Chrome team . I also not sure I agree with the article saying the number of poor URLs hasn’t dropped. In all those screenshots the number of poor URLs is zero so of course they haven’t dropped!
Anyway, that’s not to say the issues aren’t related, and I agree the timing is suspicious, but I’m also seeing the same on Desktop GSC graphs, and on the Chrome side we’re not aware of (nor seeing!) any regression there. So I suspect two separate issues.

This story was first posted at 5:30 am but was then updated at 7:30 am.
Update on Friday July 18th: Google may be fixing it, it looks like the data might be turning the other way?

Seems Google may be correcting the CWV situation from the other day reporting-wise. I'm seeing the number of urls being reported starting to bounce back across accounts. Just a heads-up if you saw a big dip there, which many sites did. pic.twitter.com/h0yelOHp2J

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 18, 2025

Seems Google may be correcting the CWV situation from the other day reporting-wise. I'm seeing the number of urls being reported starting to bounce back across accounts. Just a heads-up if you saw a big dip there, which many sites did. pic.twitter.com/h0yelOHp2J
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Google detailed an update for Search and AI Mode that aims to boost its usefulness.
Google Search can now call businesses for information on pricing and appointment availability, per the user’s request.
AI Mode receives Google’s more advanced Gemini 2.5 Pro model, bringing with it better reasoning for math and coding questions and Deep Search.
Google’s starting to roll out a major update for its Search experience, which brings a substantial power boost to AI Mode.
There’s an update rolling out today (July 15) aimed at Google Search and Search’s AI Mode, per a Keyword update. Regarding the former, Google says this update aims to bring its AI into a position where it can help users “get things done faster.” There’s nothing faster than letting the AI call businesses and set up appointments for you, which is where this update takes us.
Google highlights its agentic capabilities headed for Search, which will enable its AI to call businesses for pricing information and availability for a visit. If you’re looking up a pet groomer, Google says users should soon find a “Have AI check pricing” button right beneath the map. The AI will then run you through a “request.” It’s a short questionnaire, so the AI knows everything about you and your pet before calling.
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It will question you about your pet’s breed, weight, what service you’re looking for, when you’d like to visit, and your contact information. The AI will call around and compile this information into an email for you.
Google says this is rolling out to all users in Search; however, there are “higher limits” for AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers.
A new feature within Search, AI Mode, is also picking up a major boost today, thanks to Gemini 2.5 Pro. This Pro model advances what AI Mode can already do with better reasoning capabilities for math and code-related questions. What’s more, AI Mode’s Gemini 2.5 Pro integration brings Google’s “Deep Search” ability.
Google says this option, when asking a question, can help “save hours by issuing hundreds of searches, reasoning across disparate pieces of information and crafting a comprehensive, fully-cited report in minutes.” In short, Deep Search dives in deep, digging up every bit of information for you on a particular subject and compiling it neatly.
This is for users who want every piece of information before making an important decision. Since the advanced reasoning and Deep Search are brought to you by Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google says the toggle for it in AI Mode is only available for subscribers. Those with AI Pro or AI Ultra can click “AI Mode” and swap to the 2.5 Pro option for these advanced features if you’ve enrolled in the Search Labs experiment.
In May, during I/O 2025, AI Mode completely stole Google Search’s thunder when the company announced Gemini integration. The feature was being granted Gemini 2.5, the predecessor to what the feature is starting to receive today. The model was added to AI Overviews, as well, bringing the intelligence it needed to handle complex queries. This was a custom version of the model that arrived, making it more “ideal” for whatever topic the user was curious about.
Even shopping with AI Mode was boosted. Users could detail what they’re looking for, and the AI’s “Shopping Graph” will “browse for inspiration, think through considerations, and narrow down products.”
Google Search itself received a Project Astra update, letting users speak to Gemini as it looks at the world through your camera. This back-and-forth gives users a great way of posing a question and then asking a follow-up to truly understand something.
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