Barry Adams 📰

I’ve stopped enjoying this.

Try Febo. It’s an institution. I like their frikandellen but you can’t go wrong with a basic kroket.

What do they like? Lots of variation in flavours and price ranges.

Personally think Bushmills has fantastic gift sets across the whole cost spectrum and the taste suits most palates. Haven’t yet found a whiskey drinker who doesn’t like Bushmills.

I’m thoroughly enjoying this. #RSAvAUS #RugbyChampionship

UK and US publishers say Google AI is harming website traffic US publishers reported an average fall in referral traffic from Google search of 10% in May and June compared to a year earlier.

Leading US online publishers reported an average fall in referral traffic from Google search of 10% in May and June compared to a year earlier

UK publishers at PPA also report impact on clickthroughs
pressgazette.co.uk/media-audien...

Article on BBC news. Title: AI designs antibiotics for gonorrhoea and MRSA superbugs Description: Two new potential drugs have been designed by AI to kill drug-resistant bacteria, in a major Massachusetts Institute of Technology study.

I really dislike how science has started calling almost any fancy computational technique AI. 🧪

The framing of this entire article makes it sound like a benevolent AI independently made these drugs.

That is *pure fantasy*.

Instead: a team of scientists made a machine learning model for a study.

Those are the nicest ones, shuts up the sledging nicely too

And two boundaries, well done mate!

ChatGPT referral traffic was down 3.8% in July. Is the bubble about to pop?

After a wave of graphs (including ours) predicting growth that would intersect Google’s in '27-28, metrics went negative.

On the other side of the coin, Google traffic was up 15.9% across 193 sites.

The same day this is published, one of the people quoted in this article publishes an 'AI Search manual' purporting to show how to rank in AI search.

Let me quote someone else from the same article, the indomitable @lilyray.nyc:

“Anybody that’s pretending to be an expert in GEO, they’re lying.”

I think I've mellowed in my old age... or maybe ran out of fucks to give. Nowadays I wouldn't engage ignorant trolls like that anymore. I'd just ignore them.

"The hype around GEO suggests urgency, but most media operators know better."

digiday.com/media/despit...

Why Semantic HTML matters for SEO and AI HTML is the foundational language of the web. Semantic HTML markup on your webpages can help machine systems better understand your content and its value.

Found a burst of inspiration and finished a newsletter I had in drafts for months.

It's about semantic HTML, and why SEOs and devs alike should care about this - now more than ever:

www.seoforgooglenews.com/p/why-semant...

Yeah I'm in two minds about this... Probably a good move in the long run, allowing news publishers to maximise audience loyalty.

It's not like people aren't already deeply embedded in their echo chambers with TV news, TikTok, Facebook, X, etc.

This feature is likely to limit the user's exposure to varied news sources, and enhance information echo bubbles.

Previously, Top Stories boxes weren't heavily personalised. Sites ranked there on merit, not preference.

Now, brand loyalty is everything. Tie your audience to you, on every surface.

Google search for 'trump news' without any preferred sources.

Google search for 'trump news' with the BBC and The Guardian set as preferred sources.

The new 'Preferred Sources' option in Google's Top Stories box can drastically transform the news you're exposed to.

First screenshot is a Google search showing a Top Stories box without any preferred sources. The second is the same search, with the BBC and The Guardian set as preferred sources.

Slightly diminish a band: Dukes of Leon.

Best way to understand something is to deliberately try to break it. 😈

How to select your preferred sources in Top Stories in Search Preferred Sources is available starting today for all users in the U.S. and India.

Google users in the US and India can now select their "preferred sources" which will mean they can see their articles prominently more frequently in Top Stories blog.google/products/sea...

Standing still is falling behind The internet isn’t a museum. It’s a coral reef - a living ecosystem in constant flux. You can sit perfectly still and still be swept miles off course.

“Our traffic’s down… but nothing’s changed on our website.”

That’s exactly the problem.

The internet moves. Competitors launch. Markets shift. Culture tilts. Attention flows elsewhere.

Standing still isn’t safe.
It’s a countdown clock.

www.jonoalderson.com/conjecture/s...

A shocking number of marketers have opinions that are based on a complete lack of knowledge, be that on LLMs or really any other topic.

Bing Places doesn't seem to recognise Tyrone (county) nor Mid Ulster (constituency) as counties in Northern Ireland. So now I have to assign the wrong county to my office location.

And they wonder why they're not gaining marketshare on Google...

Not the best result for Ireland but they had a strong second half, some positives to take from that into the World Cup.

Yep just a quick visit for Peter Kay last night and the rugby today, heading back home the road this evening.

And yes let’s get that catchup in the calendar!

Ireland women vs Canada women in Belfast

Great day for rugby. So far Canada have the upper hand. #ComeOnIreland

GPT-5 was supposed to be the next leap forward in AI. Instead it appears just a marginal incremental improvement.

The AI curve has flattened. The tech bros’ world-shattering promises are sounding increasingly hollow.

Just like we predicted.

Why Splitting SEO and GEO Functions Doesn’t Make Sense 👇 by @chris-green.net - going through how:

"Splitting SEO and what some are calling “GEO” is, in most cases, a new solution in search of an old problem. "

A must read: www.chris-green.net/post/splitti...

oh god that was painful to read...

“PhD level”…

Google told to 'stop the BS' as it claims AI has not harmed website clickthroughs Google's head of search has claimed that the platform is seeing "slightly more quality clicks to websites than a year ago" following the launch of AI Overviews.

Google told to ‘stop the BS’ as it claims AI has not harmed website clickthroughs

pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/go...