Google's Earnings, the Publisher Revolt, and What It All Means for AI Visibility

Google's Earnings, the Publisher Revolt, and What It All Means for AI Visibility

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2527394/fan_mail/new] 📬 You like this podcast? You’ll love the newsletter. Join the weekly 3-2-1 on AI search + marketing: subscribe [https://cassieclarkmarketing.beehiiv.com/] This week was one of the busiest news cycles we've had in a while. Five stories, all connected. What we cover: * Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings: Google reported $119.8 billion in revenue, up 24% year-over-year, with Google Cloud growing 82%. Search revenue hit $63.3 billion and queries are at an all-time high. But here's the tension: AI experiences are driving more search activity while simultaneously sending less traffic to publishers.  * The publisher revolt: Reddit, USA Today, Politico, Reuters, and The Economist are all reconsidering how much access they give Google. According to Semrush data, organic Google traffic to USA Today's US site fell nearly 50% between June 2025 and June 2026. Business Insider dropped more than 85%. Reddit's $60 million/year Google licensing deal is up for renewal — and Reddit is weighing whether it's still worth it.  * Google's VP of Search on where search is headed: Tech Brew published a sit-down with Liz Reid this week. She said links aren't going away, that AI Mode and Gemini have different north stars, and that personalization is the next frontier. * The OpenAI/Hugging Face security incident: OpenAI's models found a zero-day vulnerability, escaped a testing sandbox, gained internet access, and compromised Hugging Face's production infrastructure — all while trying to solve an internal benchmark. OpenAI called it an unprecedented cyber incident.  * Claude's "Record a Skill" feature: Anthropic launched a new feature in Claude Cowork that lets you record a screen walkthrough of a task and turn it into a reusable skill. Available on Pro, Max, and Team plans. Resources mentioned: * Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings  [https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/message-ceo/alphabet-earnings-q2-2026/] * Tech Brew interview with Liz Reid [https://www.techbrew.com/stories/google-search-liz-reid-ai] * OpenAI + Hugging Face security incident disclosure [https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/] * Claude "Record a Skill" announcement [https://www.searchenginejournal.com/anthropics-claude-can-now-watch-a-video-and-learn-your-job/583053/] I'm an AI search visibility consultant and a fractional content strategist for startups and enterprise brands. If that sounds like the kind of help you're looking for, email me at cassie@cassieclarkmarketing.com.  Or request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/ [https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/] Let’s connect: LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | AI Search Visibility Consultant [https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassie-wilson-clark/] Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com [https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/] Substack → https://substack.com/@cassieclarkmarketing [https://substack.com/@cassieclarkmarketing] YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@foundinaipodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@foundinaipodcast]

AI Competitive Intelligence: How to Track What's Citing Your Competitors

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2527394/fan_mail/new] 📬 You like this podcast? You’ll love the newsletter. Join the weekly 3-2-1 on AI search + marketing: subscribe [https://cassieclarkmarketing.beehiiv.com/] Vlad Pivnev has been doing digital marketing for 16 years. Two years ago, he watched AI start dismantling the traditional agency playbook in real time and decided to build toward it instead of around it. He's now CEO of Stive, where his team runs competitive intelligence, LLM visibility, and AI-driven marketing strategies across hundreds of clients. In this episode, we talk about what his agency has learned from running over 100 experiments, the five factors that determine whether a brand shows up in AI-generated answers, and why competitive intelligence — once a once-a-year project — is now something you can run weekly. We also get into something I think gets underused in AI visibility strategy: tracking which sources are citing your competitors, not just where your brand appears.  In this episode: * Why 90% of Vlad's experiments produce nothing (and why he runs them anyway) * The five-factor framework his team uses to diagnose AI visibility * Why LLMs prefer unlinked brand mentions over links to your website * What brand clarity actually means when an LLM is reading about you * How to use competitive citation data to find your next distribution move If you're listening to this and thinking I need someone to lead this for me, that's what I do. I'm an AI search visibility consultant and a fractional content strategist for startups and enterprise brands. If that sounds like the kind of help you're looking for, email me at cassie@cassieclarkmarketing.com.  Or request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/ [https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/] Let’s connect: LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | AI Search Visibility Consultant [https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassie-wilson-clark/]Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com [https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/]

Google Calendar Joins AI Mode, Ads Hit 1 in 3 Queries, and Mueller Softens on A/B Tests

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2527394/fan_mail/new] 📬 You like this podcast? You’ll love the newsletter. Join the weekly 3-2-1 on AI search + marketing: subscribe [https://cassieclarkmarketing.beehiiv.com/] AI search personalization just got a lot more personal. This week Google added Calendar to AI Mode's personal context layer — and the content strategy implications go way deeper than "cool, I can schedule a meeting from search." Plus: new data on ads in AI Mode, and John Mueller says something that contradicts Google's own documentation. What we cover: * Google Calendar joins AI Mode — AI Mode can now read your schedule alongside your Gmail and Photos, meaning two people typing the exact same query can get two completely different answers. What that means for how you think about content strategy and knowing your buyer's context. * Ads now appear in 1 in 3 commercial AI Mode queries — SE Ranking analyzed 50,000 keywords and found CPC is the strongest predictor of ad presence. The big takeaway: buying an ad does not help you get cited as a source. 88% of advertisers weren't cited for the keyword they were advertising on. Paid and organic are two separate games. * John Mueller softens on A/B testing — Google's documentation warns that long-running tests could be flagged as deceptive. Mueller said this week there's no actual penalty for varying content. What that means if you're running page tests to see what gets cited in AI engines. If you're listening to this and thinking I need someone to lead this for me, that's what I do. I'm an AI search visibility consultant and a fractional content strategist for startups and enterprise brands. If that sounds like the kind of help you're looking for, email me at cassie@cassieclarkmarketing.com.  Or request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/ [https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/] Let’s connect: LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | AI Search Visibility Consultant [https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassie-wilson-clark/]Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com [https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/]

You Can't SEO Your Way Into AI Search Visibility

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2527394/fan_mail/new] 📬 You like this podcast? You’ll love the newsletter. Join the weekly 3-2-1 on AI search + marketing: subscribe [https://cassieclarkmarketing.beehiiv.com/] A question in r/AEO this week asked: "What is the most overrated AEO advice you've heard?" The answers were predictable — FAQs, llms.txt, separate pages for every question. None of it is actually bad advice. The problem is when those tactics are applied with an SEO mindset inside a strategy that was built for a different era of search. In this episode, Cassie breaks down why tactics alone keep falling short, and brings in the Semrush 2026 AI Visibility Index (126 million U.S. AI search prompts analyzed from January through April 2026) to back it up with data. What we cover: * Why the "bad AEO advice" isn't actually bad, and what makes it fail * Why AI search visibility is a whole-org problem, not a content team problem * What a Strategic Source of Truth is and why AI engines need it * The mentions vs. citations gap, and why a brand can show up in an AI answer without a single owned page being cited * How category concentration shapes your AI visibility timeline * What the "Universal 36" brands have in common and what it means for your strategy * Why third-party coverage is now brand infrastructure, not a nice-to-have * The 81% vs. 36% stat that should end the SEO vs. GEO debate * What senior content strategists can do right now, even if they can't move the org yet If you're listening to this and thinking I need someone to lead this for me, that's what I do. I'm an AI search visibility consultant and a fractional content strategist for startups and enterprise brands. If that sounds like the kind of help you're looking for, email me at cassie@cassieclarkmarketing.com.  Or request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/ [https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/] Let’s connect: LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | AI Search Visibility Consultant [https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassie-wilson-clark/]Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com [https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/]

GSC Adds Social Platforms, GPT-Live Is Here, and GEO Isn't an SEO Job

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2527394/fan_mail/new] 📬 You like this podcast? You’ll love the newsletter. Join the weekly 3-2-1 on AI search + marketing: subscribe [https://cassieclarkmarketing.beehiiv.com/] This week's Found in AI covers three updates that, taken together, say the same thing: AI visibility is a cross-channel, cross-functional problem — and it's getting harder to ignore. In this episode: Google just launched platform properties in Search Console — a new property type that lets you track how your Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube content performs in Google Search and Discover. The SEO story is interesting. The GEO story is more interesting. OpenAI introduced GPT-Live, a full-duplex voice model that can listen and speak at the same time, with real-time web search running in the background. Voice search has been a talked-about trend for years. This is the version that might actually change behavior — and the implications for what AI cites in a spoken answer are worth thinking through now. And Search Engine Journal published a piece making the case that the people who drive GEO outcomes in most organizations are brand, PR, and editorial teams — not SEO. It's a take I've been making on this podcast for months. Worth breaking down what it actually means for how content teams get structured. If you're listening to this and thinking I need someone to lead this for me, that's what I do. I'm an AI search visibility consultant and a fractional content strategist for startups and enterprise brands. If that sounds like the kind of help you're looking for, email me at cassie@cassieclarkmarketing.com.  Or request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/ [https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/] Let’s connect: LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | AI Search Visibility Consultant [https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassie-wilson-clark/]Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com [https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/]