Google news and updates

The latest tomfoolery from Google: a Discover-only core update and changes to AI Mode and AI Overviews

Feb 09, 2026

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from a truly frigid weekend in Toronto. We know, we know: Canada. But even Canadian Cold should have limits, and those limits should be above -30°C! To combat, Jessie worked on her crochet puff blanket (yes, still!), and caught up on important indoor activities like napping. Shelby is knee-deep in the Winter Olympics and has watched like, 70 hours of curling in four days. There’s no stopping us.

This week: Time for some Google news and search updates! It’s been a minute since we recapped Google’s shenanigans. We’ve got the latest tomfoolery, including a Discover-only core update, as well as changes to AI Mode and AI Overviews. In non-Google news: Yahoo Scout, research from Sparktoro and the latest on Canada-Meta talks.

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Ah, a fresh Google tab — more exciting and enticing than the 200+ tabs I already have open! Credit: Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

Let’s get it.

THE UPDATES

Google’s February 2026 core update

What it is: Google’s first core update of 2026 is out — but this one is Discover only. Google said the update prioritizes the discoverability of locally-relevant content based on a user’s country, while devaluing and reducing “sensational and clickbait” articles in the platform. It also said the update will show more “in-depth, original and timely content from websites with expertise in a given area, based on our systems’ understanding of a site’s content.”

Why it matters: This is Google’s first core update solely directed at Discover, and seems to target some of the biggest complaints in the industry, including the increase in spam content. It also emphasizes original content, which bodes well for publishers. Anticipate more volatility in the coming weeks as this rolls out.

Yahoo launches AI answer engine Yahoo Scout

What it is: Yahoo Inc. officially debuted its own AI-powered answer engine, Yahoo Scout, now available in beta. Yahoo says it is built off of “over 30 years of history in search,” and uses its own proprietary data to power its answers. Yahoo also launched the Yahoo Scout Intelligence Platform, which brings together all of the AI capabilities in Yahoo’s systems to power smart features such as:

AI summaries in Yahoo Mail;
Game breakdowns in Yahoo Sports;
Key takeaways in Yahoo News;
AI research and comparison in Yahoo Shopping;
Analysis and market features in Yahoo Finance;
Comment summaries for select articles on the Yahoo homepage.

Why it matters: AI is now fully integrated in the Yahoo experience. Like Google, Yahoo has found ways to input its own, independently owned LLM into everything it offers. Early testing has also found that Yahoo Scout does a much better job with attribution and citing publishers, a positive sign for news outlets.

What else? After the competitor’s launch, Google’s AI features seemed to have attribution in some answers. It’s unclear when this began or if this was a direct result of Yahoo’s launch.

Google AI Overviews jump some users directly to AI Mode

What it is: Google is now moving users who ask follow up questions in AI Overview directly into AI Mode. When users on mobile click the “Show more” button in the response on AI Overviews, Google overlays the AI Mode prompt on search results (with the option to click back to organic search results). The search giant said this change is meant to make “the transition to a conversation even more seamless.”

Gemini 3 is also the new default model for AIO globally, Google said.

Why it matters: This is a clear push toward AI Mode as the default experience, with the need for users to click greatly diminished. Google is actively (and perhaps aggressively) pushing users further into its own ecosystem instead of to publisher sites.

Also: Google may give sites a way to opt out of AI

What it is: Google is exploring ways to give sites the opportunity to prevent their content from being featured in Search AI generative features. This is based on new requirements out of the U.K. from the Competition and Markets Authority, that businesses have control over how their information is used in Search, are competing for fair rankings and that Google makes it easier for businesses to make use of their search data.

What this means: These requirements will set a precedent for what happens in the United States, Google’s biggest market. It’s unclear when these new controls are coming, but many publishers and site owners have long called for more autonomy, so this is a welcomed change.

AI results are highly inconsistent when recommending: Sparktoro research

What the research says: New research from Sparktoro’s Rand Fishkin’s shows AI-powered tools are inconsistent when recommending brands and products. Starting with a hypothesis that AI tracking for brand visibility is pointless because user prompts are so varied, the results produced “randomized lists of recommendations.” Testing the same prompts across ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI, Sparktoro’s study showed that recommendation lists for brands/products varied widely in format, order and the number of items listed.

The conclusion? “Measuring your brand’s presence in AI answers with precision is a fool’s errand.” Rand went on to explain that visibility percentage (%) — a measure of appearances of a brand “across dozens or hundreds of runs of the same prompt” — can be a valid metric. It tells you how common your entity is within the AI’s consideration set, the research says.

Why it matters: AI tracking can be quite expensive. Companies could be wasting a significant portion of their budget for inaccurate data.

Canada willing to talk to Meta about return of news to Facebook

As a reminder: Bill C-18 (the Online News Act), which became law in 2023, is legislation that attempts to make tech giants like Meta and Google pay Canadian publishers for content on their platforms. In response, Meta blocked access to news on its platforms in Canada (Google and the Canadian government made a deal to avoid the same fate).

What’s happening now: Under Prime Minister Mark Carney, the federal government signalled it is willing to discuss having news return to Facebook, as part of wider trade negotiations with the U.S. administration set to begin this summer.

The U.S. considers Bill C-18 to be a trade irritant (because it treats American companies unfairly) and wants it reviewed. Canada’s culture minister said the country is “flexible” to changes, but won’t allow the U.S. to dictate the terms of the agreement.

What’s next: The Canada-U.S. talks are set to begin in July, the substance of which is unlikely to be public. Publishers can only wait and see.

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