Google news and updates: AI Mode, Chegg lawsuit, audience trends

Major developments like a groundbreaking lawsuit, a new AI feature and changes in how Google handles online content kicked off 2025

Mar 17, 2025

Learn how to understand key reports, find content ideas and glean actionable insights from Google Search Console data.

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from the first weekend that truly felt like spring — rain, sunshine and mild temperatures. Jessie spent the weekend listening to Wolf Parade on repeat after catching their 20th anniversary show, and crocheting (I counted!!) 76 puff flowers for a blanket. Shelby learned how to solder and only (mildly) burned herself once on the 700-degree (Celsius) liquid metal. Accomplishments all around!

This week: Recapping the most recent news and updates in SEO. A lot (like, a LOT) has already happened in 2025 within the search ecosystem, including a groundbreaking lawsuit, a new AI surface and changes to how Google treats online content — and a core update! We recap some of the must-know information.

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I need probably six of these tiny espressos if I’m going to keep up with Google news. Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

Let’s get it.

In this issue:

Chegg sues Google for hindering traffic
Google launches ‘AI Mode’
Brand visibility for SEO with Aleyda Solis
Audience trends and insights with Brain Morrisy
Rapid fire: General updates

Chegg sues Google for hindering traffic with AI-generated answers

Online education tech company Chegg filed a lawsuit against Google last month. Chegg claims the company abused its monopoly, and that AI summaries have affected its traffic and bottom line.

Chegg claims Google forced companies to have to make content available for use in AI Overviews and other AI-generated placements.

It also mentions:

How Google is taking more real estate with content from publishers for other summaries, such as People Also Ask and featured snippets;
How Google has gone from a search engine to an answer engine. Chegg says Google has entered digital publishing, a move that is “designed to make Google a destination, rather than a search origination point to other websites”;
The uniqueness of search as a channel for publishers;
Google has implemented a strategy to “embrace, absorb, extinguish.”

In prepared remarks for investors, Chegg’s CEO, Nathan Schultz, said Google is “reaping the benefits of Chegg’s content without having to spend a dime.”

This lawsuit is groundbreaking because, unlike The New York Times’ suit against OpenAI/Microsoft over copyright infringement, this dials in on Google having the lion’s share of the market and its potential to abuse this position, harming publishers’ revenue for its own gain.

Google launches ‘AI Mode’

The company is testing "AI Mode", a chatbot-search hybrid powered by Gemini 2.0, which returns an entire page of AI-generated results. It allows users to ask — via text, voice or image — more “nuanced questions” (that once required multiple searches), and to ask follow-up queries.

A screenshot of the AI Mode mobile experience

AI Mode marks an acceleration of AI Overviews, raising renewed and reasonable concerns among publishers about content scraping and reduced traffic. In response, Google said it is focused on making it “easy to click to sites,” and hinted at forthcoming design tweaks.

Robby Stein, Google's VP of Product for Google Search, responded to publishers' concerns saying AI Mode would "ultimately create new opportunities for sites to rank.”

Despite Google’s claims that AI Overviews would lead to more traffic, third-party research says it massively hurts click-through rates. Without accurate reporting in Search Console, it’s impossible for publishers to track.

Why it matters: AI Mode is a response to growing competition from tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. It’s a glimpse into the future on Google: AI in the most valuable real estate on the internet (Google’s results pages), fewer “blue links” and a reduced need for users to click away from the search engine.

🔗 Marie Haynes: Websites shown in AI mode often differ from traditional search because Google uses a “query fan out” approach.

Brand visibility for SEO with Aleyda Solis

Brand visibility is an essential SEO tactic. Aleyda Solis, an international SEO consultant, shared strategies for optimizing brand recognition in a Kick Point Playbook webinar.

Google tends to favour established brands and wants to showcase real people with real expertise and experience. That makes optimizing for brand-related signals high on the list of SEO priorities.

Key strategies include optimizing for entity recognition, using structured data, claiming your Knowledge Panel and ensuring consistent brand information across platforms.

Better brand visibility likely increases backlinks (a ranking factor) — so monitor for negative mentions and respond appropriately.

🔥 Hot tip: Aleyda shared helpful tools: A branded vs. non-branded dashboard; an entity indexing checker; and ChatGPT brand visibility tool.

🔗 Read more: Why SEO is key to visibility on all platforms.

Audience trends and insights with Brain Morrisy

Publishers are moving from off-site platforms to direct engagement, according to a survey by The Rebooting and Omeda.

Three audience development trends outlined in the report:

With search and social traffic declining, publishers are prioritizing direct audiences through newsletters, memberships and events.
Data alone isn’t enough. Success requires using it to build deeper audience relationships.
Generative AI will accelerate search traffic loss, but force publishers to get off the traffic treadmill and focus on “trust and human curation.”

Half of respondents have reported a sharp drop in search traffic, a key referral source, which reinforces the need for owning relationships with readers. Even as publishers move away from relying on third-party platforms, Google remains the most important. Fifty-three per cent of respondents ranked it as the top channel for audience development.

As one executive summarized: Google is “putting gas in the tank today,” but it is “not going to be with us forever.”

Some good news: Publishers are investing in this work, with 45 per cent of respondents saying they are increasing the budget for audience development.

🔥 Hot tip: Subscribe to The Rebooting newsletter and podcast for more insights.

Google publishes new Robots.txt documentation

The company’s new Robots.txt guide explains to publishers how to best control search engine crawlers and other bots that obey the directive. It includes examples for blocking specific pages (like shopping carts), restricting certain bots (like AI or chatbots) and managing crawling behaviour with simple rules. The documentation also mentions that editing Robots.txt is easy — can be done with a simple text editor, and most CMSs offer a way to modify it.

Meta wants it advertisers to connect with Google Analytics

The company that owns Facebook and Instagram is encouraging advertisers to integrate GA with its ad platform to get early access to ad system updates that have seen up to a five per cent increase in conversions. This means that advertisers that have strong relationships with Meta and Google could see improved campaign performance and gain a competitive edge.

Federal Trade Commission moves forward with antitrust probe of Microsoft

U.S. President Donald Trump’s FTC is moving forward with the investigation that was opened by the previous administration. The FTC is examining allegations of Microsoft abusing its market dominance in productivity software, its decision to cut funding on its own AI software after striking a deal with OpenAI, its practices related to cybersecurity and AI products.

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