Update on Search Quality Rater Guidelines, DeepSeek beats ChatGPT in the Apple Store, and Google expands site reputation abuse policy to Europe
SE Ranking
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We’ve been catching up on the news from the past week for you—let’s dive in and check it out together!
Updates
No official algorithm updates yet.
Search / SEO
The integration of AI Overviews into Google’s Circle to Search feature has already started to improve the search experience. Now, Google provides AI-generated overviews for various visual search results, including places, popular images, and unique objects. The feature allows users to highlight, circle, or tap on images, text, or videos to search for relevant content, offering a more interactive and detailed search process as a result.
Additionally, Circle to Search now recognizes numbers, email addresses, and URLs, which enables quick actions, such as tapping to connect to relevant information.
SERP features / Interface
Google has removed breadcrumbs from mobile search results, leaving only the domain name visible. This update is aimed at creating a cleaner and more streamlined look for URLs on mobile devices, as breadcrumbs were often truncated on smaller screens. Search results on desktops will still display breadcrumbs along with domain names, creating a difference in presentation between mobile and desktop search. The update is global and applies to all languages and regions.
Since breadcrumbs are no longer displayed on mobile devices, it is important to ensure that other elements, such as the domain name, are well-optimized and recognizable for mobile users.
AI
Recently, China introduced its LLM, which has already managed to push ChatGPT off the top spot in Apple’s App Store. DeepSeek was trained on relatively inexpensive hardware that offers open-source code and a free alternative to paid services. While it doesn't have all the capabilities of the paid version of ChatGPT, it remains highly popular.?
Perplexity immediately announced the availability of the DeepSeek R1 model, which stores data on servers in the U.S. and Europe, and Nvidia's stocks have already dropped by 12%.
Meet Operator—an AI agent from OpenAI that automatically performs tasks online, such as:
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Initially available as a research preview for Pro users in the U.S., Operator interacts with web interfaces—clicking buttons, scrolling pages, and typing text—to complete tasks. The company plans to expand access globally and provide an API for developers, aiming to enhance efficiency, productivity, and security in task management.
Chris Nelson, Senior Analyst at Google, updated his LinkedIn profile, noting that he leads a team focused on addressing "novel content issues," specifically the detection and management of AI-generated content. This is an important update that signals Google's growing attention to handling AI-created content in search rankings.?
Previously, Google warned against using AI-generated content for link manipulation, and now the company seems to be actively working on methods for detecting and managing such content. This development could mean that Google will take further steps in the future to regulate AI-generated content to maintain the reliability and relevance of search results.
Documentation
Last week, Google updated its Search Quality Rater Guidelines, expanding from 170 to 181 pages.
What’s new:
It’s important to note that these guidelines don’t directly describe how the search algorithm ranks websites. Instead, they help raters evaluate content. However, these evaluations can also be used for the search systems training.
The SEO community suggests that Google has expanded its reputation abuse policy to European regions. These policies were already introduced in the U.S. in 2024 and target sites engaging in practices such as promoting fake coupons. European sites have experienced significant drops in rankings, particularly those related to coupon promotions. This has notably affected sites in Italy and Spain.
Local SEO
The new Google Business Profiles feature allows businesses in the U.S. to set up chat via text messages and WhatsApp. Users can now easily communicate directly with businesses through these messaging platforms, which helps improve customer interaction. Although Google's official documentation still states that this feature is not yet available in the U.S., many users are already seeing it in their profiles.