Howdy. If any of you have passwords that you’ve used for years, it’s probably a good idea to immediately change them. It’s even a good idea if you change them on a regular basis. A mind-blowing data breach of 30 services (including Apple, Google, Telegram, GitHub, VPN networks, and more) with more than 16 billion passwords was uncovered yesterday. It is the largest known leak of passwords in history and the information isn’t stale.
In terms of local search news, Google began testing Search Live with voice input on Wednesday. You need to enroll in the AI Mode experiment from Google Labs to try it out in the Google app for iOS or Android, so that’s exactly what we did.
You can only test this new feature if you’re in the United States, and we’ll explain our experience with it shortly. First, we’ll give you a rundown of Google’s explanation. The example video they released features a woman asking how to pack a linen dress without wrinkling it. The Google app makes a few suggestions in its spoken response, like using a packing cube and rolling the dress instead of folding it. The new version of Search Live is meant to facilitate a “free-flowing, back-and-forth voice conversation with Search.”
Our first tests were designed to see how well results from the experimental Search Live match up with regular local search and Google Gemini. Interestingly, we got different results from all three when we searched for the best NY-style pizza in Deland, FL. You can see the top three results from each below.
Search Live
Tony’s New York Pizza
Angelina’s Pizzeria
Mirino’s Pizza & Subs
Standard Local Search
Tony’s New York PIzza
Anthony’s Pizza
Italiano’s Pizza
Gemini
Positano Trattoria Pizzeria
Angelina’s Pizzeria
Anthony’s Pizza
There are six total top-three businesses in these results and none of those six appear in all three lists. Also, all three searches produced a top-three business that did not appear in either other search.
Only the local search that all of us are familiar with has been well studied. Researchers have tried to get a handle on Gemini and how it determines which businesses to feature in its AI Overviews, but none of them draw firm conclusions because of how new Gemini is and how frequently its methodology changes. The new form of Search Live is effectively unexamined, given its two-day age and experimental rollout.
We bring this up to make the point that there are not yet any best SEO practices for spoken Search Live. In addition to the pizza search that we shared, we tried many other searches (looking for roofers, pool cleaners, barbers, landscapers, and plenty more) and ran into similar scenarios across the board– an inconsistency in results. Still, despite not having any advice, we thought this information was worth passing along. Given the fact that Google managed to retain nearly 60% of the traffic following their Search results in 2024, we’d speculate that Search Live will not significantly deviate from this trend.
This week’s first closing link comes from Ad Age. It’s about brands succeeding while marketing with “micro-influencers.” These are “real people, sharing real opinions, often from their cars or cluttered bedrooms.” Next, from Social Media Today, is an explanation of TikTok’s new AI-powered ad creation tools. Our third link takes you to a YouTube Help page. YouTube is now making a push to help creators monetize their educational videos. Our last link is another one from Social Media Today. It has tips for expanding the reach of your links by leaving them in Facebook post comments instead of the captions.
That’s all for today. Keep doing great things.