In this week’s digital news, Google says fixing problems behind a major algorithmic ranking loss may still leave sites waiting months for recovery. Similarweb finds 95% of ChatGPT users still use Google. Other research finds fewer searches and fewer clicks.
The DOJ proved to the court that Google acted illegally, but it won’t get the big win it wanted. AI assistants cite content up to 25.7% fresher than organic results.
Google says ranking recovery takes months after SEO issues are fixed
Similarweb and research show users are using both Google and ChatGPT, but clicks are declining
US court rules Google will not have to sell ad exchange after losing antitrust case
Google’s ad tech dominance will largely remain intact despite the DOJ proving that it illegally restricted competition in parts of the online ad market. The court rejected the government’s push to force Google to sell its ad exchange, avoiding a remedy that could have disrupted its broader advertising business. Google will likely face fines and business practice changes, but the exact penalties remain sealed for now. The outcome shows that even after three major antitrust losses, Google retains substantial control over digital advertising and can continue investing aggressively in emerging markets such as AI.
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The impact of content freshness on AI citations
Content cited by AI assistants runs 25.7% fresher than what ranks organically on Google, with roughly half of all citations tracing to material updated in the last 13 weeks. That edge decays fast, with a median citation half-life of about 4.5 weeks across platforms. Retrieval systems re-rank the entire candidate pool on every query rather than relying on a persistent ranking, so recency becomes an early filter for weeding out sources that might already be wrong. Perplexity and Grok weigh it most heavily, while Google’s AI Overviews stay tied to core search and actually skew slightly older.
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Affiliate has outgrown the bottom of the funnel
Affiliate marketing is undergoing four major shifts: it must influence customers before they are ready to buy, trust matters more than traffic alone, creator and affiliate strategies need to operate as one partnership strategy, and measurement must extend beyond last click. Brands should expand partner programs beyond coupon and cashback sites to include publishers, comparison sites, reviewers, and creators that shape discovery and consideration. They also need broader measurement and shared data to value influence across the full customer journey. These changes position affiliate as a growth strategy that helps create demand, not just capture existing demand.
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Build vs. buy: Marketing tools in the vibe code era
AI is changing how marketing teams should think about build vs. buy. Teams should build when customisation or proprietary data creates an advantage, and buy when vendors handle complex infrastructure that’s expensive to maintain. They also warn against letting vibe-coded tools become one-off projects that only one person uses. When evaluating software, ask what would break if you cancelled it and whether you’re buying the product or simply a way to organise data you already own.
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