In this week’s digital news, Google retires seven structured data features including Book Actions, Course Info, and Claim Review to streamline search results. Rankings unaffected. Google’s Audio Overviews test offers AI-generated spoken summaries and related links directly in results for hands-free, on-the-go browsing.
Google says a new AI tool on its search engine will rejuvenate the internet. Your top affiliates might be stealing from you. Discover the hidden tactics behind $84 billion in ad losses
Darren Jones compares the real spending review, delivered by Rachel Reeves on Wednesday, and the Sky News AI (artificial intelligence) projection last week. General-purpose products are dying across industries because companies that focus on a single customer benefit.
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Google retires 7 structured data features to streamline search results
With the influx in SERP features and AI-generated answers dominating the SERPs at the moment, Google have retired support for 7 structured data features with low usage, to streamline search results and focus on more valuable experiences for searchers. The structured data types being phased out includes:
- Book Actions
- Course Info
- Claim Review
- Estimated Salary
- Learning Video
- Special Announcement
- Vehicle Listing
This change will not affect rankings at all, and no immediate action is required by site owners that currently use this, but the appearance of SERPs will change. A result that previously had visual enhancements due to these structured data will appear more simply, however websites can continue using these markups for other purposes.
Read more here.
Google tests Audio Overviews for search results
Google has been testing Audio Overviews in Google Labs for US users, where AI-generated spoken summaries are provided for hands-free, on-the-go browsing. Audio Overviews uses Google’s Gemini AI model to generate a short audio clip to summarise search queries. This change shows Google’s push to make Search more multimodal and serve users who prefer to access content via audio, but may contribute to keeping users within Google for longer and sending less traffic to websites, as we’re already seeing with other AI features.
Read more here.
Is Google about to destroy the web?
Google’s new AI Mode in Search marks a major shift, replacing traditional links with AI-generated answers. Critics fear it will drastically reduce website traffic, threatening the revenue and viability of countless publishers. Supporters argue it enhances user experience and broadens content discovery. As AI becomes central to search, concerns grow about reduced content diversity, declining content quality, and job losses. Some call it the “end of the open web”. Google insists the web is thriving and AI improves search. But the future remains uncertain, with many fearing AI will reshape the internet into something less open, less human, and less free.
Read more here.
$84 billion lost to ad fraud: What you missed about affiliate abuse in 2025
Affiliate marketing benefits both brands and affiliates but fraud is rising. In 2025, tactics like ad hijacking, URL cloaking, and last click theft are harder to detect and more damaging than ever. Fraudsters mimic top performers, skew data, inflate costs, and erode trust. Over 22% of global digital ad spend was lost to fraud in 2023. Even skilled teams struggle to catch it, as scammers use geofencing and time based targeting. Automated tools alongside experienced affiliate teams can help uncover hidden abuse. Without proactive detection, brands risk wasted budgets, poor analytics, and reputational harm. Fighting fraud requires vigilance, automation, and a shift to smarter monitoring.
Read more here.
Did ChatGPT get the spending review right?
Darren Jones compared the real spending review, delivered by Rachel Reeves on Wednesday, and the Sky News AI (artificial intelligence) projection last week. Sky News took the Treasury’s spring statement, past spending reviews, the ‘main estimates’ from the Treasury website, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ projections, and put them into ChatGPT, asking it to calculate the winners and losers in the spending review.
Read more here.
The internet killed general-purpose products. AI will bring them back
General-purpose products are dying across industries because companies that focus on a single customer benefit, like price or convenience, outperform those trying to do everything. Department stores, sitcoms, and universities lost relevance as specialized competitors took their place. AI is set to reverse this trend by enabling products to deliver multiple high-value benefits at once through extreme personalization. This shift could re-centralise industries around powerful general-purpose offerings, especially in retail, media, and education.
Read more here.
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