We hope you are in good health. Here are some of the major SEO news updates of the week that you need to know:
Search Related News and Updates from Major Search Engine
Why Google Uses Flash for AI Mode — Insights from Google’s Chief Scientist
Google’s Chief Scientist Jeff Dean explains that Google runs its Search AI Mode on the Flash tier primarily because it offers the low latency and cost-efficiency needed to serve AI-powered search at scale. He also emphasizes that Google’s AI models are designed to retrieve external information rather than memorize facts internally, helping balance performance with practical usage in real-time search.
Google: There’s No ‘Bad Title’ Algorithm Filter — Explained by John Mueller
Google’s John Mueller clarified that Google does not have a specific algorithmic filter that penalizes or blacklists pages just for having “bad” title tags — there isn’t a separate system that targets sites solely because of poorly written titles. Rather, the search engine may generate and display search result titles differently from the HTML title tag based on multiple relevance factors, and unrelated issues can affect how quickly updated titles appear in Search.
Google Search Console’s New AI-Powered Configuration Feature Now Live
Google has officially rolled out its AI-powered configuration tool in Search Console, which lets users set up Performance reports using natural-language prompts instead of manually applying filters, comparisons, and metrics. The feature automatically translates your plain-English requests into the appropriate settings for Search results reports, though it’s currently experimental and may misinterpret prompts, so users should review the configured report before analyzing the data.
Google Says Links Will Be More Visible in AI Overviews (Better Access to Sources)
Google announced updates to how links appear in its AI Overviews and AI Mode search results — adding groups of links in hover pop-ups on desktop and more descriptive, prominent link icons across devices to make source content easier for users to explore. The change aims to improve link visibility within AI-generated summaries, addressing concerns that AI Overviews had reduced traditional click-throughs to publisher sites and making it easier for users to locate original content sources.
Google & Bing: Markdown Files Are Messy, Increase Crawl Load & Offer No SEO Advantage
Google and Bing both say that publishing separate markdown (.md) files for SEO or AI crawlers is a bad idea because these files are messy, increase crawl load, and don’t provide any meaningful ranking or indexing benefit over regular web pages — search systems focus on what humans see, not bot-specific formats. Google’s John Mueller and Bing’s Fabrice Canel emphasized that search systems filter out content that doesn’t work well and that maintaining separate markdown versions can cause errors and waste resources without rewards.
