OpenAI uses the OpenCrawl db for model seed data. Somehow, a bunch of that (shopping results) from Google, ends up in opencrawl. So it looks like "oh they are using google". Openai also uses "Search Agents" as a data source of last resort when no other data. Those agents were able to search Google.

Thanks to Brett for inspiring me to do a few searches where I discovered the post below and more. Seems this MYTH is based on a few posts especially one by someone I'm extremely skeptical of because they are frequently framing info like it will never change!

ahrefs.com/blog/is-chat...

Yes, it's true, ChatGPT did not use Google for search (full stop). It did use it as a "SearchAgent" the same way an OpenClaw, DeepSeek, Kimi, and even Grok can use Google via Agents
.

This idea that ChatGPT was using Google as primary source, is the greatest mass delusion in SEO I have ever seen in 30 years of web work. It's like our version of a QAnon meme. All you have are edge cases, wishful thinking, and very sloppy reporting.

WordPress Pushes Third Update in 24 Hours, Reaches Version 6.9.4 WordPress users woke up to a familiar dashboard notice again this morning. Another core update. In less than a day the platform jumped through multiple release

www.searchengineworld.com/wordpress-pu...

The Trust Stack: LLM Inputs – What Can We Push? The current situation we are in was artfully describe by the hero robot from the 80's classic Short Circuit. Johnny 5 was sentient robot who's catch phrase

Johnny 5 says, "Need More Input! www.searchengineworld.com/the-trust-st...

The New SEO Math: Fewer Pages = Stronger Pages or "Spray and Pray SEO" is Really Over? .cp-era-table { width:100%; border-collapse:collapse; margin:2em 0; font-size:0.95rem;}.cp-era-table th { background:#0f172a; color:#ffffff; text-align:l

It hurts, but it is for your own good: www.searchengineworld.com/pruning-1-th...

vines.

38,000 crawls to 1 referral for Anthropic. You can get more traffic from posting your url on a postit at the bulletin board at the local grocery store than that.

You know what they saw, screenshots or it never happened ;-)

“The quantity of AI-generated articles has surpassed the quantity of human-written articles being published on the web.”

graphite.io/five-percent...

Yikes. Google Offices infested with Bed Bugs. www.msn.com/en-in/news/o...

Wikipedia Traffic Shifts Highlight Big Impact of Google’s AI Overviews Wikimedia’s latest report on new user trends paints a stark  picture of how internet traffic is being reshaped by AI search. The analysis shows that Wikipedia i

No huge surprise here, but Wikipedia’s traffic is falling.

www.searchengineworld.com/wikipedia-tr...

Firefox Adds Perplexity AI as a Desktop Search Engine Option Mozilla has officially added Perplexity AI as a built-in search engine option in the desktop version of Firefox, marking another small but steady move to

Another domino falls in the world of search. Firefox can now set Perplexity as default built-in search option.

#FireFox #SEO #AIsearch #Perplexity #Mozilla

www.searchengineworld.com/firefox-adds...

UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Designate Google as having Strategic Market Status UK targets Google Search Power Today the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) formally designated Google with Strategic Market Status in general search an

UK takes a swing: www.searchengineworld.com/uks-competit...

Really? There was a dude on Fiver selling Reddit links a couple weeks ago. he got hired inhouse real quick. imho it is easier to link drop on reddit than most UGC forums.

In the end, we really don't know why G likes it so much. They have never commented. (which in itself is surprising)

AI Survival Strategies for Publishers AI is seen as an existential threat to publishers. There are strategies that allow for news to survive and even thrive in the AI-first world. But these may involve some tough challenges.

Great round up of the current situation with declining Google. Long, and well worth a read: www.seoforgooglenews.com/p/ai-surviva...

Fears of online journalism Armageddon as Google changes the game One year on from the rollout of Google AI Overviews in Australia, exclusive data shows steep year-on-year declines in readership for the top news websites as smaller publishers warn of lay-offs.

The news site crash continues: www.abc.net.au/news/science...

Foo. Then you could put out a browser toolbar and call it the Foobar. Lol

Cloudflare’s Content Signals: The Right Problem, An Unlikely Solution The open web has long depended on an implicit exchange: publishers make content freely available, and platforms like Google send them referral (i.e. search) tra

Cloudflare wants to fix AI scraping with Content Signals. The catch? It could end up breaking more than it fixes.

www.searchengineworld.com/cloudflares-...

Cracker Barrel Outrage Was Almost Certainly Driven by Bots, Researchers Say Doesn't that make more sense than lots of people caring about Cracker Barrel?

Fascinating read... gizmodo.com/cracker-barr...

GEO – Thing or No Thing? SEO Community Weights in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) has moved from theory to playing and testing ground. Marketers are experimenting across the entire spectrum from ChatGPT, B

Real opportunity or just noise? We asked the community to share results and experiences. From tracking and clicks to measuring ROI across ChatGPT, Bing, Perplexity, and DDG, the responses give a clear snapshot of where GEO stands today.

www.searchengineworld.com/geo-thing-or...

#SEO #GEO #Google

Cloudflare Enters the Robots.txt Fray with a “Content Signals Policy” for AI bots Cloudflare just introduced a new way to tell bots what they can do with your content after they fetch it. The Content Signals Policy adds a short, human-readabl

CloudFlare introduces new Robots.txt directives to combat AI and search engine abuse : www.searchengineworld.com/cloudflare-e...

New in Labs: Mixboard a “Concepting Board” Google Labs has rolled out Mixboard, a new experiment aimed at turning brainstorming into a more  an interactive process. It is a cross between a mood board an

New in Google Labs: Mixboard. www.searchengineworld.com/new-in-labs-...

Google Adds Gemini Button To Chrome Google just rolled Gemini AI into Chrome for US desktop users. This isn’t just another browser update. It’s a shift in how billions of chrome users experien

And so it comes to pass: www.searchengineworld.com/google-adds-...

21% Fake Profiles Engineered Cracker Barrel's $10.5 Million Logo Crisis - Cyabra Cyabra uncovered that 21% of profiles attacking Cracker Barrel's logo change were fake accounts, generating 4.4M potential views and contributing to a 10.5% stock drop worth $100M in market value.…

Wait one fifth of the online chatter about cracker barrel were bots???

According to this study, yup.

UnSpeakable: The eroding ethics in the professional speaking industry.

www.msn.com/en-au/news/t...

TikTok Says its Search Engine is Rivals Google in GenZ TikTok - the new player in Search as 86% of GenZ search on TikTok weekly.

86% of Gen Z use TikTok weekly for search. www.searchengineworld.com/tiktok-says-...

don't ya just love the way they all say something like "2 hours of listening and 24hrs with the case"? You can't listen to them while they are in the case. lol