What I learned at Google I/O - Search is radically changing!
Search News You Can Use - SEO Podcast with Marie HaynesShow Notes
It was an honour to attend Google I/O in person. Search is changing radically! Google called it a new era of Search with Gemini 2.5 at its core.
This podcast episode was recorded live.
Stay up to date on AI with my newsletter: https://mariehaynes.com/newsletter Immediate updates on important AI and SEO news in my community, the Search Bar: https://community.mariehaynes.com/spaces/11879397/feed
0:00 – 0:51 Welcome & recap of Google I/O invitation, outline of the live episode’s agenda 0:51 – 1:55 Screen-share setup; meeting Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin anecdotes 2:40 – 4:15 What AI Mode is, why Google may replace “classic” search, and the query fan-out patent 4:15 – 6:02 How clicks train AI Mode; demo showing 59 source sites and the result carousel 7:03 – 9:14 Ethics of Google using web content; E-E-A-T impact on carousel inclusion 9:55 – 12:22 Accuracy, hallucinations, feedback buttons, and why original content matters 14:00 – 17:21 Freshness signals, library analogy for originality, Gemini Live phone demo 17:21 – 27:55 Gemini AR glasses test, personal-context search & privacy implications 32:21 – 35:22 Gemini in Chrome: on-page AI assistance, summarisation, e-commerce concerns 35:22 – 40:47 Project Mariner: browser agents that automate multitab workflows; job impact 40:47 – 43:59 Agent Mode & agent-to-agent checkout; custom charts/graphs in AI Mode 43:59 – 50:52 Deep Search (multi-query research) and uploading your own files for reports 50:52 – 54:42 E-commerce upgrades: “Try it On” virtual fitting, price-tracking, “Buy for Me” with Google Pay, Wing drone delivery 54:42 – 57:00 Gemini V3 multimodal video creation, Flow editor, AI content production costs 57:00 – 60:00 Google’s universal AI assistant vision, coming hardware, and industry upheaval 60:00 – 61:00 Sergey Brin on the web’s unpredictability ten years out; reflections on accelerating change 61:00 – 62:27 Dario Amodei’s forecast of 20 % unemployment from AI; balancing fear with opportunity 62:27 – 63:50 Learning-curve discussion: experiment daily, let Gemini/ChatGPT tutor you step by step 63:50 – 66:00 Question on falling organic clicks: focus on conversions, cite Will Reynolds’ data, report revenue over raw traffic 66:00 – 67:12 Who gets credit—SEO or CRO? Rebranding SEO as AIO/GEO and outlining the evolving practitioner role 67:12 – 68:32 Brand building beyond Wikipedia: podcasts, social presence, authoritative mentions; example of podcast mention boosting AI-overview visibility 68:32 – 69:20 LLMs.txt debate: no major model honors it yet, so implementing it is likely wasted effort 69:20 – 70:10 Server-log analysis of AI bots: seeing ByteDance and others, limited actionable value beyond selective blocking 70:10 – 71:10 Google Agent Space: 100-seat minimum, use cases for large agencies (onboarding, HR, process agents) 71:10 – 72:10 MCP for e-commerce customization tools; preparing your site for future agent-to-agent APIs 72:10 – 73:20 Speculation that many third-party agent frameworks will fade once Google/OpenAI integrate agents natively 73:20 – 74:10 Community learning benefits; SEO skillset as problem-solving edge in the AI era 74:10 – 75:25 Overview of the Search Bar Pro community, tutorials, “happy hour” discussions, member advantages 75:25 – 76:50 Coping with upheaval: lamplighter analogy, choosing optimism, hunting for new opportunities 76:50 – 78:00 Closing remarks: upcoming talks on BCIs and agents 78:00 – 87:08 Final chat exchanges, farewells, and session wrap-up
More from Search News You Can Use - SEO Podcast with Marie Haynes
Google's latest earnings call reveals a massive shift in search and AI infrastructure. While Gemini 3.5 Pro is delayed, new Flash models are already changing how AI Overviews function and how agents interact with your data.
In my last video, I introduced the concept of Google's Open Knowledge Format (OKF). Today, I'm showing you exactly what I've built with it. I have created a personal brain that I use every day to automate complex SEO tasks, generate proposals, and analyze Google search updates. We walk through the structure of an OKF file, including the YAML frontmatter and how it differs from traditional RAG. If you want to make your data and processes agent-ready, my hope is that what I'm building will help you build your own OKF brain.Here's the first video on OKF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY9F9K7wWX4 To build something similar, give these links to your agent (Claude Code / Cowork, ChatGPT Codex or my favourite, Google's Antigravity) and try this prompt:"I want to build an OKF system similar to Marie's. Read these links and then give me some ideas of what this would look like. Then, ask me questions one at a time so that together, we can decide what we want to build:https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/how-the-open-knowledge-format-can-improve-data-sharing/https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/knowledge-catalog/blob/main/okf/SPEC.md https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94fhttps://www.mariehaynes.com/okf/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY9F9K7wWX4https://youtu.be/esYAIA6lU-s"
Google just announced the Open Knowledge Format (OKF), a new way to structure your knowledge for AI agents. This standard uses simple Markdown to make business and personal insights accessible to the agentic web. In this video, I break down why this changes SEO, how to build your first OKF bundle, and the potential for selling expert knowledge directly to AI systems.Google's blog post on okf:https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/how-the-open-knowledge-format-can-improve-data-sharing/The Spec.md file for OKF on Github:https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/knowledge-catalog/blob/main/okf/SPEC.mdAndrej Karpathy's LLM-Wiki:https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94fJoin me in my community at the Search Bar:https://community.mariehaynes.comhttps://mariehaynes.com/join - for more on the paid areas.0:00 - Introduction to Google's Open Knowledge Format (OKF)1:03 - How OKF changes SEO and makes businesses accessible to AI agents1:43 - Selling proprietary knowledge and OKF bundles2:21 - How to use NotebookLM and Gemini to learn the new standard3:02 - What is OKF? (Markdown files and the LLM Wiki pattern)4:01 - Breaking down the OKF spec (Human and agent-friendly format)5:03 - Terminology: Creating "Knowledge Bundles" and directories5:51 - Structuring concepts as single Markdown files6:30 - Understanding YAML front matter (Type, title, descriptions, tags)7:18 - Formatting the body, citations, and cross-linking7:40 - Organizing files: Index files, log files, and using Git/Obsidian9:11 - Practical examples: BigQuery data vs. triggered Playbooks11:12 - Andre Karpathy’s LLM Wiki pattern explained13:48 - Letting the LLM write and maintain your knowledge wiki14:34 - Why OKF is the "new schema" and future revenue streams17:15 - How agents discover your OKF (llms.txt) and "Semantic Unbaking"
You can build an AI dashboard so easily - even if you don't know how to code! In this episode, Laura Tobin from the Search Bar community shares the incredible system of AI agents she built using Claude and Co-work. As a food blogger facing the shifts in AI changing Search, Laura decided to pivot from fighting the technology to using it to become a "one-person content machine."She walks us through her "Command Center," a custom dashboard that manages her entire workflow, from post pipelines to client shoots. We also discuss the "uncanny valley" of AI content and why her audience rejected AI avatars, teaching us a valuable lesson on where AI belongs in your business.The discussion following the webinar is so good. We share the different avenues we are exploring in building an AI brain. Where to connect with Laura Tobin:A free 30 minutes exploratory session:https://calendly.com/laura-tobinfooddigital/30minEmail:[email protected]'s Bloghttps://yourguardianchef.com/Laura's youtube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@yourguardianchefLaura's Instagram account:https://www.instagram.com/yourguardianchefJoin Marie's community, the Search Bar for real time Search and AI News:https://community.mariehaynes.com/Join the Search Bar Pro area so you can join our weekly meetings:https://www.mariehaynes.com/join/Timestamps: 0:01 - Introduction: Meet Laura and her Claude-powered content system.1:02 - Laura's Pivot: Becoming a one-person content machine after Google's update.3:03 - AI Video Testing: Why human authenticity still beats AI avatars.6:07 - System Setup: Centralizing goals and workflows into a "Second Brain."8:34 - The AI Team: Meet Laura's specific agents (Kiara, Francesca, Julia, Rosella).10:25 - Command Center: Walkthrough of her custom dashboard and time-tracking tool.13:48 - Social Batching: Automating schedules and building a reusable content bank.17:04 - Photography Days: Managing recipes, shoot schedules, and client quotes.19:30 - Results: How the system saves time and improves audience engagement.21:46 - Q&A: Moving assets to Google Drive and republishing YouTube Shorts.24:04 - Q&A: Using Claude Co-work and why Notion acts as the system's memory.28:20 - Global Instructions: Using .md files to run agents and saving token costs.32:46 - Getting Started: How Laura built it all without a coding background.36:13 - Choosing an App: Debating Notion, Craft, and Obsidian for data storage.41:06 - The Future: Discussing open-source agents and auto-building systems.46:37 - AI Goals: Using agents for task execution vs. life optimization.48:45 - Conclusion: Wrap-up and how to contact Laura for consulting.
Google has just released a major update to Search Console, providing website owners with dedicated performance reports for Generative AI features including AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover AI. In this video, I walk through where to find this new report, why impressions matter even without click data, and the new regulatory changes that forced Google's hand.