Google's Default Search Engine Dominance and Antitrust

Welcome back to Niche Pursuits News, where Spencer and Jared share the most important and recent news in SEO, digital marketing, content creation, and website building. Grab something to drink and get comfortable—there’s lots to cover this week! 

The first topic they cover is Google's antitrust lawsuit. One of Google's witnesses made a mistake on the stand and accidentally revealed that it pays Apple 36% of the revenue earned via search ad activity on Apple’s Safari browser. 

Essentially, Google is paying billions of dollars to Apple to ensure that it's the default browser on all of its products and it did not want this data to be revealed. What does this mean for other search engines? Does Google have a monopoly in the search engine market?

Or, maybe a better question is, how good is Google really? Does it need to go to these lengths to become the default browser? Is the quality of its search actually getting worse? And what is the science behind being the “default?”

The next news item up for discussion is Google's announcement about new ways that users can find what they're looking for on Search. 

Google is testing out three features: allowing users to follow topics that they're interested in by adding a follow button, adding a perspective filter to allow users to get the best first-hand knowledge on a topic, and including information about content creators to highlight their expertise. 

What other potentially controversial announcements has Google made with regard to new features? What’s the role of AI in all of this? Tune in to find out! 

Jared and Spencer then talk about Danny Sullivan's recent presentation at brightonSEO. The Google Search Liaison essentially told attendees to get ready for even more changes, tweaks, and improvements to Google’s search rankings.

To get a peek at his full presentation, head on over to Twitter, where he posted all the slides and see for yourself. But what were the overarching themes? Listen to the podcast to hear Jared and Spencer's impressions. 

When it comes to Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and talks about his adventures building a faceless YouTube channel. 

He offers a summary on Twitter, but the gist is that he started uploading videos and one video went viral in May and got 474k views. He started to earn money and was making plans for the future when his viral video got hit with a copyright notification and had to be taken down.

How have things gone since then? What’s in store for this side hustle? Listen and find out what Spencer’s doing now!

When it’s Jared’s turn, he gives an update on his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle which, if you've been tuning in over the last few weeks, has been particularly volatile. The good news is that earnings appear to be picking up, so stay tuned to see if he sees a full recovery. 

He also talks about his photography course on Weekend Growth and the importance of having high-quality photos, particularly in view of all the changes in Google. His course, which offers useful tips for non-professionals, is celebrating its 1-year anniversary. 

Don’t miss out on the chance to get it! Jared’s offering it for 50% off with the code “Niche Pursuits.”

When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, the co-hosts really capture the weirdness of the web. Spencer reveals his ‘90s-looking website, Disk Prices, which is essentially a list of hard drive prices and their different characteristics. 

All of the links are Amazon affiliate links, and search engine traffic varies according to the source: 2600 organic searches per month according to Ahrefs, 20k according to SimilarWeb.

How is the website updated? How is it doing on mobile? How did it fare during the HCU? What are the key takeaways from this website? 

When it’s Jared’s turn, he shows his love for cats with Cat News Headlines. It’s a repository of daily (and probably) manually updated cat news from all over the web. This DR4 site only ranks for 250 keywords. The main articles it’s ranking for are cat food reviews and, in general, the site isn’t doing especially well. 

What do they think of the design? What is the site doing correctly (if anything)?  

And that brings us to the end of another great podcast. We hope you feel informed of all the latest news in the SEO space and inspired to launch or continue your business projects and side hustles. See you next week!

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