January 2026 marks one of the biggest months yet for SEO, AI, and digital platforms. This episode breaks down how search, visibility, and trust are shifting as AI moves from an experiment to core infrastructure across search, shopping, health, and everyday technology.

🎬 Top Videos & Talks

This month’s videos focus on the rapid acceleration of AI and robotics, with humanoid robots learning tasks independently, predicting outcomes, and interacting with people in increasingly realistic ways. Several experiments explore what happens when large language models are embedded directly into robots, raising serious questions about autonomy, safety, and control. Alongside this, leading search and SEO voices explain how AI answers are reshaping discovery, why brand mentions often matter more than links, and how users are finding information without clicking through to websites.

📰 Top Stories

The biggest stories confirm that AI is no longer supporting search and commerce but actively replacing parts of them. Apple deepens its partnership with Google Gemini for Siri, while Google rolls out AI-powered shopping, virtual try-ons, and direct checkout directly in search. New data shows AI Overviews dominating medical queries, driving down organic click-through rates and raising concerns about misinformation and lost nuance. Google also introduces meaningful Search Console updates, including improved query grouping, Discover insights, and clearer reporting.

🌍 Other News

Beyond search, AI continues to reshape healthcare, work, and regulation. New tools analyse medical records, automation plans point to large-scale job losses, and AI hallucinations are appearing in courts and academic research. At the same time, global investment in AI infrastructure accelerates, while governments begin responding to safety concerns around children, surveillance, and AI-powered consumer products.

💬 Social & Industry Highlights

Across the industry, practitioners note that AI visibility no longer follows traditional ranking rules. Attention is spread across more sources, shorter and clearer content is often cited, informational blog content outperforms comparison pages, and social content from platforms like Reddit and X is appearing more frequently in search results.

Explore the majority of the stories covered here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vRgApI9fMAMVswEIcS8iz2HXYpWXPlA2hjHZs8B9stlS6s8mvX-cAkHydCWW2yvca6Jv2sn0xu6w4Eg/pubhtml

Welcome to Search With Sean: Weekly News — your concise roundup of the key stories shaping SEO, AI, search, and digital strategy this week.

Co Hosts:

Nicola Agius - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicola-agius-8b330956/

Amanda Walls - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandajwalls/

Stanislav Farkas - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanislav-farkas-fastraveller/

We covered the following + more:

Top Stories

We unpacked Google’s December core update, rolling out over three weeks just before the holidays. As always, the advice remains consistent: expect volatility, avoid knee-jerk changes, and wait until rollout completes before reacting.

We also discussed Microsoft Copilot usage trends, showing users increasingly turning to AI for health, career, and relationship guidance — highlighting how LLMs are shifting from search tools to personal decision support.

Another major theme was AI Overviews disrupting paid search, particularly on mobile, where ads are now frequently pushed below the fold — with healthcare seeing the biggest impact.

Local SEO also featured heavily, with research reinforcing how reviews, listing accuracy, and response times directly influence trust, conversions, and AI visibility.

Top Videos

We reviewed a Whiteboard Friday analysis showing AI Overviews appearing lower in SERPs more often, fuelling speculation around Google’s push toward AI Mode.

Google’s Year in Search highlighted how users are adopting longer, more conversational queries — influenced by voice search and LLM behaviour.

We also covered new product-focused AI Overviews, where Google is testing direct links to commercial pages, hinting at future monetisation strategies.

Plus highlights from the SEO in 2026 livestream and a deep conversation with Rand Fishkin on zero-click journeys, fragmented discovery, and where search is heading next.

Top Social Posts

Search Console updates stood out this week, including weekly and monthly reporting views and early AI-assisted insights.

We discussed Google’s rollout of Preferred Sources, new publisher partnerships, and the growing concern around echo chambers and source bias.

Finally, we covered the EU investigation into Google’s use of publisher and creator content for AI Overviews, alongside fresh analysis showing content length has no real impact on AI citations — relevance and clarity still win.

00:00 – Intro & show format

03:00 – Google December core update

11:00 – Core updates, volatility & expectations

18:00 – Copilot usage & AI as decision support

25:00 – AI Overviews vs paid search

33:00 – Local SEO, reviews & trust signals

40:00 – AI Overviews moving down SERPs

46:00 – Google Year in Search & changing behaviour

52:00 – Product links inside AI Overviews

58:00 – SEO in 2026 & Rand Fishkin highlights

01:04:00 – Search Console updates & Preferred Sources

01:08:00 – EU investigation, AI citations & wrap-up

View all stories + more here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRgApI9fMAMVswEIcS8iz2HXYpWXPlA2hjHZs8B9stlS6s8mvX-cAkHydCWW2yvca6Jv2sn0xu6w4Eg/pubhtml

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This December episode dives into another packed month of digital marketing, AI and search - from China’s rapidly advancing robotics, to Google’s latest Search Console upgrades, new AI shopping tools, and major shifts in how large language models cite content. We also cover the most interesting videos, discussions and social posts shaping the industry. Here’s what’s inside 👇🎬 Top VideosWe highlight a wide range of videos this month — from Vanessa Wingårdh’s critiques on society’s growing AI dependency and Amazon’s job-cut plans, to XPeng’s humanoid robot demo that was so realistic the team had to dismantle it live on stage.You’ll also see robotics tours from China, Julia McCoy’s AI-driven breakdown of the future of video creation, Stephen Fry and Yoshua Bengio discussing AI risks, Dario Amodei warning about fast, unregulated development, and John Mueller unpacking the newest Search Console features. Plus: panels on the singularity, home robotics, and deep interviews with leaders across AI. 📰 Top StoriesThis month includes Google’s rollout of AI-powered shopping and auto-checkout features, Apple planning to license Google’s 1.2T-parameter model for Siri, and a charity receiving a 27,000% traffic spike after a UK TV show mention.We also cover Microsoft’s new Copilot for Health, fresh data showing AI Overviews appearing heavily in medical queries, a 61% organic CTR drop on queries with AI answers, and Google’s addition of custom annotations, branded vs non-branded filters, and new query grouping inside Search Console.Other major updates include new Insights into Google Discover, Ahrefs research on brand mentions improving AI visibility, and surprising findings on how LLMs differ wildly from Google rankings. 🌍 Other NewsWe review projects like World — a digital identity system co-founded by Sam Altman — and explore concerns around job losses, universal basic income, and the future of work raised by Elon Musk and Amazon’s automation plans.There’s also data showing 97% of clicks still happen in Google’s top 10 results, OpenAI-related hallucination cases in courts, Google’s Project Sun Capture for space-based AI data centers, rising issues with AI-powered toys breaking safety guardrails, and several sector-specific studies on AI citations across travel and brand stability. 💬 Social HighlightsWe wrap up with standout posts from across the industry — including analyses of ChatGPT’s most common prompt types, volatility in AI-driven brand mentions, TikTok’s new local discovery and review-gamification features, and Google’s continuing rollout of new Search Console tools.The episode also features debates on AI accuracy, safety failures (like AI mistaking a bag of Doritos for a gun), creator-focused AI tools, and the real-world impacts of LLM-driven search on visibility and user journeys. 👉 Subscribe for ongoing SEO, AI and digital-marketing updates — all based on real stories, real data, and real examples from across the industry.Explore the majority of the stories covered here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRgApI9fMAMVswEIcS8iz2HXYpWXPlA2hjHZs8B9stlS6s8mvX-cAkHydCWW2yvca6Jv2sn0xu6w4Eg/pubhtmlIf you would like a copy of the slides email me at searchwithsean@outlook.com + Sorry about the laggy picture! : /