Matt G. Southern, Author at Search Engine Journal

About

Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, Matt specializes in gathering details, checking facts, and making complex subjects easy to understand. In addition to writing articles, Matt oversees strategy development for SEJ’s news department.

Articles

[turn-anchor preview v2] Google Explains Query Fan-Out Behind AI Search

A Google Search engineer reveals how AI Overviews and AI Mode decompose complex queries into parallel sub-queries, confirming that longer prompts are driving new search...

20 min read
18 hours ago

Google Explains Query Fan-Out Behind AI Search

A Google Search engineer reveals how AI Overviews and AI Mode decompose complex queries into parallel sub-queries, confirming that longer prompts are driving new search...

20 min read
18 hours ago

Italy’s Agcom Warns EU: Google AI Threatens Publishers

Italy’s telecom regulator has formally warned the European Commission that Google’s AI-powered search features put publishers’ business models at risk, adding to a growing wave...

8 min read
19 hours ago

Google Publishes Guide to Building Agent-Friendly Websites

New web.dev guidance outlines how AI agents interpret websites and what developers and SEOs should change to accommodate this emerging traffic source.

10 min read
May 1, 2026

Google Reverses Course, Will Preserve Active Goo.gl Links

Google updated its goo.gl shutdown plan to keep actively used shortlinks alive, a reversal that affects legacy link equity and redirect chain management for SEOs.

12 min read
May 1, 2026

Google Expands Preferred Sources to All Languages

Google’s preferred sources feature for Top Stories is now available in every language where Google Search operates, with new downloadable button assets for publishers.

5 min read
Apr 30, 2026

Meta Launches Ads CLI for Terminal-Based Campaign Management

Meta’s new command-line interface wraps the Marketing API into a single tool that lets developers and AI agents create, edit, and analyze ad campaigns without...

10 min read
Apr 30, 2026

Meta Q1 Revenue Hits $56.3B on 33% Jump in Ad Sales

A 19% increase in ad impressions and 12% rise in ad prices drove Meta’s biggest quarterly revenue gain in recent history, while a capex hike...

10 min read
Apr 29, 2026

YouTube Ad Revenue Hits $9.88B in Q1 as Google Search Grows 19%

Alphabet’s Q1 2026 earnings show YouTube ad revenue up 10.7% year-over-year, with AI-driven Search growth and 350 million paid subscribers reshaping the video ad landscape.

10 min read
Apr 29, 2026

Google Search Revenue Up 19% As AI Mode Drives Record Queries

Alphabet’s Q1 2026 earnings show AI Overviews and AI Mode are expanding Search usage, not cannibalizing it, with queries hitting an all-time high.

10 min read
Apr 29, 2026

How To Deploy llms.txt When Your CMS Won’t Cooperate

If your CMS blocks root-directory file uploads, a 301 redirect can serve your llms.txt to AI crawlers, but the details matter.

10 min read
Apr 29, 2026

News
Tools

SerpApi Challenges Google’s Right To Sue Over SERP Scraping

SerpApi filed a motion to dismiss Google’s DMCA lawsuit, arguing the search giant lacks standing to invoke copyright law over publicly visible search results.

3 min read
102 Reads
Feb 23, 2026

Microsoft: ‘Summarize With AI’ Buttons Used To Poison AI Recommendations

Microsoft found 31 companies hiding prompt injections inside “Summarize with AI” buttons aimed at biasing what AI assistants recommend in future conversations.

4 min read
1.2K Reads
Feb 20, 2026

News
PPC

Google Ads Surfaces PMax Search Partner Domains In Placement Report

Google Ads PMax placement reporting is now populating with data for more accounts, revealing Search Partner domains and impression counts for brand safety review.

4 min read
871 Reads
Feb 20, 2026

Google AI Mode Link Update, Click Share Data & ChatGPT Fan-Outs – SEO Pulse

The latest SEO Pulse examines how AI interfaces reshape link visibility, redirect clicks, and filter sources before rankings apply.

5 min read
2.8K Reads
Feb 20, 2026

Google Offers AI Certificate Free For Eligible U.S. Small Businesses

Google launched an AI Professional Certificate with seven self-paced modules and three months of AI Pro access. Eligible U.S. small businesses can enroll free.

3 min read
1.6K Reads
Feb 19, 2026

ChatGPT Search Often Switches To English In Fan-Out Queries: Report

Peec AI analyzed fan-out queries from 10M+ ChatGPT prompts and found 43% of background searches ran in English, even for non-English prompts.

4 min read
1.2K Reads
Feb 18, 2026

Why Google Runs AI Mode On Flash, Explained By Google’s Chief Scientist

Google’s Jeff Dean explains why latency and cost make Flash Google’s production tier for AI search, and why models are built to retrieve, not memorize.

4 min read
493 Reads
Feb 18, 2026

Google Says Links Will Be More Visible In AI Overviews

Google is adding hover link pop-ups on desktop in AI Overviews and AI Mode, plus more prominent link icons within responses across desktop and mobile.

2 min read
4.2K Reads
Feb 17, 2026

Google Text Ad Click Share Rises Sharply In Some Verticals

An analysis of approximately 16,000 U.S. queries shows text ads increasing their click share by 7-13 points year over year.

3 min read
573 Reads
Feb 17, 2026

Google Lost Two Antitrust Cases, But Stock Rose 65% – Here’s Why

Courts ruled against Google, regulators push forward, and appeals loom. Here’s where every proceeding stands and what it signals for search and monetization.

11 min read
1.1K Reads
Feb 17, 2026

News
SEO

Google’s Search Relations Team Debates If You Still Need A Website

Google’s Search Relations team discussed whether you still need a website in 2026, and outlined when social, apps, or the web make sense.

3 min read
1.9K Reads
Feb 13, 2026

Bing AI Citation Tracking, Hidden HTTP Homepages & Pages Fall Under Crawl Limit – SEO Pulse

The latest SEO Pulse examines AI citation dashboards, invisible homepage pitfalls, and what new crawl data means for technical teams.

8 min read
1.5K Reads
Feb 13, 2026

Cloudflare’s New Markdown for AI Bots: What You Need To Know

Cloudflare launched Markdown for Agents, converting HTML pages to markdown automatically when AI crawlers request it through content negotiation.

4 min read
4.8K Reads
Feb 13, 2026

News
PPC

Google’s Ads Chief Details UCP Expansion, New AI Mode Ads

Google’s VP of Ads & Commerce published her annual letter previewing agentic commerce updates, AI Mode ad expansion, and creator-brand matching tools for 2026.

4 min read
1.5K Reads
Feb 11, 2026

Hidden HTTP Page Can Cause Site Name Problems In Google

Google’s John Mueller explains how a leftover HTTP homepage invisible to Chrome users can cause site-name and favicon problems in search results.

4 min read
1.3K Reads
Feb 11, 2026

From Article to Short-Form Video That Holds Attention

Effective article-to-video workflows prioritize what to cut, what to keep, and how to structure 150 words that actually hold attention.

11 min read
3.0K Reads
Feb 11, 2026

News
SEO

Google Can Now Monitor Search For Your Government IDs

Google’s Results about you tool now monitors Search results for government-issued IDs like passports, driver’s licenses, and Social Security numbers.

2 min read
1.2K Reads
Feb 10, 2026

News
Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools Adds AI Citation Performance Data

Bing Webmaster Tools now shows publishers how often their content is cited in Copilot and AI-generated answers, with page-level data and grounding queries.

2 min read
3.2K Reads
Feb 9, 2026

OpenAI Begins Testing Ads In ChatGPT For Free And Go Users

OpenAI is testing ads in ChatGPT for free and Go tiers in the U.S. Ads appear below responses, labeled as sponsored. Paid tiers remain ad-free.

6 min read
2.0K Reads
Feb 9, 2026

How To Track AI Visibility & Prompts The Right Way

The Guide To Winning More Business Online In 2026