Search is noisier, and it’s harder to tell what’s real.

Google is noticeably losing its grip on reliability and utility. There’s more SEO spam, AI-generated fluff, and “Top 10” lists that say nothing. Popular products get buried beneath sponsored carousels. If you’re shopping, you can end up scrolling past three blocks of ads before even hitting organic results, which often feel generic or outdated.

Google’s AI Overviews can be helpful at times, but they also mean fewer clicks for websites. That makes it harder to find certain sources and even harder for marketers. A new kind of search strategy is emerging (some call it SEMO, search engine machine optimization), where instead of optimizing for people, you’re optimizing for AI bots that summarize your content and never send traffic your way.

And yet… something about these answers feels off. Can I trust them? Should I?
It often feels like Google is pushing what it wants me to see, not what’s most relevant. Less like “organized information,” more like a billboard. Or a cluttered site where a million pop-ups are trying to sell me something before I even know what I’m looking for.

Ironically, I find ChatGPT more helpful when shopping or researching lately. It gets to the point. It summarizes. But it’s murky too. Can I trust this answer? What source did it use? How long before this space also becomes monetized, gamified, and turned into another version of Google clickbait?

I can’t tell if Google is trying to lean into AI and cannibalize its own ad business—or if it’s trying to protect the ad machine while bolting AI onto the top of it. Maybe it’s both. Maybe that’s the problem.

SEO isn’t dead. But you can’t rely on it alone.
Trust is fraying. Search results feel worse.
Younger users are defaulting to TikTok, Reddit, or ChatGPT to “scroll and stumble” instead.

This changes how we think about visibility. It’s not just about ranking.
It’s about discovery. It’s about trust.
And maybe, more than ever it’s about being worth finding.