Welcome back to another episode of the News Pursuit News podcast!
This week, Jared and Thomas talked about Google’s March 2025 core update, news that AI search engines struggled with appropriate citations and the Justice Department’s push to break Google’s monopoly. When it comes to Hustle Shenanigans, Thomas reveals a viral Facebook page strategy that wins over 22,000 likes for $200. Finally, they share some weird niche sites, including secret game sites and retro toaster business.
Let’s dig into the details!
Watch the entire episode
Google’s March 2025 core update
Google’s March 2025 core update has officially launched, and it’s an interesting hope: prioritize content creators. While core updates usually take two to four weeks to fully roll out, early signs indicate a little bit better about what is created by humans.
Key points:
- Google’s announcement highlights the increased visibility of content creators.
- Some website owners, such as Thomas, have noticed a significant increase in traffic to original manual written content.
- Google has found traffic is increasing, which suggests a greater focus on surface quality, engaging content.
- This shift may not be purely altruism—Google relies on high-quality human content to train its AI models.
- Guessing still exists: Will AI-generated content see a drop in ranking?
While it’s too early to say how this will work, the initial data suggests that content creators who have struggled after the past updates may eventually see victory. However, during these rollouts, fluctuations are common, so patience and monitoring are key.
There are major citation issues in AI search
A recent study by Columbia News Review analyzed eight AI search engines and found that they are all Struggle with appropriate attribution and accuracy When citing news sources.
Key findings:
- 60% The reference generated by AI is incorrect.
- A chatbot GROK3 has a citation rate of 94% error rate.
- AI tools rarely acknowledge uncertainty and often fabricated information rather than refuse to answer.
- Some chatbots ignore robots.txt rules and blocked content from access, causing ethical issues.
- AI often links to joint versions of news, rather than original resources, creating problems for publishers.
This highlights one of the major flaws in AI-generated search results: they are struggling in real-time, news. With Google spending years perfecting its ability to surface content, AI models rely primarily on old training data and have difficulty integrating new information.
For publishers, this raises concerns about AI scratch content without proper attribution and potential monetization impact. With Google seemingly inclined to surface content, is that their competitive advantage over AI-powered search competitors?
Google pushes for breakups in the Justice Department
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is strengthening its Antitrust case against Googlepropose a series of rapid measures that can reshape the search and digital advertising landscape.
The Ministry of Justice’s main recommendations:
- Force Google to strip Chrome, which will greatly affect its ability to collect user data.
- Prohibiting Google on browsers and devices is the exclusive agreement for Google.
- Asked Google to open its search data to competitors for a decade.
- Implement government supervision of AI-related investments to prevent Google from monopolizing AI search.
While Google intends to appeal, bipartisan support for stronger antitrust measures suggests that actual changes are likely to happen. If Chrome is stripped, it may seriously reduce Google’s ability to track user behavior on the web, thus affecting its advertising advantages.
This can have a wide range of implications for digital marketers and website owners. More search competition may mean more traffic diversity, but it may also undermine the ad revenue model.
Penny for Facebook page growth
Thomas shares his recent success through a Facebook page growth strategy that leverages viral style engagement advertising.
His strategy breakdown:
- Focus on viruses, advanced engagement topics (dogs, cats, and religion).
- Use AI-generated ads to create compelling posts.
- Running Facebook likes campaigns, which cost $0.006, is a fraction of the typical cost.
- Grow the page to over 22,000 likes in less than two weeks.
- Try monetization options, including Facebook bonus plans and external traffic arbitrage.
This experiment highlights Facebook’s potential for low-cost audiences. Next step? Figure out how to best monetize this audience by direct monetization on Facebook or driving traffic to external platforms.
Weird niche site this week
It seems that the website about cooking schools is actually a hub for accessibility gaming, probably for students trying to bypass the school’s internet filter. website, Cooking Schoolis a paradise for children.
- The site has over 500,000 organic visits per month.
- For the “(Game Name) Not Blocked” query, it ranks very high, and can help children access the game even if they meet the browsing limit.
- Given the high page view and engagement time, monetization may be based on advertising.
This clever hub shows how reshaping and targeting new audiences can completely change the website.
Michael is a retro toaster enthusiast who is Toaster Center.
- His website ranks terms like “old toaster” and “antique toaster repair”.
- Some refurbished toasts sold for hundreds of dollars.
- He provides educational content on toaster history and maintenance, positioning himself as the go-to expert for the niche.
This is a great example of a passion-driven niche that turns into a profitable online business.
The final thought
The theme of this week (from Google’s update to AI’s failed citations and the Justice Department’s crackdown) is not sure about the rapid changes that have occurred in search and digital marketing. Key Points for Content Creators and Marketers:
- If you produce high-quality personal content, you can benefit from the latest updates from Google.
- AI search is still struggling with accuracy, especially for real-time news content.
- Major antitrust changes may shake searches and advertising and have been adjusted.
- A low-cost Facebook audience is possible, but the real challenge is to make money.
- The weird niche could be gold mines, whether it’s a kids’ gaming site or a retro toaster.
As always, these developments will continue to evolve and keeping a close eye on trends will be key. Be sure to listen to more updates next week!
