Starting 2026, Google is still the most used search engine in the World. We can even argue that, with the integration of Gemini into search results (as AI Mode and AI Overviews), Google also has the most used AI in the World. Alternative search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and now Yahoo are challenging though, and Google is reacting by adding more AI features to search results.
Now that search engines give complete answers and recommendations to users, there is the fear that sites will get less traffic and business from search. However, a recent study by Graphite and Similarweb shows that traffic from SEO was only down 2.5% in 2025. The added promise from Google is that traffic will be of better quality thanks to AI.
Shopping features in search tools and new standards announced by Google in January also point to a future where eCommerce will be superseded by “agentic commerce”. AI tools capable of purchasing products will prefer to access product data, deals and shipping details as structured data rather than having to crawl through a website.
Yahoo launches a new AI driven search engine
Yahoo announced on January 27th that it has launched a new “AI answer engine”, currently available as a beta for Yahoo users in the United States. Described as a new, proprietary AI-powered answer engine, Yahoo Scout uses the Claude by Anthropic LLM to generate answers and Microsoft Bing’s Grounding API for web search.
Historically Yahoo! was a major player in web search with a directory of websites launched in 1994 and then its own search engine. The directory was discontinued in 2014 and the search engine continued powered by Microsoft Bing since 2009.
What makes Yahoo Scout a potential challenger to Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity is that Yahoo already has 250 million users in the US in an ecosystem including Yahoo Search, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo News
While Google remains the leading search engine, we suggest you test new tools like Yahoo Scout to make sure that your site is listed in results. For local businesses, check that addresses and phone are listed correctly.
January 2026 volatility in Google search results
Google search volatility tracking tools continued to show lots of changes to ranking in Google in January. Writing for Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz continues to call out these changes as “unconfirmed Google updates”, and he is backed up by recent declarations by Google that it does not announce every Core Update.
There were two distinct periods of volatility, early in the month (possible after effects from the December 2025 Core Update) and then from January 15th through to January 27th.
Barry bases his claims of unconfirmed updates on results from rank tracking software and chatter in webmaster and SEO forums. He notes for the January updates that there are a lot of complaints of site owners losing ad revenue from Google with these updates. We mentioned in December that Glenn Gabe thought there was a link between intrusive ads and the December Core Update. Could ads suggested by Google AdSense be killing ranking for sites using them in Google search?
The detailed report from Lily Ray, Google’s December 2025 Core Update: Winners, Losers & Analysis, showed that eCommerce sites (apparel sites particularly) were winners while user generated content (including Wikipedia) and social sites were the biggest losers.
Volatility tracking tools only give a large overview of ranking volatility, use SEOPress Insights to monitor ranking in Google for your keywords.
Evolving Google AI results
Google announced on January 27th that Gemini 3 is now used by default for generating AI Overviews and AI Mode responses in Google search. This means that AI search features use the latest and best AI model from Google.
There is some confusion around the Gemini brand because it is the name of Google’s stand-alone Gemini app and the AI model (the brain) used in search, NotebookLM, Google Workspace apps, Chrome browsers and Android.
For comparison, ChatGPT is the app and GPT is the model, GPT-5.2 being the latest model. Gemini is both the app and the model in Google.
The same article also announced that AI Overviews now lead directly to AI Mode. AI Overviews previews show in search results for roughly 21% of searches. To see a full AI Overview answer, users have to click on Show more. Previously this expanded the answer but did not give the opportunity of asking a follow-up question. Now clicking Show more will overlay search results with the AI Mode answer. This will show the follow up question invitation but also hide the traditional blue link search results. Writing for Search Engine Land, Barry Schwartz commented that “This is a big deal, because this will likely result in even fewer clicks from Google Search to publishers and instead will drive more searchers into AI Mode”.
While Google search results are changing, it is difficult for website owners to understand what impact this is having on traffic. AI Overviews and AI Mode do contain links to websites and can generate traffic, but we can’t distinguish it from traffic from classic search results.
It would be good if Google Search Console and Google Analytics helped distinguish the different types of impressions and clicks. Microsoft did this in January by launching the AI Performance Report in Bing Webmaster Tools.
What should you do: Keep monitoring traffic from Google. Using Google Analytics you can follow the quantity and quality of traffic from Google. See our article Getting Started with Google Analytics 4 for more information.
Google launched new agentic commerce standards
Google, OpenAI and other AI model developers think that the future of retail is “Agentic Commerce”. This means that rather than humans visiting eCommerce sites to discover, choose and purchase products they will delegate those tasks to AI agents. Technology exists today that lets AI agents navigate eCommerce sites, but this approach is not very efficient. AI models would like to have more direct access to product information and transaction processing.
On January 11th Google launched a new protocol for agentic commerce, called the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). It was built in collaboration with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart. It shows that Google wants to be leader in this domain.
Google says that eCommerce sites supporting UCP will be able to get a Buy button directly in Google AI Mode leading to a native checkout (users will purchase from a website without visiting it). However, Google’s bigger ambition is that UCP becomes an industry standard and are hoping that other eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce will adopt it to help retailers get onboard. There is a feature request currently open on the WooCommerce website but no official reaction.
Preparing for the eventuality of AI driven shopping, it is worth thinking about the quality of data you provide through your current eCommerce CMS (for most retailers on WordPress this is WooCommerce). Is it AI readable?
Providing a Google shopping feed and structured data is important but you must make sure that you provide unique product identifiers (SKU / GTIN / EAN / MPN), real time stock and correctly identified variants. Basic Product Schema provided by WooCommerce may not be rich enough to provide all the important data AI requires.
Prepare for AI driven shopping by making sure that your structured data is first class. Use SEOPress Product Schema instead of the basic WooCommerce Product Schema and make sure that you provide product global identifiers.
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