What I learned at Google I/O - Search is radically changing!
It was an honour to attend Google I/O in person.
Search is changing radically! Google called it a new era of Search with Gemini 2.5 at its core.
This podcast episode was recorded live.
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0:00 – 0:51 Welcome & recap of Google I/O invitation, outline of the live episode’s agenda
0:51 – 1:55 Screen-share setup; meeting Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin anecdotes
2:40 – 4:15 What AI Mode is, why Google may replace “classic” search, and the query fan-out patent
4:15 – 6:02 How clicks train AI Mode; demo showing 59 source sites and the result carousel
7:03 – 9:14 Ethics of Google using web content; E-E-A-T impact on carousel inclusion
9:55 – 12:22 Accuracy, hallucinations, feedback buttons, and why original content matters
14:00 – 17:21 Freshness signals, library analogy for originality, Gemini Live phone demo
17:21 – 27:55 Gemini AR glasses test, personal-context search & privacy implications
32:21 – 35:22 Gemini in Chrome: on-page AI assistance, summarisation, e-commerce concerns
35:22 – 40:47 Project Mariner: browser agents that automate multitab workflows; job impact
40:47 – 43:59 Agent Mode & agent-to-agent checkout; custom charts/graphs in AI Mode
43:59 – 50:52 Deep Search (multi-query research) and uploading your own files for reports
50:52 – 54:42 E-commerce upgrades: “Try it On” virtual fitting, price-tracking, “Buy for Me” with Google Pay, Wing drone delivery
54:42 – 57:00 Gemini V3 multimodal video creation, Flow editor, AI content production costs
57:00 – 60:00 Google’s universal AI assistant vision, coming hardware, and industry upheaval
60:00 – 61:00 Sergey Brin on the web’s unpredictability ten years out; reflections on accelerating change
61:00 – 62:27 Dario Amodei’s forecast of 20 % unemployment from AI; balancing fear with opportunity
62:27 – 63:50 Learning-curve discussion: experiment daily, let Gemini/ChatGPT tutor you step by step
63:50 – 66:00 Question on falling organic clicks: focus on conversions, cite Will Reynolds’ data, report revenue over raw traffic
66:00 – 67:12 Who gets credit—SEO or CRO? Rebranding SEO as AIO/GEO and outlining the evolving practitioner role
67:12 – 68:32 Brand building beyond Wikipedia: podcasts, social presence, authoritative mentions; example of podcast mention boosting AI-overview visibility
68:32 – 69:20 LLMs.txt debate: no major model honors it yet, so implementing it is likely wasted effort
69:20 – 70:10 Server-log analysis of AI bots: seeing ByteDance and others, limited actionable value beyond selective blocking
70:10 – 71:10 Google Agent Space: 100-seat minimum, use cases for large agencies (onboarding, HR, process agents)
71:10 – 72:10 MCP for e-commerce customization tools; preparing your site for future agent-to-agent APIs
72:10 – 73:20 Speculation that many third-party agent frameworks will fade once Google/OpenAI integrate agents natively
73:20 – 74:10 Community learning benefits; SEO skillset as problem-solving edge in the AI era
74:10 – 75:25 Overview of the Search Bar Pro community, tutorials, “happy hour” discussions, member advantages
75:25 – 76:50 Coping with upheaval: lamplighter analogy, choosing optimism, hunting for new opportunities
76:50 – 78:00 Closing remarks: upcoming talks on BCIs and agents
78:00 – 87:08 Final chat exchanges, farewells, and session wrap-up
New Zealand