Google Spam Update Causes Weekend Chaos, Low Payouts for Publishers

This week saw significant updates from Google, particularly regarding its September 2026 spam update. The impact of this update was felt strongly over the weekend, and then again on Wednesday and Thursday, as websites struggled to adapt to the changes.

A report revealed that Google is paying around 100 publishers a total of 0.1% of their ad revenue in an AI contribution pilot scheme. This has sparked debate about the value placed on content creators' work by the search engine giant.

Additionally, Google's Nick Fox expressed his concern for European searchers after the EU's DMA mandate was implemented. The company has also appealed this mandate to share its search data.