What we learned from the massive Google Search leak

The algorithm that powers Google Search is one of the most important, most complicated, and least understood systems governing the Internet. As of this week, however, we understand this a little better. Thanks to a major API documentation leak, we’ve had an unprecedented look at what Google cares about, how it classifies content, and how it thinks the Internet should work. The leaked documentation is dense and doesn’t tell us everything about Google ranking, but it does offer a set of signals we’ve never seen before.

In this episode of The Vergecastwe discussed everything in the leaked documents, the reaction of the SEO communitythe potential regulatory implications of all this and what it means to build a website in 2024.

After that, we talk about the recent wave of media companies (including Vox Media, On the edgecompany’s parent company) making content and technology agreements with OpenAI. Are media companies making the same mistakes they made with Facebook and others, or are they actually trying to ensure they don’t make those mistakes again? We have lots of ideas and we also want to hear from you privately – outreach is On the edgeafter all, and we want to know how you think we should talk about all this. Email us at vergecast@theverge.com, call the hotline at 866-VERGE11 and tell us what you think.

If you want to learn more about everything we discussed in this episode, here are some links to get you started, starting with the Google leak:

And in the lightning round: