Small publishers lost 60% of search referrals. Google beat a publishers antitrust suit. For brands, the game is becoming a source inside the answer layer.
The earliest signals of AI search intent are not in keyword tools. They are in Reddit threads, Indie Hackers posts, and growth forums where founders ask how to get cited by ChatGPT.
A new class of tools has emerged to track how brands appear inside LLM-generated answers. The fact that this category exists at all tells you something important about where search is headed.
Google is testing sponsored ads inside AI Mode, launching Direct Offers, and rolling out agentic checkout. Here's what it means for how brands get found.
