The GSC is now Google Search Cowards Edition

In the spirit of renaming stuff that shouldn't be renamed, Jim has unilaterally renamed GSC, Google Search Cowards. Earlier this week, Google acquiesced to the Trump regime's renaming of Lake Ontario by Executive Order. Apple followed suit a couple days later. Both met waves of derision from both sides of the border but as of recording of the podcast, the change appears permanent for US users. Canadian users with setting set to Canada will see the correct name, Lake Ontario, as will international users with the incorrect stolen name added in brackets below. MapQuest, the original online mapping tool, has publicly refused to change the name, which first appeared on French maps in 1688 and predates European settlement. MapQuest is now the top loaded app at Google Play and the Apple Store, surpassing ChatGPT for the #1 spot. In other news: \- Gemini 3.8 Flash is now used for Google's AI Mode, \- The world of WordPress is in a code red moment as WordPress announces a proactive security initiative over fears hackers will utilize increasingly powerful AI models to break into WP sites \- Google is outlining who can license its search data in Europe \- Google's Search Coward tool (GSC) has rolled the AI Performance report and AI control to all GSC profiles around the world \- GA data for September 1 is missing. It's not you, it's them. No word on when or even if it will return \- The Trump regime is now saying Anthropic has "... done what we asked", and is back on the right side with them \- A federal judge has ruled that AI generated CSAM (Child Sexual Adult Material) is protected speech in the United States because a real child was not hurt in the production of it, even though real children were hurt producing the images AI models trained on to create the CSAM in the first place. Perhaps someone wants to check the AI model maker's hard drives, just to see what's there? \- The FTC is going after Amazon for an alleged $20billion advertising surcharge scam \- Google avoids losing its Ad Exchange in anti-trust settlement \- ChatGPT now a "very large online search engine" by EU definition \- OpenAI faces more lawsuits in the wake of the shootings in Tumbler Ridge BC \- The US government has sided in court with OpenAI as it defends itself against a NYTimes copyright violation suit \- Google introduces new AI image and video tools named Pics \- Instagram launches a single-video maker called First Draft \- Gemini is moving from chatbot to agent, moving from answering questions to doing stuff for users \- Google's spam team exists! \- Google is expanding AI Overviews area shown for some queries \- Rank Math Tool caught opening backdoors for itself \- Rank Math Tool suspends feature that gives it admin access to user websites after getting caught opening its own backdoors \- Google re-avows the usefulness of the disavow tool \- Google recognizes the web is full of turmoil and thus won't penalize for old links that now have lower quality content All this and much more on a Webcology that's willing to rename stuff too. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy