Search is changing! Tom Capper (Moz/Stat) & Marie Haynes on Google’s algorithms, WebMCP and more.

In this episode of the "Real People Using AI" series, host Marie Haynes sits down with SEO content strategist and AI transition consultant Liz Micik to discuss the massive shift from a chat-based internet to the "Agentic Web." They break down Google's latest developer protocols—including MCP, A2A, UCP, and AP2—and translate what these highly technical concepts mean for everyday business owners and marketers. If you are wondering how AI agents will discover, consume, and negotiate with your website in the future, and what actionable steps you can take right now to prepare your brand (like cleaning up your schema and structured data), this conversation is your roadmap.Google’s blog posts on the agentic protocols:https://developers.googleblog.com/developers-guide-to-ai-agent-protocols/Reach Liz Micik:https://lizmicik.com/Reach Marie:https://mariehaynes.com/contactThe Search Bar:https://mariehaynes/comBecome a member of Marie’s paid community:https://community.mariehaynes.com/collections/10503740:00 – Welcome to the Agentic Web: Moving beyond chat interfaces and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) to prepare for AI agents.2:16 – The Evolution of the Web: Why the current shift mirrors the early days of e-commerce and how bots are consuming websites (discussing Cloudflare's markdown feature).11:00 – The 3 C's of AI Readiness: Why your website must be clear, complete, and consistent for AI agents to trust it.13:50 – What is MCP & WebMCP?: Exploring the Model Context Protocol and how AI applications connect to external systems and tools.25:20 – Agent to Agent Protocol (A2A): How agents discover and communicate with one another using JSON Agent Cards.27:50 – Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP): The future of AI shopping, building carts across multiple sites, and protecting your business's "moat."38:00 – Agent Payments (AP2) & MPP: How agents will handle transactions, negotiate payments, and the security hurdles of an agentic economy.46:15 – Actionable Advice for Businesses Today: Why Schema and Structured Data are the most important tools you can implement right now.52:00 – Agent to User Interface (A2UI): The potential for AI to generate unique web pages, UIs, and interactive tabs on the fly.56:50 – Summary & Rapid Fire Questions: A quick recap of all the protocols, plus Liz's advice on learning AI, financial planning with Claude, and the importance of reading analog books to kids.

Join Marie Haynes and Tom Capper as they dive into Google's evolving algorithms, focusing on AI-driven changes like WebMCP and the role of agents in search. Discover how brand signals and user satisfaction are reshaping SEO, and why traditional tactics may no longer suffice.Links mentioned in this call:Google site quality score: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9031929B1/enThe helpful content update was not what you think. Tom Capper. https://moz.com/blog/helpful-content-update-not-what-you-thinkMoz: https://moz.com/products/pro/pricing Stat: https://getstat.com/ 00:00 Introduction to SEO and Algorithm Changes02:42 The Evolution of Search Algorithms05:10 User Satisfaction Signals and AI07:49 The Importance of Brand Authority10:28 Understanding EEAT and Its Implications13:13 The Impact of Helpful Content Updates15:49 Navigating Core Updates and Brand Trust18:11 The Future of SEO in an AI-Driven World26:44 The Evolution of Search and AI's Role36:58 Impact of AI Overviews on Businesses43:08 The Future of Search with AI Agents and WebMCP

Did you know Google "re-ranks" search results using AI that is trained on user data and quality rater scores? In this video, I break down revelations from the DOJ trial, including the "Glue" system, RankEmbed BERT, and why user satisfaction is now the most critical factor for SEO. 00:00 - Intro: Why user satisfaction is the most important ranking factor. 00:49 - Google’s Quality Raters Guidelines & Helpful Content documentation. 01:36 - Marie’s Theory: Traditional algorithms vs. AI re-ranking systems. 02:35 - Why Google says "Don’t chunk your content" (Danny Sullivan). 03:00 - Vector Search & Embeddings: How AI retrieval actually works. 05:40 - The DOJ vs. Google Trial: Leaks on user-side data. 07:44 - The "Glue" System (NavBoost): How Google tracks clicks & hovers. 09:03 - "Instant Glue": How search adapts to new intent (Nice vs. nice). 10:20 - RankEmbed BERT: The deep learning model Google hid. 12:21 - How AI re-ranks the top search results. 13:03 - BERT Training: Wikipedia, Books Corpus... and romance novels? 15:18 - The 3 Deep Learning Models: RankBrain, DeepRank, RankEmbed. 17:40 - RankBrain: Why it only re-ranks the top 20-30 results. 18:47 - The Helpful Content System: A machine learning classifier. 21:18 - March 2024 Core Update: The evolution of helpfulness signals. 23:00 - Frozen vs. Retrained Google: How algorithms are tested. 26:01 - Why Google runs 17,000+ live traffic experiments. 27:16 - Does Google use Chrome data for rankings? (DOJ evidence). 28:32 - The "AI Mountain": Why AI-generated traffic often crashes. 29:30 - How to optimize for user satisfaction (beyond keywords). 31:00 - Liz Reid on AI Overviews: Why users click for depth.

In this episode, Marie Haynes discusses Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and its transformative potential for online shopping. UCP allows consumers to purchase products directly from search results and AI interactions, streamlining the shopping experience. Haynes explains how this protocol works alongside Google's Business Agent, which enables businesses to interact with customers through AI agents trained on their specific information. She emphasizes the importance of having accurate data in the Google Merchant Center to ensure effective communication and sales through these new AI interfaces. 00:00 Introduction to Google's Universal Commerce Protocol 01:30 Understanding Business Agents and Their Role 05:50 How UCP Works for E-Commerce 12:01 The Future of AI in Shopping 15:50 Addressing Viewer Questions on UCP 22:04 Current Implementations of UCP 27:04 Potential Downsides and Considerations for Businesses 30:09 Looking Ahead: AI and the Future of Shopping

The future of search isn't search; it's agents. Dr. Marie Haynes tackles the biggest shift facing the web: agentic AI. This episode explores the new wave of agentic browsers like OpenAI's Atlas and Perplexity, the massive implications of Walmart partnering with OpenAI, and the legal battles already beginning. Dr. Haynes maps out a near future where home robots order products without ever seeing a website. What does an SEO or business owner do when the user interface is gone? This is a must-listen for anyone building a career on the web. And OH YEAH, this episode was edited by an app that I created in AI Studio's build feature. It actually worked! Comment here in Marie's community: https://community.mariehaynes.com/posts/drafts/the-future-of-seo-agentic-ai-new-podcast-episode

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. Stay up to date on AI with my newsletter: https://mariehaynes.com/newsletter Immediate updates on important AI and SEO news in my community, the Search Bar: https://community.mariehaynes.com/spaces/11879397/feed 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

Google's Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol is here, and it's set to change everything. Announced at Cloud Next 2025, this new standard allows AI agents to talk directly to each other. What does this mean? An internet powered by communicating AI, radical changes for businesses using tools like Agentspace and the Customer Engagement Suite, and a potential upheaval for traditional SEO. I share thoughts about A2A, the Agent Development Kit (ADK), Agent Cards, and why the future of the web might look very different, very soon. More, including links to all of the resources mentioned in my blog post: https://www.mariehaynes.com/googles-agent2agent-protocol-will-radically-change-the-web/ Subscribe to my newsletter for all of the interesting news as AI changes our world: https://mariehaynes.com/newsletter/

Dr. Marie Haynes discusses the future of AI, highlighting the massive investments being made by companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon. She acknowledges concerns about job loss and fear for the future but presents an optimistic vision, quoting Sam Altman and Elon Musk who believe AI will lead to greater prosperity and even a universal high income. Marie details how AI is currently used for tasks like organizing thoughts and image generation, but its true potential lies in AI agents. These agents will research and complete tasks, changing how we interact with the web and businesses. She gives examples of using agents for hotel and flight research and deep research projects. She also talks about using AI for coding and creating tools, sharing her personal experience of developing a tool to analyze website traffic drops. Marie believes AI agents will become like employees, increasing productivity and allowing her to focus on more complex tasks. She envisions AI optimizing businesses in various ways, such as chatbots, competitor research, and IP creation. Marie acknowledges the disruption AI will cause, leading to job losses in digital marketing and other industries. She compares this to historical technological shifts like electricity and the printing press, noting that while there were initial negative consequences and job losses, these technologies ultimately led to progress and new opportunities. She encourages listeners to embrace AI, suggesting they learn to code with AI, stay updated on AI developments, and become experts in AI in specific areas. She also advises sharing their knowledge and learning to communicate effectively with language models (prompting). Haynes believes AI will improve our lives, offering advancements in healthcare, mental well-being, and innovation. She concludes by emphasizing the importance of being part of shaping the future of AI, rather than just watching it happen. Learn to prompt with a weekly email from Marie Haynes: https://www.mariehaynes.com/prompts Marie's AI Newsletter: https://www.mariehaynes.com/newsletter

Is Grok 3 a serious threat to Google? In this LIVE episode of AI News You Can Use Dr. Marie Haynes demonstrates Grok 3 as well as the Deep Research tools from Grok, Gemini and OpenAI. We'll discuss the future of Search and how we can be the leaders of the future as AI changes our world. Join the Search Bar to participate in future epsiodes: https://community.mariehaynes.com/ Marie's Newsletter: https://mariehaynes.com/newsletter/

The January 2025 update of Google's Quality Rater Guidelines had many important changes including sections on: -filler content -paraphrased content -Using AI in content creation -Expired domains -Scaled content abuse This was a live episode of Search News You Can Use filmed in The Search Bar. Buy My 2025 edition of my QRG checklist you can use to assess your site like a quality rater: https://www.mariehaynes.com/products/qrg-workbook-2025/ Join the Search Bar: https://community.mariehaynes.com/