This was the subject of the special edition substack.
We still don't know what it will become - no official communication from Google - but the tests have clearly shown a strong and almost instantaneous effect of this "Follow" button.
Regarding the relevance and how social media profiles are or aren't attached to the right profile, we're also in the dark. Several factors seem to be at work, but nothing very obvious for now: it looks more like a coded vibe algorithm than anything else.
We continue to experiment...
The social networks that are currently active on these profiles:
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X (Twitter)
Among the other social networks that could join them soon, we can list:
LinkedIn, Pinterest, SoundCloud, Snapchat, Patreon, Twitch, Spotify.
For reference, if you're not a 1492 client and would like to get your profile URL, you can request it from us:
Our clients have had access to August monthly reports since the beginning of the month. In the mix, new entrants and departures (there are changes...) but also winners and losers, top articles, key entities etc...
As usual, we publicly share an excerpt from the previous month's top (July):
Top French articles
Top French Entities
Top English articles
Top English Entities
This is a feature we've offered since the beginning, but it was buried in a sub-menu. We're taking advantage of updates to the vigie to upgrade it and put it front and center.
You'll find domains that have (re)entered Discover after a month or more of absence. An essential source of insights, whether for:
Discovering newcomers in your thematic area
Ideas for themes you can enter almost "by misunderstanding"
Tracking new disposable domains from spammers and adapting strategies in whiter mode.
Video tutorial (in french):
Note:
You'll have access by default to the same languages as those for trends.
The number of available domains may depend on your subscription
We won't fuel the controversy of "I penalize AI content but put it everywhere in AIOs", but just a little. In an interview (see around 3:45), Gary Illyes clearly says "Google doesn't care if content is AI-generated". The real criterion is the "quality" and accuracy of the content, regardless of the method by which this content was created. The other thing he insists on is that in all cases (this also applies to outsourced content), the content must be reviewed by a human.
No ambiguity with the legal stance: The publisher is responsible for what they publish. Towards readers, towards Google.
In practice, particularly on Discover, we see big sites with human content losing reach, while full-AI sites (but perhaps minimally human-curated) gain significant visibility share.
From my point of view, Google captures enough signals, particularly user signals, that it doesn't need to try to make an AI/Human classifier (especially when you see how precise it is in practice). The truth lies elsewhere, with its share of false positives that hurt.
If you follow us, entities and their role in the Google ecosystem shouldn't be new, but it's always good to drive the point home.
Here's a JDN article that reminds us how new AI features rely on Google's Knowledge Graph.
Another more recent JDN article that focuses more specifically on Discover: Penalties, and how to avoid them.
https://www.journaldunet.com/seo/1542443-penalites-sur-discover-comment-les-eviter/
We obviously see striking counter-examples right now; As far as we're concerned, we prefer to advise long-term strategies rather than churn and burn.
Speaking of penalties and long-term strategy, also think about your domains. A Google penalty is one thing, losing your domain can be more troublesome. For French domains, AFNIC verifies Whois information and can block your domains if the information is not verifiable or correct. This particularly concerns hidden whois (individual owner). You can get stuck if you bought domains without updating the whois; if you used false information to hide, or if you're with a "problematic" registrar.
In this case, it could be in the context of a denunciation: https://x.com/GGtld/status/1965704164161552539
Is Google's role to send traffic to the sites that feed it, or to satisfy the user above all?
A perspective on recent developments, with the advent of feeds like Google Discover, which raises the question of balance between search engines and publishers, thus shedding new light on future developments... and how to stay afloat!
An article at Abondance with several infographics
Damien continues to scour the feeds to tell us about the slightest changes, you've been warned...
Last month saw Google multiply small — but revealing — experiments around Discover and the Google app: refinement of internal metrics ("Good Visit"), arrival of an AI MODE button in the interface, "Update for you" notifications powered by AI, new widgets ("New to Stream", "Deep Dive"), and finally direct display of search queries in the top banner.
Google aggregates these signals to judge "visit quality" before re-displaying (or not) a publisher in Discover.
To remember: simple time spent is not enough; you need a mix of scroll + interactions to cross the Good Visit threshold.
Since August 6, a new "big" AI MODE button replaces the colored search button that led to AI MODE for even more visibility towards Google's AI functionality.
A new type of notification card pins a personalized thread:
Tracking Signal: the user follows an entity/subject (Amazon Rainforest, football club…).
Novelty Detection: sudden spike in news detected.
AI Summary + Thread ID: the AI summarizes, updates the thread and pushes the notification (Generated personalized news that links to AI MODE).
"New to Stream" widget spotted in Discover; it leads to freshly available content (movies, series).
Tweet
The widget that leads to a movie or series SERP offered a new "Deep Dive" button on certain knowledge panels (ex. Jurassic World Rebirth): opens a detailed view (cast, reviews…) without leaving the SERP.
Tweet
A new "Search Suggestions" option appears in the widget customization box in the Google app, which allows proposing queries (ex. "White Sneakers", baseball scores, Cookie recipe...) to appear instead of quick access chips.
On desktop, AI Overviews appear directly in the Discover feed, with a slightly different UX from mobile: video preview, AI summary above the article selection and more "SERP-like" navigation.
This confirms that Google is gradually aligning the Discover experience and generative search on large screens.
A new "Discover language" setting (distinct from the interface language) allows choosing the content language of the Discover feed. The option is visible but not yet active: changing the value has no (yet) observed impact on the feed.
See "Subscribe" tweet • See "conversion" tweet
In the code, Google introduces a new Subscribe label for Discover Cards, with documented states:
Subscribe = when the user is not subscribed to the creator;
Subscribed = when the user is subscribed.
The internal field DiscoverCard = convert_follow_to_subscribe suggests a migration from the Follow button to Subscribe, which brings Discover closer to a creator/subscription logic (rather than "following an entity").
Observation: a Follow button on a Discover card can link to a brand entity managed by a profile (ex. Media Wyse MID /g/1v3_2ztg) rather than to a person entity (ex. Aleyda Solis MID /m/011nvjjc).
Implication: Google could favor the "humanly validated" entity (brand/organization) to feed the profile page and attached networks (ex. presence of X/Twitter on the Media Wyse page but not on the person page).
Practical consequence: following Aleyda Solis via a Discover card can still surface X cards linked to the Media Wyse page, depending on how the entity is attached on the profile side.
Did you like this edition? Let us know! Any topics you'd like us to cover? Any specific data you'd like to see? Ask!
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