Google is working to fix the Google Discover feed by removing the fake AI spam that has been creeping in over the past several weeks. “We’re actively working on a fix,” Google told the Press Gazette after the magazine documented many cases of the Google Discover feed being polluted with this AI spam.
Google’s statement. Here is the full statement Google provided:
“We keep the vast majority of spam out of Discover through robust spam-fighting systems and clear policies against new and emerging forms of low quality, manipulative content. We’re actively working on a fix that will better address the specific type of spam that’s being referenced here, maintaining our high bar for quality in Discover.”
AI spam in Discover. The Press Gazette documented numerous cases where “Fake news stories have been viewed tens of millions of times this week on Google’s Discover news aggregation platform.” Here is a screenshot of some of those stories, as told by The Press Gazette:
The theory is that these spammers are buying expired domains that were once trusted and leveraging its domain authority to spam Google Discover. Of course, this is not a new trick and Google Search has measures in place to deal with such techniques but some believe that is how this is working.
Jean-Marc Manach, a French data journalist who is tracking these issues, has a database of fake sites generating these AI stories, now includes more than 8,300 in French, 300 in English, and 150 in German.
Why we care. Google Discover can send tons of traffic to a publisher in no time. These fake sites can generate nice revenue, Google can then remove them, only for another site to pop up doing the same thing.
Google will eventually catch on and stop these efforts but who knows what new tricks will come up in the future.