Google’s Search Cleanup: Fighting Fake Trades While Its Own AI Invents Clickbait
This bait-and-switch has become a plague on Google Search, and the company is finally admitting it has a problem. Rajan Patel, Google’s VP of Engineering for Search, recently took to X (formerly Twitter) to acknowledge the mess after users began flagging the blatant manipulation of "Top Stories" and "News" modules by sites masquerading speculation as fact.
The SEO Arbitrage Behind "Prediction" Headlines
The shift in ranking algorithms isn’t just a minor tweak; it’s an attempt to dismantle a highly profitable form of SEO arbitrage. For years, "Made For Advertising" (MFA) sports sites have gamed the system by burying the word "prediction" deep within an article while using factual, high-intent metadata to trick Google’s crawlers.
These sites aren't in the business of journalism; they are in the business of capturing high-value search queries. By appearing in the "News" tab for a trending athlete, they can rake in massive AdSense revenue from users who inadvertently click on what looks like a breaking report. It has taken Google years to address this, largely because these sites technically satisfy "engagement" metrics even if the user leaves frustrated seconds later.
Patel noted that Google is now implementing "thoughtful changes" to identify these patterns. However, he warned that the rollout won't be an overnight fix. Because Google relies on "considerable experimentation and analysis," the algorithm will need time to learn how to distinguish between a legitimate editorial forecast and a site designed solely to deceive.
AI-Generated Headlines: Google’s Self-Sabotage
The irony of Google’s crackdown on misinformation is that one part of the company is currently busy inventing its own. While the Search team tries to scrub fake headlines, a "small UI experiment" in Google Discover is actively stripping context from reputable publishers and replacing it with algorithmic hallucination.
Google spokesperson Mallory Deleon defended the test as a way to "make topic details easier to digest." But for journalists, this is a dangerous game of self-sabotage. By replacing human-edited titles with vapid, AI-generated hooks, Google isn't just making news "digestible"—it’s actively branding reputable outlets with a clickbait reputation they didn't earn.
The Revenue Loop and the Cost of Inaction
Why has it taken this long for Google to act on the sports trade epidemic? The answer is likely financial. These "prediction" sites are often heavy users of Google’s own ad tech. When a user clicks a fake headline and lands on a page covered in AdSense banners, Google wins twice: once on the search intent and once on the ad impression.
This creates a conflict of interest that complicates any "information quality" initiative. While the company has historically pointed to the Google News Initiative as proof of its commitment to journalism, those programs feel like a drop in the bucket compared to the structural issues within its ranking systems. The "epidemic" of false information isn't just a technical glitch; it's a byproduct of an ecosystem that has long rewarded volume and "clicks" over editorial integrity.
A House Divided
The current state of Google Search reveals a company at odds with itself. In one building, engineers are working overtime to restore the integrity of sports news by weeding out deceptive "predictions." In another, UI designers are handing the keys to a generative AI that turns factual reporting into misleading summaries.
This internal hypocrisy suggests that Google’s greatest challenge isn't the "bad actors" gaming the system from the outside. Rather, it's the company's own obsession with AI-driven automation that threatens to turn the entire news ecosystem into the very thing it claims to be fighting: a sea of context-free, engagement-hungry noise.