UK Orders Google to Share Its Algorithm, Plus Bing AI Reporting Gets an Upgrade

It was a packed week in search. According to Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Volatility, Bing AI Reporting Updates, UK Orders Google To Hand Over Its Search Ranking Algorithm & More, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority ordered Google to share how its search results are ranked and to enable data portability to certain third parties — a move that could reshape the competitive landscape of search for years. That story alone would have been enough. But the week also brought Bing Webmaster Tools AI reporting upgrades, clarifications from Google on LLMS.txt files and HTML, updates to Google Search Console's long-broken link report, and more.

The Details: Everything That Dropped This Week

Let's start with the biggest headline. The UK's CMA ordered Google to share its search ranking algorithm and enable data portability to some third parties. The scope and timeline of that order aren't fully detailed in the reporting yet — details are still emerging — but the direction is unmistakable. Regulators want more transparency into how Google decides what ranks.

Google Search also rolled out information agents in AI Mode, though this is currently limited to subscribers. Meanwhile, Google Search Console's link report — which has frustrated SEOs for months — was finally fixed and updated. Small fix, big relief if you've been staring at stale data.

On the Bing side, Webmaster Tools released meaningful updates to its AI performance reports. The new additions include intents, topics, citation share, and a compare feature. Bing Webmaster Tools is also reportedly working on expanded country filtering inside those performance reports.

Google also clarified several technical SEO questions this week. LLMS.txt files won't help or hurt your rankings. HTML remains the standard for SEO — not markdown files. And for US sites using subfolder structures, Google said there is no practical SEO difference compared to other setups. Google also updated its documentation around site moves, advising that all domain variants be added to the Change of Address tool.

Google Search Central Live took place in Milan this week, covering a range of SEO topics including chunking, site signals, content, paywalls, and AI clicks. Separately, Google is testing 3D model attribution in product results — an interesting development for e-commerce SEO. And Google Image Search is mixing ads within organic results, with more people apparently noticing this now.

What This Means For You

The CMA order is the story that deserves the most attention, even if the practical fallout is months away. If regulators force Google to expose more of its ranking logic — even to a narrow set of third parties — that creates pressure toward more algorithmic accountability. It won't hand you a secret ranking formula. But it signals that the black box era of search may be getting a few cracks in it.

For agencies and in-house marketers, the Bing Webmaster Tools AI reporting updates are immediately actionable. Citation share is a metric worth watching right now. I've been telling clients for the past year that AI visibility isn't just about ranking in blue links anymore — it's about being cited inside AI-generated answers. Bing now gives you a native way to track that. If you're not in Bing Webmaster Tools regularly, this is your nudge to get back in there.

Google's clarifications on LLMS.txt and markdown feel routine on the surface, but they matter for anyone chasing shortcuts. The message is consistent: build clean HTML, don't over-engineer for AI crawlers with files that don't move the needle, and focus on what Google has always rewarded — clear, well-structured, authoritative content.

The Search Console link report fix is worth a quick mention too. If you've been pulling link data for audits or disavow work, recheck your numbers. The data may look different now that the report has been updated.

What to Do Now

1. Log into Bing Webmaster Tools and explore the updated AI performance reports. Look specifically at citation share — that number tells you how often Bing's AI surfaces your site in answer-style results. Benchmark it now so you have something to compare against.
2. Pull a fresh link report from Google Search Console. The report was just fixed and updated, so if your numbers look different from last month, that's expected. Reconcile before you act on any disavow or link-building decisions.
3. If you manage any site moves or domain migrations for clients, revisit Google's updated documentation on the Change of Address tool. Specifically, make sure all domain variants are included — not just the primary domain.
4. Stop obsessing over LLMS.txt. Google said plainly it won't help or hurt your rankings. Redirect that energy toward HTML fundamentals: clean structure, fast render paths, clear internal linking.
5. Watch the CMA story. You don't need to act on it today, but if you serve UK-based clients or manage sites with significant UK traffic, a shift in how Google's algorithm is disclosed could eventually affect how you audit and explain ranking changes.

Background and Context

Regulatory pressure on Google's search dominance has been building for years across multiple jurisdictions. The UK's CMA has been one of the more aggressive watchdogs in this space, and this order fits a broader global pattern of antitrust scrutiny aimed at big tech's grip on search and AI distribution. The US Department of Justice has its own ongoing action. The EU has pushed through its Digital Markets Act. The question is no longer whether regulators are coming — it's how far they'll get.

The Bing AI reporting updates land at an interesting moment too. AI Overviews and generative answers are eating more of the SERP. The tools to measure your visibility inside those answers are still catching up. Bing moving faster on this reporting front than Google is notable — and it should raise the bar for what SEOs expect from Search Console in the months ahead.

Google ranking volatility continued this week as well, which has become almost background noise at this point. But ongoing volatility, especially layered on top of an environment where AI answers are changing what a "ranking" even means, is a good reminder to track AI citation visibility alongside traditional rank data. If you want a single place to monitor both, AI visibility tracking tools are becoming a practical necessity rather than a nice-to-have. Aergos tracks both traditional rankings and AI visibility in one dashboard — worth a look if you're still stitching that together manually.