#12: Big Shifts–Trusted Sources, Forums Filters & a Curveball from Google

This episode takes a real-time look at how Google’s AI-powered search results have evolved over the past six months, especially when it comes to what’s being cited as a “trusted source.” Walk through live examples, compare industries, and learn how branded websites are starting to show up in citations where once only forums, industry directories, and other 3rd party pages lived. Plus, we’ll dig into the underused Forums filter in Google search–an overlooked but powerful way to uncover what communities are talking about when it comes to your industry. 

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Chapters

00:00 – Intro 

02:10 – What Counts as a Trusted Source?
Peter explains how forums, social platforms, and brand websites have historically shown up in AI Overviews, and what’s different now.

03:37 – Why the Forums Filter Still Matters
How forums, directories, and community-driven content are still highly visible in some verticals, and why this shouldn't be ignored.

05:01 – Real Search Examples: “Best HubSpot Agency”
Grace breaks down a live search result and how branded content (including InboundAV) showed up alongside marketplace and ecosystem links.

05:52 – Real Search Example: “How to Find a Good Lawyer”
A comparison that highlights how forums and trusted institutional sources like the State Bar still lead in some industries.

06:45 – The Baseball Test: What AI Says About Fandom
Peter asks a fun curveball question–what baseball team should you root for? Grace shares what the AI Overview cited and what Reddit had to say instead.

08:00 – Forums vs. AI: The Credibility Question
Why forums often provide more satisfying results than AI Overviews for opinion-based or community-driven topics.

09:24 – Final Thoughts

 

Episode Transcript

(00:16):
1Welcome to Accelerated Velocity, the podcast that helps you move faster, smarter, and more strategically in the rapidly evolving world of AI. We'll break down the latest AI news and innovations and explore how they impact your marketing, sales, and business growth. We'll dive in the practical use cases, unpack new tools, and cut through the noise so you and your team can adopt with confidence.

(00:40):
1I'm Grace Mathews, director of content at InboundAV, a business development agency and HubSpot solutions partner dedicated to driving sustainable business growth. Each week, I'll be here with Peter Malick, our CEO and founder. Join us as we make sense of what's changing and what to do about it.
1Hey everyone, it's Grace. Earlier this week, Peter and I did some digging into how Google's AI search results are evolving, with search algorithms changing constantly. It's smart to keep an eye on how results for key queries related to your services are shifting, ideally every few weeks. So what you'll hear today is a casual sit down between the two of us as we explore live search results on Google.

(01:21):
1I've added in some extra audio to help guide you through what we were seeing on screen. We focused on two main things. First, which websites Google features in its AI overviews, and second, a lesser known but often important feature called the forums filter. It's the tab you'll find right under the search bar, alongside options like news, video, and shopping.

(01:42):
1We ran a few searches and broke down how trusted sources and AI overviews shift depending on your industry. And at the very end, we asked Google the all important question which baseball team should we be rooting for? Let's get into it, Peter. Before we get into the different ways the forums filter might impact search results, could you give a quick overview of what is a trusted source, and whether or not they're influential in AI search slash SEO right now?

(02:10):
1Yeah.
2So we touched on this briefly. And what I started to look into AI search results, which is, I don't know, a year ago now. These trusted sources, sources like Facebook, like LinkedIn in the HubSpot world is the HubSpot ecosystem. The partner directory. And you could go on and on for, you know, like, looking for an MD, you know, web doc, various other ones that are probably trusted sources.

(02:37):
2And, did I just make that up, web doc? Well, if I did, so be it. So anyway, when we started to look at, like, what was coming up in AI search results, that was pretty much exclusively the AI search results were looking for basically forums. And again, LinkedIn, Facebook. Sometimes it's industry specific forums. And then I it appeared that only if they can't find a trusted forum or the results they want, would they actually go to a website piece of content and link that as the source?

(03:10):
2And then over the last six months especially, we see the search results moving away from that, where it's actually taken the trusted source of a website of a company that, for whatever reasons, they believe is a trusted source on their business. And so it's been an interesting shift, but I think it's important not to forget that it shifted from these forums being a trusted source.

(03:37):
2And you can shift back. So it's it's not something that we should take a look at and say, like, well, you know, all right, now we don't have to bother with that. It's moved on, but we don't know where it's moving. So I think it's definitely worth paying attention to.
1And and this isn't an exact science, but something that caught my eye. I do see online all the time people expressing that they don't trust the AI overview, and turning to other modes of finding information on Google. And so that forums filter depending on what industry you're in and depending on who your audience is, could be an important thing to keep an eye on.

(04:18):
1If forums as a trusted source are in fact influential for searches related to your services, it's also a good tool to use as a jumping off point for research, so figuring out what the key search terms are for your industry, clicking over to that forums filter and seeing what websites are showing up there. And those might be websites that you want to target.

(04:42):
1Again, this isn't broad, sweeping advice for every single industry or service offering, but it's something to consider and play around with in my mind.
2Yeah, and especially because Google is delivering that tab within search results. So that really demonstrates how much value they put on it. And consequently you should too.
1Yeah. So I want to give a couple of quick examples just to show a range of how this plays out for different industries. I started with a search result related to InboundAV Who is the best HubSpot agency in Southern California? We monitor the search query frequently to see what the AI overview says, what trusted sources it cites, and how it's changing.

(05:21):
1The AI overview begins with the following answer the best HubSpot agency is subjective and depends on specific needs, but some top rated and well-regarded agencies in Southern California include web MD, Smart Media, and InboundAV. And then it goes on to list more info about each company and some other details. When clicking over to the sources column to the right of this overview, we saw three sources the HubSpot ecosystem up a marketplace directory, and InboundAV.

(05:52):
1I'll show one other example of how this might play out for a different industry. So let's say you have this search phrase how to find a good lawyer after typing that query into the chat, all the top results are sponsored ads, and below that, the State bar of California's website. This time, when I turn on the forums filter, the state bar appears as the number one source.

(06:15):
1This is a good example of how trusted sources and forums influence your brand visibility, depending on what industry you're in, and I think it's also worth considering who your audience is in terms of are these going to be people who land on this page and get turned off by all of the sponsored material and move elsewhere? Or is your audience for the searches that you're running going to be drawn in by a sponsored material, and how do you want to navigate that as well?

(06:45):
2Great. So actually, I want to ask a ridiculous question what's the best baseball team to be a fan of?
1All right, let's see it.
2Yeah, I got to share this with us.
1After I ask Google that, I got a very diplomatic answer from the I overview. It starts off there isn't a single baseball team to be a fan of, and it goes on from there. It does mention what it calls popular choices and then lists the Yankees, the Cubs, the Red Sox and the Dodgers. And this is just the I.

(07:12):
1So don't come for me. If you don't agree, the top cited sources on the right side of the overview in this case were ESPN, a site called hello rookie, Wikipedia and Reddit. What was your hypothesis?
2No, I was just I was just flat out curious to see what would result. And in fact, I mean, it said, you know, the most storied and historic baseball teams, right? That's pretty darn accurate, right? Of the Red Sox. Dodgers, actually, there's probably a million people in this podcast who would sharply disagree with me, but nevertheless.

(07:44):
1I'm not a sports person. So from my from my ignorant perspective, I would say like, yeah, this is these are the teams that I really know.
2And those are those are four cities that I've lived in. Okay. I guess maybe if, you know, the research results are being very nice to me today.
1But that's a good point, though. It's like, okay to a more critical eye, maybe this is not going to be satisfying enough information. And that is why that goes to that point of like why there are certain groups of people in certain instances that think the eye overview is bull**** and it isn't helpful for all types of searches.

(08:20):
1Right? So that's why you want to be thinking about not just is I overview showing up for the types of searches that you're running, but how is that impacting your audience for the information that they're trying to find?
2Yeah. Let's see the forum.
1Oh, I open the forums page and Reddit was unsurprisingly the top result. And just out of curiosity, I clicked through and we saw a much more lively discussion on Reddit where fans broke down the options on the best baseball teams from many different angles, like such and such. Team is the most thrilling to watch. Such and such a team has the best fans.

(08:51):
2This is great Reddit Dodgers or Braves if you want to have fun. If it's probably another one if you want to be miserable.
1The post was deleted, which definitely means people were fighting in the comments.
2Mariners will satisfy your pitcher.
1Need very different answers. Yeah, and much more detailed, which is not surprising.
2That's awesome. All right. I was trying to ask an incredibly stupid question, and it turned out to be kind of entertaining.

(09:17):
1I think it's actually something a lot of people care about. Maybe just not us.
2Yeah, it could be.
1Well, I think this is great. It's always good to do these quick bites where we can dive into specific, maybe kind of silly stuff that is on our minds, but on our minds nonetheless, and dig into to what we can get out of that. And you know, Peter, I know that you're thinking and monitoring AI in relation to SEO all the time, so it's fun to just keep tabs on every couple of weeks.

(09:51):
2It is awesome. All right, that's it.

(19:04):
1Thanks for listening to Accelerated Velocity. A link to our website, newsletter, and all that other good stuff can be found down in the show notes. If you like what you heard, we'd appreciate a five star review and make sure to subscribe for weekly episodes on the latest in AI for business.