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Google’s May 2026 Core Update Rolled Out Over the Weekend

May 28, 2026

Google’s Gary Illyes reportedly warned against buying or manipulating brand mentions to try to influence visibility in AI responses, AI Overviews, or AI Mode.

According to reports from the Search Central Live Sydney 2026 event on May 15, Illyes and Google strongly advised against these practices.

Kenichi Suzuki also highlighted the issue after an AI software platform began promoting a service that could automate the purchase of brand mentions to help businesses appear in responses from Google, ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI systems.

Kenichi Suzuki wrote

‘’Gary Illyes and Cherry Sireetorn Prommawin did not confirm whether organic, authentic mentions provide a direct benefit for AI search, noting they were unsure how useful standard mentions on the internet actually were.

However, they strongly cautioned against buying or manipulating mentions, comparing the practice to paid links—which Google’s internal systems detect, disregard, and ultimately ignore.’’

This warning is not new. Google has previously addressed the issue in its guidance on optimising for generative AI, where it specifically warned against seeking inauthentic brand mentions to influence visibility in AI-generated responses.

Google wrote:

‘’Seeking inauthentic “mentions”: Just like the rest of Google Search, our generative AI features can show what’s being said about products and services across the web, including in blogs, videos, and forum discussions. However, seeking inauthentic “mentions” across the web isn’t as helpful as it might seem. Our core ranking systems focus on high-quality content while other systems block spam; our generative AI features depend on both.’’

This situation is similar to the link-building services that were popular before Google’s Penguin update. These tactics could work for some time, but eventually, websites could suffer serious consequences.

The same may happen with services that try to manipulate brand mentions for AI visibility. These tactics may provide short-term benefits, but they could ultimately backfire—possibly much faster than the issues caused by older link-building practices.