OpenAI’s New o3 & o4-Mini AI Models & Social Plans, & Google Analytics Gets Hourly Data While Losing Country-Code Domains

Welcome to our newest edition of the Previsible SEO and AI Update, where we explore the intersection of search and AI through the lens of the most recent search and AI news.

The joint SEO and AI space continues to rapidly evolve and grow, and this week brings us industry news from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, along with the latest search and AI industry reports and studies.

Let’s dig in with the ten top SEO and AI news items this week, and also examine some of the areas on the periphery of the two, including the history of search technology and its future.

TOP 10 SEO & AI UPDATES OF THE WEEK

OpenAI Launches a Pair of AI Reasoning Models, o3 and o4-mini

OpenAI has released two new versions of its AI models featuring reasoning technology and the ability to analyze images, with the launch of its o3 and o4-mini products, in addition to a new programming-centered tool called CodexCLI, OpenAI recently announced. TechCrunch

SEO & AI IMPACT: OpenAI’s newest reasoning models have tapped LLM technology to pull insights from images, charts, and illustrations, and included the ability to perform online searches, use an array of tools, and generate images, while CodexCLI has brought coders including those in search a way to utilize its newest AI reasoning models.

AI Search Study: Product Content Makes Up 70% Of Citations [Report]

During the first quarter of 2025 between 46 percent and 70 percent of queries from AI-based tool searches were comprised of product-related content, while news and research content accounted for between five and 16 percent of AI search citations — two of numerous findings of interest to SEO professional contained in newly-published report data. Search Engine Journal

SEO & AI IMPACT: When looking at B2B-focused AI citations, some 56 percent were comprised of product content, 13.2 percent affiliate, and 10.7 percent news, while the B2C segment differed, with 34.8 percent being product citations, 17.9 percent affiliate content, and 15.1 percent being news content, according to the study data, which also offered SEO professionals a breakdown of AI links by region and buying stages.

“What we see on LinkedIn in recent years is that members are increasingly emphasizing a broader range of skills and increasingly uniquely human skills, like ethical reasoning or leadership.”

— Peter McCrory, Staff Economist & Head of Labor Research at LinkedIn

The Search Analytics API Now Supports Hourly Data

Google has added the ability to view hourly search performance data within its Search Console product, using an updated Search Analytics application programming interface (API), Google recently announced. Google Search Central

SEO & AI IMPACT: Access to the new data via the Search Analytics API has included hourly breakdowns for up to 10 days, allowing search professionals to make new types of both daily and hourly comparisons and to potentially suss out a new level of granularity in search performance data.

OpenAI is Building a Social Network

OpenAI has been working on a new social network that could bridge the boundaries between its own lineup of AI tools and existing social media platforms, according to multiple sources familiar with the OpenAI initiative. The Verge

SEO & AI IMPACT: Whether it’s OpenAI or another AI technology firm to first bundle generative AI with social networking, such hybrid offerings are likely to offer search professionals both new opportunities as well as certain unique challenges.

Google AI Overview Study: 90% Of B2B Buyers Click On Citations

Some 90 percent of B2B buyers have said that when it comes to fact-checking Google search results, they click through to the citations offered up by the search giant’s AI Overviews, according to recently-released study data. Search Engine Journal

SEO & AI IMPACT: While traditional organic search traffic performance measurement continues to offer helpful insights into search behavior, increasingly SEO professionals are looking for sound and repeatable ways to track Google AI Overview citation data, and the new study results explore some of the possibilities.

Introducing GPT-4.1 in the API

OpenAI also recently launched a trio of new members within its GPT product lineup, as GPT‑4.1, GPT‑4.1 mini, and GPT‑4.1 nano rolled out, with new limitations in place that offered certain tool access only via developer API queries, OpenAI announced this week. OpenAI

SEO & AI IMPACT: Search professionals using OpenAI’s latest GPT tools can tap into more streamlined coding efficiencies, lengthier context functionality, and an improved ability to reliably follow complex instructions.

Claude Takes Research to New Places

AI firm Anthropic has launched new interoperability between its Claude AI tool with Google Workspace, and a new Anthropic Research product aimed at helping Claude users conduct both web and local network research, the firm recently announced. Anthropic

SEO & AI IMPACT: Both new features look to boost the scope of Claude’s collaboration abilities, and search professionals already using the tool have been given an incentive to further integrate its capabilities in everyday workflows, while those who haven’t yet used Claude will now find a more polished tool should they start.

What Engineers Should Know About AI Jobs in 2025

Between 2023 and 2024 mentions of generative AI in job postings grew by almost a factor of four, with similar growth for machine learning skills, according to newly-published report data. Spectrum IEEE

SEO & AI IMPACT: Search professionals on the engineering side of the skill stack face a different landscape of job options in 2025 — including a growing gender gap when it comes to highlighting AI skills, and IEEE Spectrum recently took a closer look using data from the comprehensive 2025 AI Index Report.

Researchers Claim Breakthrough in Fight Against AI’s Frustrating Security Hole

Google’s DeepMind AI research arm has developed a new system for fending off AI prompt injection abuses, as concern for better security within the swiftly-growing AI tool infrastructure has risen alongside AI growth as a whole, DeepMind recently announced. Ars Technica

SEO & AI IMPACT: Security within LLM technology presents significant new challenges, and Google’s latest efforts come in the form of CaMeL (CApabilities for MachinE Learning), which if successful will be able to strengthen how various AI elements communicate with one another — and in turn make the overall AI search environment safer.

Google Search ccTLDs Are Going Away

Google is set to move away from using the numerous Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) that it currently has in place for its core Google Search offerings, the search giant recently announced. Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & AI IMPACT: Expected to roll out during the coming months, the changes will see current ccTLDs redirected to Google’s primary domain name, potentially affecting SEO professionals who use tools that currently rely on ccTLDs for examining data intended for international optimization efforts.

SEARCH & TECHNOLOGY HISTORY & FUTURE:

Quantum Hardware May Be a Good Match for AI — Ars Technica

Meet the “First Lady of Engineering” [Computing History] — Spectrum IEEE

VOICES OF SEARCH PODCAST LATEST EPISODES:

What are the essential elements for high-converting landing pages? Alisha Conlin Hurd, CEO and co-founder at Persuasion Experience recently took the time to join our own COO and co-founder Tyson Stockton to explore effective landing page strategies for optimizing design and layout, the role of compelling copywriting, and key tools and technologies for A/B testing  — you’ll find it all on the Voices of Search Podcast at “How to Create Million-Dollar Landing Pages.”

FRIDAY FIVE SEARCH MARKETING & AI FAVORITES TO FOLLOW:

• Gary Illyes
• María Alexandrakis de Castro
• Noah Learner
• Madalyn Sklar
• Dixon Jones

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR THE LATEST SEO & AI UPDATES

Learn more about Previsible‘s mission to unlock scalable organic growth with AI search optimization, and if you haven’t yet seen our free comprehensive 70-plus page Previsible 2025 State of SEO Jobs Report, you can download it here.

Have you found a key news item exploring the intersection between SEO and AI that we haven’t covered yet? If so, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line.

Thanks for taking the time to join us for this week’s edition of the Previsible SEO & AI Update, and we hope that you’ll return next Friday for another array of the most up-to-date and relevant SEO and AI industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page for even more timely insight.