Search digestFebruary 2026
Discover changed its content-selection signals while Bing exposed AI citation reporting in preview.
February made discovery less interchangeable: Google adjusted the systems that select articles for Discover, while Bing began exposing citation activity across supported AI experiences.
Product change
Google released a Discover core update
On February 5 Google released a broad update for Discover, initially for English-language users in the US. Google said it would favour more locally relevant content, reduce sensational and clickbait material, and show more in-depth, original and timely work from sites with topic-level expertise. Google also said many sites may see no change and expansion to more countries and languages would follow. Primary source.
English-language users in the United States.
Discover onlyGoogle said expansion to other countries and languages would follow.
not a global launchProduct change
Bing previewed AI Performance in Webmaster Tools
Bing introduced AI Performance as a public preview on February 10. It reports total citations, average cited pages, sampled grounding queries, page-level citation activity and trends across supported Copilot, Bing AI summary and partner surfaces. Bing explicitly says citation counts do not show ranking, authority or placement in an answer. See the primary source.
Action
What to check on your own site
- Segment Discover performance by country, topic and content type before diagnosing a change.
- Audit whether local, original and timely reporting has a clear on-page author and source context.
- If eligible for Bing AI Performance, treat citations as a separate discovery metric rather than a position report.
Sources
- Google's February 2026 Discover Core Update — Google Search Central (February 5, 2026)
- Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview — Microsoft Bing (February 10, 2026)