Google Discover Core Update (Feb 2026): Winners, Losers, and Unexpected Outcomes

The Context

Google released (or at least announced) the first Google Discover update on February 5 in the U.S. only. You can read the full announcement here.

Our methodology

The Discover Core Update started on February 5 and ended on February 27. If we trust Google, we should compare the week before the Discover Core Update (January 26 to February 1) with the week after the update was completed (March 2 to March 8).
Because Discover is not a “quiet ride,” audiences (what we call the Score) can depend heavily on a few big hits. Over a period as short as one week, we may get statistically irrelevant numbers if we focus only on audience. Since DiscoverSnoop counts the number of articles that entered the feed, we considered it more relevant to focus on that metric. We therefore studied the number of publications during these two weeks and compared them. We focused on sites showing more than 10 articles before the update to avoid statistical bias.
All these statistics are based on DiscoverSnoop data, which is detailed here and can be freely accessed by creating an account here.

Who are the losers of the Google Discover Core Update?

We define losers as publishers that lost more than 20% of their articles in the Discover feed while also seeing their Score decline.

• The biggest loser appears to be Yahoo, which lost nearly 50% of its content, with its audience plunging by 62%. It should be noted that Yahoo’s decline began in September 2025, and the latest Core Update merely accelerated its downfall.
• Go.com, which was redirecting to ABCNews.com, totally disappeared from the ranking, dropping to zero, and ABCNews.com was not able to replace it. This particular case is interesting and deserves further investigation. Is it a coincidence that Go.com changed its redirection system in the middle of the Core Update, or is Google no longer counting hits redirected with a 301 to another destination (which used to be a Discover black-hat technique, mainly involving 302)? Who knows.
• The Indian newspaper Economic Times (known for its “Quote of the Day” content) was hit hard.
• Among mainstream publishers, the Fox franchises (News, Business, Weather) experienced a visibility drop of more than 40%. Another major publisher that was hit is Forbes. But for these publishers as well, the decline had already begun. Forbes was hit in spring 2025 and lost a significant portion of its traffic. Fox lost a large share of its publication visibility in November 2025, bounced back, and then dropped again following the Core Update.
• X/Twitter saw its number of publications drop by 22%, and its audience fall by 32%.
• Finally, a few local websites also declined. The largest drop, Syracuse.com, deserves deeper investigation. DiscoverSnoop allows for state-based analysis. If we look at Syracuse’s audience in New York State (its home state), we see that the audience did not decline as much. However, if we look at its audience in Florida, we see a sharp drop, and the same pattern appears in California. So even though Google promised more local content, it seems that local players that previously enjoyed a national audience have lost that national reach and have been reduced to their original regional scope. The same observation applies to cb6albany.com.

  Audience of Syracuse.com in the NY state

  
  Audience of Syracuse.com in Florida
  

• YouTube does not appear in the table below, but it should be noted that the number of different publications grew from 16,283 to 18,803, a solid 15% increase. In Google Core Updates, Google’s own properties rarely suffer, as a matter of fact.

Who are the winners of the Google Discover Core Update?

We define winners as publishers that gained more than 20% more articles in the Discover feed while also seeing their Score increase.

• The biggest winner might not be the one Google hoped for. Let us introduce Geediting.com, which has seen its number of publications multiply by six and its audience grow tenfold. Interestingly, more than 75% of their article titles begin with “Psychology says.” Not exactly the kind of “local,” “niche,” or “E-A-T-oriented” site usually associated with Google updates. The intentions may be noble, but the results reflect a harsher reality.

  Geediting.com audience
  
  Top articles of Geediting.com
  

• The other big winner is Parade.com, which has been revived by this Core Update. This site had massive audiences from May to July 2025 but later declined. Since the Core Update, it has regained momentum with similar-style articles about music hits.
  Top articles of Parade.com
  
• The Argentine newspaper Clarin.com, published in Spanish, shows a sharp spike in the number of publications selected by Google Discover. However, its audience growth began a few weeks before the Core Update, so we cannot say it was favored by the update.
• Other publishers on the winners list seem to have benefited more from the Iran war than from the update, with more articles being selected and higher audiences, but without a clear pattern.