Google Rolls Out a Discover Core Update (February 2026)

Barry Schwartz flagged that Google has released a Discover core update for February 2026, as reported by Search Engine Land.

While core updates usually focus on web ranking broadly, Discover-specific changes can have outsized impact on publishers that rely heavily on:

• news visibility

• evergreen content resurfacing

• entity-driven recommendations

• mobile discovery traffic

This is another reminder that Search isn’t just “10 blue links” anymore — Discover is an increasingly important surface where visibility can shift independently.

Source: Barry Schwartz on X
Report: Search Engine Land

FAQ 

What is a Discover core update?

A Discover update refers to changes in how Google surfaces content in the Discover feed, which can affect publisher traffic significantly.

Who is most impacted by Discover updates?

Sites relying on mobile discovery traffic — especially news, lifestyle, and large content publishers — tend to feel the strongest volatility.

Is Discover becoming separate from traditional Search?

Increasingly yes: Discover operates more like an AI-driven recommendation layer, with its own weighting of trust, freshness, and entity signals.

As reported by Barry Schwartz → (tweet link)