Starting maybe late Thursday, into Friday, November 7th, I started to feel a Google Search ranking update and volatility brewing. Like I’ve been saying since the num=100 parameter change, it…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Google dropped a number of search features and structured data types. Google is testing a new version of AI Mode. Google AI Mode gained three new agentic capabilities. Google AI…
Google added a new promotion targeting option to Google Merchant Center for audience targeting. The option is labeled “preferred audience” and is available when setting up a promotion.
Google announced it has added Waze ads inventory to Performance Max for store goals campaigns and Channel performance reporting is now available in all Performance Max campaigns in Google Ads.
Google has been adding AI features to Google Finance – like what can go wrong? Recently Google’s Rose Yao announced Google Finance added live audio, instant transcripts and AI insights.
Google added a new navigation button to Google Merchant Center labeled “Creative Content.” I believe this is where you access Product Studio, and all your videos and assets for your…
As VP of Engineering for Search at Google, Rajan Patel said months ago – “We’re experimenting with various approaches to X in Discover.” Google has been super busy with testing…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google dropped a…
Google’s John Mueller announced Google is “simplify the search results page” by removing “some features that aren’t being used very often and aren’t adding significant value to users.” This means…
Google is testing a tinted brownish/yellowish background color for the search results page. It turns the white background into a brownish/grayish/yellowish background and then the gray boxes into a darker…
Google updated its Circumventing systems policy to add a new section for Advertiser verification. In short, and as Google wrote, “Providing false or fraudulent information as part of our Advertiser…
Google is testing replacing the definitions box in the search results with AI Overviews. I am personally able to replicate this but this was posted in Reddit a couple of…
Google has released version 2.11 of the Google Ads Editor, which includes over 15 new features and removes a couple of older features.
Google Maps is getting an update from Gemini where you can ask Google Maps questions about locations, where Google Maps can give you more human directions and Google Maps with…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google AI Overviews…
Earlier this year, we covered that Google’s AI Overviews are killing click-through rates from the Google Search results. Well, Seer Interactive updated the numbers and that CTR decline has continued…
Google is testing a new version of AI Mode responses in the wild, directly in the Google Search AI Mode interface. Google even tells the searcher, “You’re giving feedback on…
Google added a new promotion method in Google Merchant Center for Top-performing products. This lets you just promote your best performing products in Google Shopping and Google Search.
Google is testing an update to the reviews services summary box. We know Google does ask for services attributes and other attributes from both the business owner and reviewers but…
Google’s Robby Stein announced three new agentic capabilities within AI Mode – (1) booking event tickets (2) booking beauty appointments and (3) wellness appointments.
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google added a…
Google is supposedly testing an endless, infinite scroll for Google Discover. When I scroll through Google Discover, it eventually just stops and doesn’t keep going. But Gagan Ghotra said he…
Did you know that Google Merchant Center will automatically crop your product images in Google Shopping if it thinks it will look better in Google Search? Did you know that…
We had a few unconfirmed but big Google search ranking updates but we are still waiting on an official core update…
Google Search Console has a bug with its API when filtering on the searchAppearance dimension. This bug occurs when using the notEquals or notContains operators, it will only return rows…
Google added a new user agent to the Googlebot’s user-triggered fetchers documentation. The new user agent is for the Chrome Web Store named Google-CWS.
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google Search new…
Grokipedia, an AI-generated online encyclopedia launched a week ago with over 800,000 AI-generated pages, and both Google and Bing have already indexed hundreds, if not thousands, of those AI-generated pages.
A few weeks ago, Google launched a new ad layout with the large “Sponsored results” label that groups numerous ads under that one label, and then sticks a “Hide sponsored…
Google’s John Mueller posted a PSA yesterday, reminding SEOs and developers to verify the host name of cloud providers they are using to host images, videos, and other content. Specifically,…
Raptive, an advertising-sales company representing thousands of websites (content publishers), filed a 93-page complaint against Google in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit…
Reddit announced earnings late last week and it boggles me how people love this stock. I am not a financial expert of analysis but Reddit has been saying for some…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google says Google…
This week, we covered more Google Search ranking volatility mid-week. Google Search Console launched query groups reports. Disney’s sitelinks in Google Search seemed to have been hacked. Google reminded us…
Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search, was interviewed on the Silicon Valley Girl channel by Marina Mogilko about AI Search at Google. He explained how to do SEO…
Google may have a new chart in the Google Ads overview tab named cross campaign metrics. It seems similar to the Cross-Media Reach Measurement but this is shown in the…
Google seems to have added a download option to the Google Merchant Center promotions section. when creating promotions in Google Merchant Center, the download button will be on the bottom…
Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search, was interviewed on the Silicon Valley Girl channel by Marina Mogilko about AI Search at Google. And one of the questions she…
Microsoft is testing a “see more” link within the Bing Search image carousel on search result snippets. Sometimes Microsoft will show an image carousel below a search result snippet, sometimes…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web…
About a week ago, if you searched for [disney account] and looked at the Disney search result listing in Google Search, you’d see a sitelink that reads, “Black hat SEO…
Google Merchant Center Next added new analytics data to the Promotions tab/section. This shows you two new analytics charts including “Your promotions at a glance” and “Performance in the last…
Google updated the Google Ads Gambling and Games policy this week to define that sweepstake casinos are not social casino games. Google said this update was added on October 28,…
Google’s John Mueller reminded us about when case sensitivity matters for Google Search and SEO when it comes to your URLs. In short, Google will probably figure it out based…
Microsoft is testing a way to change the country and region you are in when doing searches on Bing. There is a new country/region selector for this, similar to how…
Microsoft Advertising advertiser web interface is down and Microsoft’s Navah Hopkins said the “engineering team is investigating this issue with priority.” This only impacts the web interface, according to Hopkins…
Both Google and Microsoft reported its earnings today; Alphabet’s Q3 2025 earnings and Microsoft’s Q1 2026 earnings. Google reported ad revenues up by XX% with $ and Microsoft reported ad…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google Search ranking…
There may have been another Google Search ranking algorithm tweak around October 28th or so. I am seeing some rumblings both within the SEO community chatter and the third-party Google…
We all knew it was coming and now Google is roll out early access to Gemini for Home voice assistant in the U.S. You can either say “Hey Google” to…
Google Merchant Center now lets some merchants and advertisers define an audience for a promotion. This allows you to restrict who sees the promotion in Google Search for your Merchant…
A judge has ruled, giving Google a blow in its ad tech monopoly legal battle. This ruling should help the plaintiffs suing Google not get hung up in court as…
Google is testing adding to the call and message button on Local Service Ads a reviews and sometimes overview button. Reviews takes you to the reviews but the overview button…
There may be an undocumented Google user agent named GeminiiOS. GeminiiOS is apparently used when a user clicks on a source link from the Gemini app on their iPhone.
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google Search Console…
Google added a very useful feature to the Google Search Console Insights report named query groups. It does what it is named, it groups similar queries together as one, so…
Google has expanded access to the Google Business Profiles’ what’s happening feature to multi-location restaurants and bars in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. When…
Google Ads has supposedly added more integration between the main Google Ads platform and reporting and the niche Local Service Ads platform. Some can now see conversion tracking actions in…
Google is rolling out map pin clicks in the Google Ads and Google Local Service Ads reporting. This can be found under Campaigns view, then under Segment, and then under…
Google’s John Mueller was asked what is the best CMS, content management system, is for SEO and ranking well on Google Search. John replied that all the modern CMS platforms…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google local reviews…
Google Ads seems to be bringing the ability to do campaign level audience exclusions to Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. A new Data Exclusions feature is showing up for some advertisers…
Google Ads added a new tab on the Recommendations page named Investment Strategy. This tab “provides account-level suggestions to help you understand the potential impact of increased investment on your…
Over the past couple of weeks, there have been numerous reports of reviews disappearing, being removed, or being deleted from local business profiles on Google Search and Google Maps. Supposedly,…
Google seems to be testing the ability to schedule your Google Posts within Google Business Profiles. At the bottom of the add Google Posts overlay, Google is testing a new…
It looks like Google is launching a special agency version of Google Merchant Center named Merchant Center for Agencies. Google explained this version is a “tailored experience designed specifically for…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
This week, surprise – surprise, we covered more Google Search ranking volatility. OpenAI launched its web browser, ChatGPT Atlas – it uses Google. Google Search Console performance reports are stuck…
We covered Google testing using AI to generate snippet summaries and snippet descriptions, but all of those had a Gemini logo next to them, as to label them AI-generated. Now,…
I believe generally when you search Bing and get a Copilot answer at the top, Bing will just immediately show you the answer. Now, Microsoft is testing an animated response…
Google is testing showing a “Get Google QR” code button when you search for your business in Google Search. This button is with the Edit Profile, reviews, photos, posts, performance,…
We’ve seen at least two variations of Google local and Business Profiles showing related to your search boxes, but this new one looks a bit more tidy than the Q&A…
Google is testing showing the option ot track price changes for hotel results by email. We saw Google announce a similar feature back in March but now it is showing…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google Search Console…
Google held the Search Central Live event in Dubai just a couple of days ago. It seems like the vast majority of what was presented at the event was presented…
Google has updated AI Mode for fantasy sports including adding in integration with FantasyPros. And OpenAI has improved the GPT-5 Instant model for signed-out users.
Google Business Profile performance reports seem to be missing a chunk of call data from last week. The call data is missing from October 14 through October 16, 2025.
The Google Search Console performance reports seem to be stuck and not updating since October 19/20th for all profiles and websites. The weird thing is that the 24 hour view…
Google Ads is celebrating its 25th birthday/anniversary today. Yes, Google launched AdWords 25 years ago today in 2000. In 2018, Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads and the ad labels…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. OpenAI released its…
As you may have heard, the latest AI-powered web browser launched yesterday, the much-anticipated OpenAI ChatGPT web browser. OpenAI named its web browser Atlas. The built-in search features seem to…
Google is testing using different colored map pins in the map embed within Google AI Mode. The map pins can be in red, blue, yellow and maybe orange?
Google is testing showing an AI Mode history button within the local panel in Google Search. When you are viewing a specific business or organization, there may be an AI…
Google may be testing displaying different-sized cards for recipe results in the Google Search results. The cards show large and small graphics that make the results look misaligned.
Google AdSense added a new breakdown option named Confirmed Click status breakdown. This breakdown is available on all your reports under the “Breakdowns” dropdown selector at the top left.
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google told us…
Ten months ago, Google said on stage at Google Search Central Live event in the Google Zurich office that we should expect more core update, more update. We now have…
Google posted a new help document that says it will delete accounts without any campaigns after 6 months. “If an account does not have any campaigns, it’ll be permanently deleted…
Google added a new “sources” column to the AI Max search term report. This helps you understand where your traffic was matched from in AI Max searches.
Google is testing another variation of the AI-generated product summaries in Google AI Mode, this one is named “What to know.” It is made up of user reviews and web…
Google Ads seems to be experimenting with setting the New Customer Value within New Customer Acquisition campaigns without the consent of the advertiser. Technically, New Customer Value can be turned…
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Five weeks ago, Google announced a new feature named “Text’¬’ guidelines’¬’” at the Think Retail event. Google said these would roll out “over time this Fall.” Well, some are now…
Google is testing the ability to highlight portions of the response, to do a follow-up question on what you highlighted. It is similar to past tests on the AI Overview,…
Google is testing the paperclip style icon in the search results, by the search result snippets and description. Clicking anywhere on the paperclip or the snippet will take you to…
Google has added price tracking data charts for each retailer within Google Search. On the right side, after you click on a product, Google may show a price chart with…
Google now supports Sitelinks for local search ads in the Google Maps interface. They show in the form of a carousel, under a sponsored ad listing in the Google Maps…
The crawl stats report in Google Search Console is missing a day of data again. The data gap is for October 14, 2025. If you look at the chart, you…
There may have been another unconfirmed Google search ranking update that occurred between October 15th and October 18th. The bulk of the volatility seemed to be around Thursday, the 16th.