Search Engine Roundtable

9/30/2026

Google has confirmed there are issues with Google Analytics loading the platform. Google updated its status report to say that it has "restored for some users" and Google expects "a resolution for all users in the near future."

9/29/2026

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's Nick Fox was interviewed again and said the DMA changes make him sad and are terrible for searchers...

9/29/2026

Pietro Valetto interviewed Nick Fox, Senior Vice President of Knowledge & Information at Google. Nick Fox shared a snippet from the full video about the DMA changes that led Google to say it had to make the biggest reduction in search quality in its 28-year history. Fox said doing so made him feel "terrible" and "sad."

9/29/2026

Google is testing showing two rows of action buttons of the local panels within mobile search. Google has been testing showing a more + sign to load more or a scrollable carousel of buttons and now here it is with two rows.

9/29/2026

Google is testing showing citation cards at the bottom of AI Overview responses on desktop, instead of on the right side. Google tested variations of this at least twice before, once in March of 2026 and before that in September 2025.

9/29/2026

A new bug with Google Business Profiles and Google Maps is placing some businesses' Google Maps pins in the middle of the ocean. This is reportedly happening for some service area businesses that do not list their address publicly on their Google local listings.

9/29/2026

Google has added a new policy to the Google Business Profiles policies document. The new policy is named "Misuse of support channels."

9/29/2026

Google has officially appealed to the European Union to stop the European Commission's Digital Markets Act (DMA) mandate requiring it to share search history data with competitors. Google said, "We're appealing decisions that will force us to share people's private search history without sufficient anonymization and weaken vital security protections on Android."

9/28/2026

Google is now rolling out monitoring capabilities in AI Mode in Google Search globally for everyone. When Google first announced this feature, it was only available for Ultra and Pro paid subscribers, but now it is available to all Google users.

9/28/2026

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. The Google September spam update had a big impact this weekend...

9/28/2026

The first stage of the Google September 2026 Spam update seems to have been felt in a big way starting Friday, September 25th, with even more movement on Saturday, September 26th and then ending on Sunday, September 27th. There is more to come, since we are only five days into the two-week rollout.

9/28/2026

A couple of weeks ago, Google seemed to accidentally publish its Web Search Service API documentation, then pulled it down last week. Google doesn't offer a public Web Search Service API, so we really can't access it, but I assume it does have some partners with access, like Apple.

9/28/2026

Google has updated several Google Merchant Center policy documents late last week. The documents include Products that enable dishonest behavior, Dangerous products, Counterfeit products, Sexual content, Editorial & professional requirements, the overarching Shopping ads policies overview and probably more.

9/28/2026

Google is testing replacing the "Show more" button under the AI Overviews with a "Loading..." button. Also, earlier this year, Google tested "Enter AI Mode" for the button text but that obviously did not stick.

9/28/2026

Google has completely revamped the Google Merchant Center API help document page. It was previously named "API access to Merchant Center" and was renamed to "Google Merchant Center API." Plus, the content on the page has been completely rewritten and expanded.

9/28/2026

Google seems to have removed the Follow button from the desktop search results page, but it is still on the mobile search results page. The follow button lets you quickly follow a Search profile for the individual or brand you searched for.

9/28/2026

Google continues to test variations of designs and user experiences for Sitelinks within its search results. The new design spotted has the Sitelinks listed line by line, with a horizontal line across the left side of the mobile search result snippet.

9/28/2026

Today is Google's 28th birthday and Google has a special Google Doodle to celebrate. The Doodle takes you back in time to an early Google logo. Plus, when you click on the Doodle, you are taken into AI Mode where you can take "a fun trivia quiz about Google's company lore, historical quirks, and birthday traditions."

9/25/2026

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 has released a new algorithm update, not a core update, but a spam update and this spam update will take two weeks...

9/25/2026

This week, Google announced yet another spam update, the fourth of the year, the September 2026 Google spam update. Prior to that, we reported on more Google Search ranking volatility. Google Search Console released multimodal search filters...

9/25/2026

As you know, Google has thousands of quality raters they use to help test and improve the search results and AI results. OpenAI does the same thing, with AI trainers according to a report by 404 Media.

9/25/2026

Google seems to have made a change in which phone number they use for tracking calls, even when you tell Google to use the Google Ads number, it is still using the Google Business Profiles phone number. I am told this is a confirmed change and Google still has not changed it back, and it is unclear if Google will change it back.

9/25/2026

Microsoft Bing is testing adding an editable icon in two formats on images within Bing Search that can be edited using Bing's AI image feature.

9/25/2026

Did you know that you cannot edit your Target ROAS while promotion mode is active in Google Ads? Google will display a notification that reads, "You can't edit your Target ROAS while promotion mode is active" and then gives you the option to edit the ROAS tolerance instead.

9/25/2026

Google updated two of its Google Posts help documents to allow phone numbers in Google Posts only if they are verified contact information, but if it is unverified, it is not allowed.

9/25/2026

Microsoft is testing replacing or renaming the Copilot search tab in Bing Search with the name AI Mode. AI Mode is the name Google uses for its AI search engine, Bing uses Copilot Search, but Microsoft is testing using Google's name here.

9/24/2026

Google has just announced the release of the September 2026 spam update and said it should take a couple of weeks to roll out. This is a global update and is expected to impact all languages. This only impacts sites that spam, but with any update...

9/24/2026

Google has updated its video structured data documentation to support creator property and it has updated the interactionStatistic in VideoObject structured data. Google said these updates are to "to document support for the creator and author properties, and clarify supported interaction types for interactionStatistic in VideoObject structured data."

9/24/2026

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

9/24/2026

We are seeing significant volatility again within the Google Search rankings again, this time starting around September 23rd (maybe the 22nd) and throughout today. As we have been seeing, the chatter is generally slowing down as Google has been sending less and less traffic to sites, but I believe there are enough signals to say there was some sort of unconfirmed Google Search ranking update.

9/24/2026

Google Business Profiles is testing a new feature to let it set your business hours for you automatically by just asking you to describe your business hours in text. Google will then use AI to interpret them and make them into a structured format to list on your local panel in Google Search and Google Maps.

9/24/2026

Google Ads is showing some advertisers not just a recommendation with the ability to make a change on that recommendation but it is tied to the advertiser's forecast. It shows your projected weekly conversion value and adds that your campaign is limited by budget, and that you should spend more to hit the forecast.

9/24/2026

We've seen Microsoft test variations of expanding sitelinks within the Bing search results before. But here is a different variation on that, one that expands and shows descriptions under the sitelinks after you hover your mouse cursor over the specific sitelink.

9/24/2026

Google is testing a redesigned Local Service Ads design in the search results that have larger images and a highlight box under the listings. It makes the ads really stand out and in your face.

9/24/2026

Google is testing moving the AI Overviews from the top of the page to the bottom-right location for hotel searches. So when you bring up a hotel knowledge panel, you may see an AI Overview at the bottom of the page.

9/24/2026

Google is rolling out a new Search Console performance report filter for the web results named Multimodal. Some may see it now, when you select the Search type filter in the performance report, under the "Web" option it now shows "Text-based" and "Multimodal."

9/24/2026

Google Ads updated its Recommended Investment Strategy tab on the Recommendations page with Strategic budget allocation using Holistic and Growth modes. Holistic mode reallocates spend from underperforming campaigns to top performers for maximum efficiency, while Growth mode adds fresh budget to top performers without cutting spend anywhere else.

9/23/2026

Google has released version 25.2 of the Google Ads API, this is a minor release with several of updates. This update includes competitive benchmarks percentile metrics, the ability to generate Performance Max drafts from Smart campaigns, asset group URL options, Search bid adjustment recommendations, and more.

9/23/2026

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

9/23/2026

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has proposed new measures to force Google to make it easier for users of Google's Android and Chrome to use an alternative search engine or AI platform. This is "designed to give millions of Google Android and Google Chrome customers in the UK greater choice and more control over the search services they use," the CMA wrote.

9/23/2026

Google Ads added new help documentation on how to test AI Max against Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) by using experiments. Google posted two options within Google Ads experiments including (1) custom experiments and (2) the experiment template.

9/23/2026

Microsoft is testing placing favicons on the Bing shopping ads, product results, carousel. Normally, this ad unit just shows the site name but Bing is testing adding favicons in front of the site name.

9/23/2026

Google has updated the localized versions of your page help document to change all the hreflang examples from lowercase codes to uppercase codes. It doesn't matter because the hreflang value is case-insensitive; Google accepts lowercase and uppercase codes.

9/23/2026

Google updated its help document to clarify that you have four days to reject a user suggested edit to your Google Business Profile. If you do not reject the edit within four days, Google may apply that edit to your Google local listing.

9/23/2026

New data shows that Google is showing far more external links in its AI Overviews than before. A jump from close to 0% of AI Overviews containing external links to over 25% of AI Overviews containing external links.

9/23/2026

Google AdSense has lowered the identity verification threshold from $10 to $0, according to an update to the help documentation.

9/23/2026

Google Ads is expanding access to AI Briefs and also added new AI Max reporting. Google said AI Brief audience targeting works now in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Plus, there is a new AI Max reporting feature for looking at the Search Ads journey.

9/22/2026

Google has updated the understanding page experience in Google Search results help document to add the new CrUX ad metrics which launched last week. To be clear, Google did not say this is a specific ranking signal for search, the CrUX ad metrics line was added to the "Page experience resources" section of the document.

9/22/2026

Google is sending email notifications to Google Merchant Center users if their e-commerce platform supports Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and if so, telling them that "your products are now eligible for native checkout." This means that your eligible products are automatically included, so if you don't want people buying directly on Google, and you want them to buy on your site, then you need to turn it off.

9/22/2026

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

9/22/2026

It looks like spammers are taking advantage of Gemini Notebook, public NotebookLM, pages to spam Google with all sorts of content. This includes pages on sex toys, porn, peptides, coupon codes and more.

9/22/2026

Google is placing links, normal looking links, within the AI Overviews that take you into AI Mode instead of taking you to web pages and web sites. These links appear at the bottom of the AI Overview and prompt follow-up questions that take you into AI Mode.

9/22/2026

Google added a new section to the Google Store ratings: An overview for Merchants within Google Merchant Center detailing the requirements for Google Store ratings. This was added a week or so ago, and it says you need at least 100 reviews, an average star rating of 3.5 to 5, a 24-hour timeframe and the ratings are geo-segmented.

9/20/2026

This is a programming note: I will be 100% offline from Sunday night (September 20th) through Monday night (September 21st) for Yom Kippur. I am not scheduling any stories tomorrow, Monday, Yom Kippur; nothing will be posted.

9/20/2026

Google Search has this beta opt-in feature named Web Guide, it is like a mix of its AI search results interface and web search interface - in one. That being said, there seems to be a bug where, when you click the button that says "Classic search," it does not take you out of Web Guide and into classic search.

9/20/2026

The crawl stats report is missing a day of data again, this time, the missing data is from September 15th (it might be a day later for some of you on different time zones). That being said, this has happened numerous times before and Google tends to always restore the data.

9/18/2026

Google is testing a new feature in Google Discover named "Dive deeper." When you click on it, it does not take you to a publisher's article, instead, it takes you to an AI-generated short topic overview with links to some other articles (which do take you to the publisher) and community reaction.

9/18/2026

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

9/18/2026

This week we covered the first week or so of Google's unusual ranking volatility only to see things spike up in a big way this week as well - something is up. Google's remedies are out for its ad tech monopoly ruling. Google has an AI contribution pilot for paying publishers...

9/18/2026

Google may be more successful in blocking AI scrapers, search scrapers and third-party tracking tools since around September 13th or so. This coincides with the September 4th and September 12th reversals we reported, and it also aligns with the methods Google has been using to block non-human behavior in its search results recently.

9/18/2026

Google is now testing adding the AI Mode button to the search bar when you are inside the search results page. Google has the AI Mode button almost everywhere else, but now we are seeing it added to the search bar, within the search results page, not just the home page.

9/18/2026

Microsoft Bing is also asking some searchers to verify they are human before showing them search results. Google is doing this a lot, in various forms, and now Bing was spotted doing this.

9/18/2026

Google has posted a new help document in the Google Ads help area named About commerce audience sharing through Google Ads. It explains that "Commerce audience sharing allows commerce partners, such as retailers or marketplaces, to share first-party data segments with their advertising partners, such as brands or sellers."

9/18/2026

Google updated the upload a product reviews data source to Merchant Center help document to now say that you can do this via the Merchant Center API. Previously, the document said, "API isn't currently supported for product reviews data sources." Now it says, "Add product reviews using API."

9/18/2026

Google has updated its guidelines for sites with explicit content to now specify that ecommerce sites must "label adult products in ecommerce feeds or markup." There is also a new section at the bottom of the help document titled, "For Google Shopping features."

9/18/2026

Google Search has dropped the free product listings and carousel formats from the European Economic Area (EEA). This change is part of what the European Commission forced Google to do in these regions under the Digital Markets Act.

9/18/2026

Google has added local business query support to the aggregator and supplier units within Google Search. Google updated both the aggregator unit and supplier unit documentation to add "and local businesses" sprinkled throughout those documents.

9/17/2026

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

9/17/2026

Last year, Google began to roll out Google Discover on the desktop interface of Google.com. But now, for the past several months, Discover on desktop is not been found. Google tested Discover on Desktop in 2023 and then, in 2025, said it was coming; it even started to roll it out, but again, it didn't last - Discover on Google.com desktop just does not exist.

9/17/2026

Earlier this month, we learned a judge ruled that Google won't be broken up over its monopoly ruling in its ad tech case. And now we have the full memo with the judge's proposed remedies, including Google making behavioral changes.

9/17/2026

Google is turning the local knowledge panels, your Google Business Profile, into an AI Overview listing. At the top of the local listing it says "AI Overview" and then there is a "Show more" button to expand, which brings you into the follow up AI Mode style chat interface.

9/17/2026

Microsoft is testing adding new labels to the Bing Search product carousels. Labels include Top Picks, Price Drop, Sale and likely other labels on the Bing Search product listings, within the carousels.

9/17/2026

Google is testing the Sponsored Places ads that expand when you hover over the ads within Google Search. Google has been testing expandable ads on hover for a while, but here is one with the Sponsored Places ads.

9/16/2026

Google left one thing out of the announcement around the new Search profiles features announced today, you can now add a Search profile badge to your website. This allows users/searchers to follow you directly from your website.

9/16/2026

Google has updated the Search profiles with a new article design, a single login to manage multiple Search profiles and only 10,000 followers on social platforms are required.

9/16/2026

OpenAI is testing a new ad format in ChatGPT named Sponsored Agents. Sponsored Agents "let people start a conversation with a business-sponsored agent after clicking an ad in ChatGPT," OpenAI wrote.

9/16/2026

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 said Search Console position reporting may change as Search, AI Mode, AI Overviews...

9/16/2026

Google has announced a number of updates to Google Merchant Center including the AI performance insights generally available, it has simplified Universal Commerce Protocol integration, and Google highlighted how using conversational and video attributes can help.

9/16/2026

Google Image Search lets you save images to collections and folders. Well, now Google will suggest new folders or collections using AI - it says "suggested by AI" with a Gemini icon over a folder.

9/16/2026

Google is now testing linking the product and shopping results within Google Search directly to the merchant or retailer website. This is instead of Google opening the side panel with more details about the product.

9/16/2026

Google posted another new help document on multi-source conversions (beta). Last month, Google reportedly renamed conversions with multiple data sources to multi-source conversions, but now there is this new help document as well.

9/16/2026

Microsoft Bing is testing adding product/shopping related filters on the left sidebar of the search results. This makes the Bing all search tab look more like Google's all tab, when you search for product or shopping related queries.

9/16/2026

Google Ads is rolling out an update to the Spend benchmarks report that now shows you how your spend is comparable to businesses like yours. In short, it shows you if you are spending more, less or the same as your competitors on Google Ads.

9/16/2026

Google's John Mueller said that he expects the position and impression tracking for AI Mode, AI Overviews and Google Search to "evolve over time" as Google Search, AI Mode and AI Overviews "evolve too," he wrote.

9/15/2026

Google Search Live is now powered by Google's latest AI model, Gemini 3.8 Live. Search Live has been around for a couple years now, both in audio only format and then video format. Search Live was released globally in March, and before that, it removed the opt-in requirements.

9/15/2026

Google announced new ad metrics that are being tested within the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX). These metrics include Ad Count, Ad Density, Ad Weight (Network) and Ad Weight (CPU).

9/15/2026

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. I am seeing signs of a big update lurking with Google Search...

9/15/2026

Google Search seems to be heating up this morning, I am seeing a huge spike in chatter in the past few hours and the tools may be starting to heat up as well. We will know more tomorrow but I am suspecting we are seeing the start of a Google update, hopefully one Google will confirm soon but I doubt it.

9/15/2026

Google announced a delay in processing applications for access to the Google Business Profile API. This was posted by Victoria Kroll in multiple languages in the Google Business Profiles support forum.

9/15/2026

Google is testing a text-based link format for ads within AI Mode. So the ads look like normal AI Mode responses, with normal looking text links with anchor text, but they are labeled as "Sponsored" above the AI-generated response.

9/15/2026

Google has posted the date of when the Google Ads bidding update, the target-based bid strategies rolled out, completed globally. It started on yes, August 17, 2026 and completed on August 27, 2026.

9/15/2026

Google Ads added a new option within your Performance Max campaigns to select "Where should people go after clicking your ads?" The two available options for that question are (1) Your website and (2) Google Business Profile (optimized for ads).

9/15/2026

The Google Ads August 17th bidding update happened about a month ago, and Google's various ad representatives spent a lot of time telling us that a lot won't change. It still caused a big stir in the community, but now we have some data to share.

9/15/2026

As you know, Google has new features in many European regions to promote vertical search services (VSS) by way of the Digital Markets Act. Many of those changes have been live for a while, but now the Ecosystem carousel seems to be live.

9/14/2026

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 is testing a way to pay publishers for using their content in AI Mode...

9/14/2026

I've been pretty quiet on posting reports Google updates recently, in fact, I have not posted about one since late August. But while most sites seem calm in the Google rankings, there was definitely some sort of ranking blip around September 4th, and in some cases, the September 4th impact reverted on September 13th. It is super weird.

9/14/2026

Google is testing a blue background color on the "More" link within the product results in Google Search. The link is normally just a basic "more" link with no prominence or color that calls it out but in this test, Google is using a blue highlight color for the link.

9/14/2026

Google continues to test new query expansion methods in AI Mode, beyond standard follow-up questions. Now Google is testing questions with multi-selection tools, a query refinement option and those recent paginated responses.

9/14/2026

Google's John Mueller said it is normal for Google Search to take a while to update image thumbnails in its search results with updated images from the website it pulls from. And it can take even longer if the image is still on the page, but was only moved down the page later, even if the image is within the recipe structured data as the primary.

9/14/2026

Google Ads has a new beta named Product Value Optimization that allows advertisers to configure value adjustments to guide automated bidding to optimize for the products that matter for your business goals.