Google Menu Highlights Search Carousel

Google can show a restaurant's menu right at the top of the search results for a search on that restaurant's brand name. It comes up in this "menu highlights" carousel and showcases some of the items on that restaurant's menu.

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Microsoft Bing Advertising Revenue Up 18%

Microsoft reported its first quarter 2025 earnings and it showed that its search and advertising revenue was up 18%. The last quarter it was up 19%, but as I noted then, the last time it was up over 19% in a quarter before last quarter was 10 quarterly earning reports ago, in Q3 2022.

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Google Tests Scrollable Search Ads Categories

Google is testing a search ad product carousel format that has these sub-categories that scroll as you swipe through the carousel of products. This format looks familiar but I cannot find any coverage of this new look, so I am covering it now.

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Google Tests New Local Places & Compare Sites Interface

Google is testing a new "all places" and "compare now" interface to see businesses and third-party comparison sites outside of Google Search. This is something Google launched in the European regions but now some are seeing this in the US with this new user interface.

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Google Ads Raise Your Budgets Recommendation Gains Information

Google has updated the "Raise your budgets" recommendation within the Google Ads recommendations with more details and tips. I mean, no one wants to raise their budget unless they can make more money, so having more details on why you should raise your budget is useful.

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Google Search Snippet With Mentioned Products Carousel

Google is testing showing a carousel named mentioned products, that can be displayed under a search result snippet that shows the products mentioned in that search result. This came up for Reddit results, in the Discussions and forums section in Google Search.

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Google Business Profiles: Answer Questions About Your Inventory

Google Business Profiles may now ask you to verify your information about your store inventory within the Products section of your profile. Google will ask "Do you sell these products in-store?"

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Google Search Console Performance Report Showing Almost No Data Today

Google Search Console's performance report seems to have a bug where it is showing almost zero data for today. I can replicate this across numerous Search Console properties, so maybe something is stuck with Search Console right now.

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Google Search Ranking Volatility Again On October 26th & 27th & 23rd & 24th

While I was offline, it seems we had two bouts of Google Search ranking volatility, one starting around Wednesday, October 23rd and 24th, and then again in the past 24 hours, starting on October 26th and 27th. I mean, this is a lot of the same as my previous Google Search ranking algorithm update coverage.

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Google: AI Is Not Going Away, So Don't Be Left Behind

Google's John Mueller posted his thoughts on AI, which were two fold. (1) AI is not going away, so he doesn't recommend you take a stance against AI and (2) he isn't a fan of all the hype around AI, because it is making many feel insecure about their future.

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Google Other People Search Box

Google is testing another variation of the people also ask box, this one is titled "other people search." I am not sure if there is any functional or technical difference between this box and the other variations outside of the title.

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Fun: SEO The Board Game

Gareth Hoyle posted about this new game he and his company, along with others have spent about a year putting together. It is named SEO The Board Game and is a strategic game for 2 to 4 players where you play an SEO expert, purchase and optimize websites, build your digital empire, and compete for the title of top SEO kingpin.

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Programming Note: Offline For Simchat Torah On Thursday & Friday

This is a programming note that Thursday and Friday are Simchat Torah and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Thursday and Friday, October 24th and October 25th...

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Google: It's Tempting To Optimize For Tool Metrics; There's No SEO Shortcuts

Google's John Mueller said he understands why some in our industry look to optimize for metrics within various SEO tool platforms, but he said there are not shortcuts in SEO and optimizing for those metrics won't directly lead to Google search ranking or SEO gains.

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Google Merchant Center Audience Insights Beta

Google is testing new Audience Insights or audience analytics within the Google Merchant Center interface. This can show you your audience's regions, ages, gender, age group and more.

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Google Search People's Insights For Unprofessional Medical Advice

One of the complains with Google Search showing Reddit or other online forums all the time is that for medical questions, the answers can be dangerous and harmful. But at the same time, they can also provide help for people going through a rough time, to hear from others going through it.

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Expandable Google Knowledge Panels On Desktop Search

Google now has the ability to expand sections of knowledge panels on the desktop search interface. So when you search for Elon Musk and want to see his children, Google needs to have a down arrow to show more that expands on desktop to show more.

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Bing Search Adding Al-Enhanced Summary

Microsoft is adding new AI features to Bing Search named AI-enhanced summaries. These can show up in the knowledge panel section, and say the "summary was generated by Al from multiple online sources. Find the source links used for this summary under "Based on sources."

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Google Generative AI Snippets Throughout Search Results

Google has been doing a lot with generative AI and I know some of you have seen featured snippets, some knowledge panels, local listings and other forms of generative AI in the search results. Here is an example of Google Search placing generative AI snippets and cards within the middle of the search results, in the featured snippets things to know like results.

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Google Tests People Also Ask More Results Centered Button

Google is testing a more results button with a bit more design, the button expands or refines your query in the people also ask section. Normally you just see a text link that says "more results" but here Google a query and a search icon enclosed in a button.

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Google Tests New Image Pack Design In Search

Google is testing a new image pack design that shows four images instead of three images with a more images button. This may not be a new change, it might be query dependent but it seems newish to me.

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Google Search Translate Feature Can Show Images

Google Search's translate feature may sometimes show images that match the word or words, depending on the language you are translating from and to. So if you want to translate the word baby into Spanish or French, Google will show baby photos but if you want to translate it into Hebrew or some other languages, it won't.

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Google Local Pack Map Tests Open In Maps Button

Google is now testing an "open in maps" button in the local pack maps embed interface. That button takes you into the core Google Maps product for that Google search query.

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Semrush Acquired Search Engine Land, SMX & Third Door Media (Industry Reaction)

Semrush, the well-known and popular SaaS search marketing platform, has acquired Third Door Media and all its properties, including Search Engine Land, SMX, MarTech, and Digital Marketing Depot. As you know, Semrush went public in March 2021 and has grown its business over the past 16 years to over 1,000 people and hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Google Tests Snippet Product Carousels For Amazon

Google is testing a product carousel within the search results snippets that contain product images, product information, ratings and prices. This might be specific to Amazon, but I am not sure.

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Programming Note: Offline For Sukkot On Thursday & Friday

This is a programming note that Thursday and Friday are Sukkot and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Thursday and Friday, October 17th and October 18th.

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Google Business Profiles Removes Health Insurance Accepted

Google may have removed or be removing the health insurance fields from Google Business Profiles. So if you are a health related organization, and you want patients to see what insurance you accept before coming, Google would show that, but it seems Google is now removing that option.

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Google Tests Shaded Featured Snippet Background

Google is testing adding a background color, shade, to the featured snippets on mobile search. We saw this in February with normal snippets, also with site names and favicons and also with product results. Now Google is testing it for featured snippets.

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Google Search Tests Angled & Off-Centered Design Elements

Google is testing angled or off-centered design elements within the search results. The search box seems angled, the favicons seem twisted, the box elements throughout seem tilted - it just seems like an interesting test that should never see the day of light.

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Google Search Tests Top Links Title For Sitelinks?

Google is testing showing the term "top links" or "top links from..." in its search results snippets, that seem to give a title to the sitelinks shown under search result snippets. This is shown both on organic free search results and the search ads, Google Ads, in Google Search.

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Microsoft Unshipped 27 Bing Features

Did you know that Bing removed dozens of features? 27 Bing featured were "unshipped" according to the new CEO of Bing, Mustafa Suleyman, said on X. He wrote, "Simplicity is one of the core principles I am focused on. I am so proud that the Bing team has unshipped 27 features. Being brave enough to undo complexity is important."

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Google Adds Edit & Delete Button Links To Your Reviews

Google has added an edit and delete button link next to the reviews you added to a Google Business Profile listing. This gives the reviewer a quicker method to modify or remove the review they left for a business.

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9,000 Google Ads Campaigns Created Every Second???

Thomas Eccel posted a guess, trying to figure out how many Google Ads campaigns are created in a timeframe. He said if the ad campaigns are issued in sequential order, based on his calculations, 9,000 ad campaigns are created on Google Ads every second.

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Google Tests Quick View Button For Recipes That Keep You On Google

Google is testing placing a "quick view" button overlayed on the images on recipes within Google Search. The crazy part is that clicking on "Quick view" keeps you on Google while giving you a snapshot of the content from the publisher, without sending that traffic to the publisher.

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Google Search Tests Verified Labels For Product Results

Back in August we reported that Google was testing showing verified badges, verification labels, in the organic search results. Well, now Google is testing the verified label on the detailed product results overlay, on retailer listings.

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Google Store Ratings Now Available In India, Australia, Canada & UK

Google is rolling out the Store ratings feature beyond US Search. It is rolling out to searchers in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. Although, we've seen examples of Google showing them in Australia and other countries over the years, I guess as a test.

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Google Search Tests Most Mentioned Places Carousel

Google is testing a new local search carousel named "Most Mentioned Places." It seems to bring up local retail stores that have the product you are searching for. It shows local Google Business Profile listings, with the photo, and review summaries.

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Google Ads Improved Console Sidebar Navigation

Google has made a small but useful change to the Google Ads sidebar navigation. It made the background white on sub-navigational elements, which helps differentiate between main menu options and sub-menu options.

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Google Merchant Center Adds Video Generation & Amazon MCF Integration

Google announced two new features for Google Merchant Center (1) Video generation in Product Studio and (2) Amazon MCF integration with Merchant Center.

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Google Shopping "Researched with AI - Experimental" Answer

Google Shopping is testing a new AI Overview answer titled "Researched with AI - Experimental." This seems to pull together reviews for specific products based on Google Gemini AI.

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Google Merchant Listings Adds Certification Markup Support

Google now supports Certification markup support for merchant listings in the product structured data documentation. Google wrote, "starting in April 2025, we're replacing the EnergyConsumptionDetails type with the more robust Certification type, as the new type supports more countries and a broader scope of certifications."

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Google Search Product Detail Grid With Nearby Label

Earlier we reported Google was testing "most popular" and "best price" labels in the product detail grid within Google Search. Now, Google is also testing a "nearby" label in that same product grid detail view.

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Google Drops Support For Noarchive Meta Tag Directive

With Google removing the cache operator from its search service, Google has stopped supporting the noarchive directive in Google Search. The directive, the noarchive meta tag, would tell Google not to keep a cache copy of your page. Since Google doesn't have a cache anymore, there is no need for Google to support this directive.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: October 4, 2024

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

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Google Tests Local Services Ads Without Attorney Photos

Google is reportedly testing showing Local Service Ads (LSAs) without a photo of an attorney or attornies. Instead, Google can show a photo from its business profile or law firm and not of its attornies.

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Google Search From The Web Carousel Cards

Google is testing another variation of "from the web" sections in its search results. This one is more for local queries, where Google shows a carousel of cards snippets titled "From the web." They can come up for [near me] types of queries but I am not able to replicate this.

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Google Tests Videos In Knowledge Panel Image Carousels

Google seems to be testing showing videos, videos from YouTube, in the image carousels within the knowledge panels. Generally, Google will only show images in this carousel but now Google is showing playable videos from YouTube.

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Happy 14th Birthday BingBot

Fabrice Canel from Microsoft posted on X this week that BingBot turned 14 years old. Yea, 14 years of crawling the web. Fabrice wrote, "Happy 14th Birthday, BingBot! You've been crawling ð·ï' the web and bringing us the best search results for over a decade. Next year promises even more innovation and excellence! Time to graduate and maximize crawl efficiency."

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Programming Note: Rosh Hashanah 5785 - Happy & Healthy Jewish New Year

This is a programming note that Thursday and Wednesday are Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Thursday and Wednesday, October 3rd and October 4th...

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Bing Testing Replacing Ad Label With Sponsored Label

Microsoft seems to be testing replacing the hard to see ad label with a longer sponsored label in the Bing Search results. So instead of it saying "ad" next to the search ads, it is testing showing "sponsored" text next to the search ads.

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Sticky Google Search Console Performance Report Filters

Google has updated its performance reports in Google Search Console to have the filters you set, stick. Meaning, the next time you go back to the report, it should be where you left it, with all the filters you set. You can of course reset the filters and start from scratch with the click of a button that reads, "reset filters."

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Google Again On When To Use Noindex Or Canonical (Or Both)

Google's John Mueller was asked about if it is still okay to use noindex and canonicals at the same time and when to use one or the other. This is a topic we covered several times here over the years but I spotted a new Reddit thread with John's comments on it, so I figured I'd resurrect this topic.

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Google: Don't Use Generic Server / CMS Holding Pages For New Sites

John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, said on Reddit, that he does not recommend you use generic server or CMS holding pages for new sites. Instead, either "keep DNS disabled or put up a custom holding page."

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Google Ads Outage This Morning Being Restored

Google Ads had an outage that started at around 3am ET on Tuesday October 1st. The issue is now mostly resolved, but many advertisers were unable to access their Google Ads accounts and campaigns for a few hours this morning.

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