Google Ads & Google Analytics Data Controls Update

Google posted an update for the Google Ads and Google Analytics data controls yesterday where changes will be coming to the sources of the data. Google said this is to "simplify data controls and remove redundant settings between Google Analytics and Ads, we are planning to consolidate controls based on where the data is used."

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Google May Ignore Links From Sites That Spam & Violate Policies

Google's John Mueller reconfirmed that Google Search may simply ignore outbound links from sites that violate its search spam policies. This is not new, Google has been doing this manually and algorithmically for years now but he reiterated this on Bluesky.

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Google Discusses Page Weight, Average Mobile Homepage Size, and Googlebot File Limit Sizes

On the latest Search Off The Record Podcast, Martin Split and Gary Illyes discussed the growing page weight issue and how that impacts users and Googlebot crawling. This follows Google updating its documentation to clarify file size limits for Googlebot (and various versions of Googlebot).

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Reusable "Skills" Are Coming To Gemini In Chrome

If you're using Gemini in Chrome (the sidebar you can summon via a button in Chrome), then you might be happy about the latest feature that showed up in Chrome Canary. After running a prompt...

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Google's March 2026 Broad Core Update Has Completed Rolling Out

Google's March 2026 broad core update has officially completed rolling out. Google announced this via X this morning and the Search Status Dashboard has been updated to document the rollout. The update took 12 days and 4 hours to complete...

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âJarvis Approachingâ: Google's Sundar Pichai Signals an Agentic, Multi-Threaded Future for Search

Google's Sundar Pichai was on the Cheeky Pint podcast and was asked about the future of Search. He basically laid out a future where Search is Jarvis-like where users will be completing tasks and have "many threads running"...

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Google Ads Testing New Layouts for Multi-Location GBP Assets?

Spotted in the wild are what appear to be swipeable GBP location assets.

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Programming Note: Offline For Last Days Of Passover Wednesday & Thursday

This is a programming note that I am completely offline for the last days of Passover holiday Wednesday and Thursday. I am likely not going to schedule any stories, I apologize (still in recovery mode). So I apologize for the lack of stories here. I hope to come back soon...

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GSC Logging Error Yielded Inflated Impressions Since May 2025

Google announced a logging error on Friday, April 3rd in the data anomalies report and explained that error prevented the accurate logging of impressions in GSC since May of 2025. That's right, almost a full year of inaccurate impressions...

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Grokipedia Continues To Drop in Search Visibility And AI Search Visibility

In February I shared how Grokipedia started dropping heavily in Google after initially surging. It became yet another example of what I call "Mt. AI". That's when sites scaling heavily with AI-generated content initially surge in Google, but then drop heavily as Google's systems...

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Google Ask Maps Fully Available In US and India

Earlier this month, Google rolled out the "Ask Maps" feature. Now, Google said it is "available to everyone in the U.S. and India."

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Microsoft Advertising Merchant Center Enables Store & Domain Name Updates

You can now update your store's name and / or domain name directly in Merchant Center within Microsoft Advertising.

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Google Ads PMax Asset Group Theming

Google Ads is rolling out asset group theming for Performance Max campaigns. This lets you copy an asset group and apply this theme to your text and images using Google AI.

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Google May Call, Text or WhatsApp To Confirm Business Details

Google is sending out emails with updates on how Google Business Profiles may verify your business details. Google said it may "reach out using automated messages via call, text, or WhatsApp to the verified phone number on your Business Profile."

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Google Chimes In On Teen SEO Wants To Save Family Spain Vacation Rental

Google's John Mueller chimed in on Reddit when a teenager of a family vacation rental business said he was trying to save his family business through SEO after being burned by previous SEOs. In short, it seems the family has a vacation rental in Spain, and business is significantly down due to the loss of Google traffic.

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Is Google Ditching Blue Background For AI Citations?

New test places AI Overview citations on a white background without throwing any shade behind it.

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Bing Gives Product Ads Some Cushion

Bing spotted testing more listings in the sponsored product section at the top of its results.

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Google Ads Expanding Loyalty Program

Google Ads and Merchant Center is expanding the Loyalty program features to highlight key perks, expand local and regional visibility, expand internationally and within AI Mode and Gemini.

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Google March 2026 Core Update Is Rolling Out - First Core Update Of Year

Google officially announced the rollout of the March 2026 core update early Friday morning at around 5:14 ET. This core update is expected to take up to 2 weeks to roll out. Google said this "is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites."

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Google Ads PMax Audience Exclusions & New Reporting

Google announced several new steering updates for Google Ads Performance Max including first-party audience exclusions, budget reporting, full audience reporting and network segmentation in placement reporting.

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Bing Testing Rounded Corners On Short Videos

Microsoft Bing is testing using rounded corners on short videos and normal videos within the Bing search results interface. Bing used to show these as squared-off edges.

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Google To Expand Shopping Ads To 15 New European Markets

Google is reportedly expanding Shopping Ads eligibility to 15 additional European markets. This is a two phase roll out over the coming months...

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Google Ads Retires Several Old Ad Format Requirements

On March 17, 2026, Google retired some of its Google Ads policies on Ad format requirements. These are specific to "old ad formats that are no longer in use are also being retired," Ginny Marvin of Google.

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Google AI Mode Tests Changing Some Links To Overlay Cards - Reducing Clicks

Google is testing changing out some of the links within AI Mode to show as overlay cards, instead of take you directly to the website it is mentioning. This obviously will result in fewer direct clicks to those websites.

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Google Tests Reply To Reviews With Al

Google is testing encouraging business owners to reply to reviews using AI. There is a new option in the Google Business Profile dashboard that is showing for some businesses that says "Reply to reviews with AI."

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Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance Reports Add Grounding Queries To Pages

In February, Bing rolled out new AI Performance reports within Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing announced a new feature for this report that connects the Grounding Queries and Pages views within the AI Performance report.

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Local Ads Coming To Apple Maps

Apple is reportedly launching local ads within Apple Maps, as soon as this month. "Apple Inc. is preparing to introduce advertising in its Maps app, part of a broader push to generate more money from services," Bloomberg wrote.

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Google Business Profiles Gains Place Page Attributes

Google seems to have added a new section to the Google Business Profiles section named Place page attributes. Place page attributes allows you to let customers know more about your business by showing attributes on your Business Profile. These may appear publicly on Search, Maps, and other Google services.

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First ChatGPT Ads Share Little Data To Advertisers

The Information wrote "OpenAI's First Advertisers Can't Prove ChatGPT Ads Work." In short, the ChatGPT ad platform from OpenAI shares almost no data with advertisers. It is low tech, there is no ad performance data, and it also has very limited ad targeting features.

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Google Using AI to Create Title Links on SERP

Google confirms it is using AI to create title links on the SERP instead of headlines from news publishers, sometimes.

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Google Adds Google-Agent User Agent

Google has added a new user-agent to the user-triggered fetchers named Google-Agent. Google said the "Google-Agent user agent is rolling out over the next few weeks, and will be used by Google agents hosted on Google infrastructure to navigate the web and perform actions upon user request."

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AI Overviews Showing For Breaking News More Often And Above Top Stories

News publishers will not be happy to learn that AI Overviews seem to be ranking for breaking news more and more. I noticed this several times recently and shared about it on X yesterday...

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Daily Search Forum Recap: March 19, 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. A lot of you are emailing me where did the newsletter go. You may not have seen it, but I need several days off...

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Google Expands Personal Intelligence As Jarvis Approaches

Google announced that Personal Intelligence is expanding across AI Mode in Search, the Gemini app, and in Gemini in Chrome to all users in the U.S. When Personal Intelligence first rolled out...

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Google "Developing" Opt-Out of Generative AI Features in Search

A new response from Google to the UK's CMA revels that Google is working on developing an Opt-Out for Generative AI search features.

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Bing Business Profiles With Image Slider

Microsoft Bing now has an image slider in the Bing Business Profiles local panel. So when you find a business listing and that business listing has photos associated with its Business Profile, Bing will let you slide through those images on the search results page.

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Live Sports Data In Google AI Mode

Google's AI Mode is showing entity cards with a live score of ongoing sports events.

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Google Officially Removes "What People Suggest" Health SERP Feature

In March of 2025 Google announced a new SERP feature that would organize and surface health conversations from online discussions. For example, from Reddit, X, Facebook...

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Are Local Packs Losing Their Call Buttons?

A new study points to there being a low rate of call button appearances in Local Packs.

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Google News Support Team Still Advices You Go To Search Liaison For Updates

As you know, Google's Danny Sullivan stepped down from his role as the Search Liaison, and that support channel closed down on August 1, 2025. That isn't stopping Google News support team from advising publishers to follow the Google Search Liaison account for updates.

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PMax Channel Reporting Gets Video Segmentation Option

Hana Kobzova has spotted a new segmentation option within the Performance Max (PMax) Channel Reporting that allows advertisers to view data from ads with video as well as without video...

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Store Tab Appearing in Google Shopping

Google appears to have added a "Stores" button in Google Shopping.

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New Google Business Profile Playbooks With Local Optimization Tips

Google just emailed site owners about new Google Business Profile Playbooks containing recommendations for optimizing local listings. Daniel Hale pinged me on LinkedIn about this the other day after receiving the email...

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Is Google Hitting Self-Promotional Listicles Hard Again?

Is continuing rank volatility again impacting sites focusing on self-serving listicles? Industry chatter seems to indicate so.

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Google Ads Hold Music Driving Some Advertisers Crazy

Have you ever waited on hold for support with Google Ads? Do you enjoy the hold music that Google selected for your wait time? Well, some advertisers say it can drive you crazy.

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Google Tests Instagram Knowledge Panel Design

Google is testing a new knowledge panel design for when you search for an Instagram account of a notable person. Google will display the individual's knowledge panel, promoting the Instagram card higher up in that panel.

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Googleâs AI Mode Checking For Personalized Information

A look at how personalization without opt-in to connect other Google properties, such as Gmail, appears in AI Mode.

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Branded Queries Filter Rolling Out in Search Console

Branded queries filtering is now available for all eligible sites within Search Console.

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Google Launches Merchant Center For Agencies

A new agency-dedicated experience Merchant Center experience from Google should streamline management

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Google Search Your Related Activity Adds Chart

Google has offered this feature that shows you your past searches, including being able to see your related activity searches from the Google Search results. Now, it seems, Google added a chart to show that search activity over time.

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Survey Says: PPC is Harder Than It Was 2 Years Ago

A new survey from the aptly named PPCsurvey.com shows that the majority of PPC practitioners believe that PPC is getting MORE difficult.

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Google Search Console Crawl Stats Date Toggle/Selector Buggy

Google seems to have a bug with the Crawl Stats report in Google Search Console. The date selector appears to be acting a bit weird, where it doesn't let you select the before or after date.

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Google Ads Sends Notices For European Union Political Ads

Google has sent notices to some advertisers asking them to confirm whether their campaigns contain European Union political content. The deadline to confirm is by March 31, 2026.

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Bing With Asian Owned Labels On Microsoft Ads

A few years ago, Microsoft Advertising the support of Asian owned labels and attributes on its search ads within Bing. Google has a similar attribute, by the way. Honestly, I've never seen the label on Bing, until now.

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Google Ads Customer Match Data Uploads Changes Coming April 1

Google sent out emails to some advertisers about changes coming to the Customer Match uploads in the Google Ads APl. After April 1, 2026, those data uploads are no longer going to work in the Google Ads API and must be done in the Data Manager API instead.

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Google Adds Build to Order Attribute For Vehicle Listings

Google has added a new attribute to the Google Merchant Center availability options within vehicle listings. The new one is named "Build to order" and only works for Google Vehicle ads.

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Google Tests Bold Site Names In Search Results

Google is testing bolding the site names in the search results. We've seen Google bold many other elements of the search result snippet, but I don't think I've covered Google testing bolding the site name portion of the search snippet.

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Google Confirms Discover Feed Shows More Social Posts

Google has reportedly confirmed that the Google Discover feed has recently increased how often it shows social media posts in the feed. We covered this in January, and while we know Google does show social media in the Discover feed, it seems Google is more likely to show these social media posts more often now.

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Google Knowledge Panels With Colored Table Elements Sections Rolling Out

Google seems to be rolling out colorful sections in the knowledge panels. Sometimes you will see gray, sometimes blue, sometimes orange and sometimes green and maybe more. We saw this on mobile over a decade ago, so this does seem new, especially on desktop.

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Google Help Document On Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) Checkout

Google has published a new help document titled About the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and UCP-powered checkout feature on Google. This was published in the Google Merchant Center help documentation section.

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Google Search Ranking Volatility Heated Into March

Google Search rankings remain heated into March - I mean, I can post about this every day but now I am at the point of just doing it weekly. We thought things might be cooling a bit, but the volatility really has not cooled much at all.

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Google Ads Label: Sponsored Options In The Area

Google Ads has often used dynamic labels for some of the ad groupings. I mean, we've seen tons of variations of these and I am not sure if they mean anything specific. But here is one that caught my eye, this is titled "Sponsored options in the area."

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Google Ads Text Guidelines Rolling Out To All In AI Max

Google Ads is rolling out text guidelines for all advertisers globally in AI Max. We thought the rollout started more broadly last October, after it was announced last September, but now it is really fully rolling out.

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Google Tests Web Mentions In Retailer Store Pages

Google is testing adding "web mentions" to the retailer store page under the reviews section. I cannot replicate this yet, but web mentions shows what people are saying about the retailer on sites like Reddit and other social platforms, whereas reviews are reviews left on Google.

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Bing Tests 2x2 Video Grid Layout

Microsoft Bing Search is testing a new layout for videos within the search results. Instead of a list view, Bing is testing a two-by-two grid layout.

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February 2026 Google Discover Core Update Is Done Rolling Out After 3 Weeks

Google's February 2026 Google Discover Core Update has officially completed rolling out after just over 3 weeks. This update started on February 5, 2026, and was completed on February 27, 2026.

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Google Post Reoccurring Scheduling Coming

Recently, Google rolled out the ability to schedule Google Posts. Supposedly, soon, Google will also roll out recurring scheduling for posts. So you can set a Google Post to repeat and post over and over again on a schedule.

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Google Search Brief Serving Issue This Morning

Google had a brief issue with serving search results this morning, February 25th. Google documented the issue at around 1:30 am ET on Wednesday, February 25th and said it was resolved a minute later.

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Microsoft Advertising Tests Shopping Carousel With Multiple Images Toggle

Microsoft Advertising is testing an update to the shopping ads carousel that can show multiple images in a single card. Essentially, you are seeing a carousel within a carousel for Bing shopping ads.

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Bing Updates Shopping Ads Design

Microsoft Advertising seems to be testing a new design for the Bing shopping ads carousel. The new design fills the screen more from left to right than the old design and is just wider in general.

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Google Search Console Page Indexing Report Missing A Chunk Of Data

The Google Search Console page indexing report seems to be missing a chunk of data. The missing data is from December 15th and earlier, but we do have data from December 15th (14th) through today.

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Google Search Ranking Volatility Beginning To Cool?

Some are wondering when the Google Search ranking volatility will begin to cool down a bit. While many of the tools continue to show heated volatility over the past weeks, some are starting to show signs of cooling.

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ChatGPT Ads From Expedia Spotted In The Wild

As you know, OpenAI said they would release ads in ChatGPT and then about ten days ago, said the ads went live for a limited number of users. Since then, we have not seen reports of anyone seeing ads in the wild within ChatGPT until now.

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Google Sponsored Places Search Ad Unit

Google may be testing a new ad unit named Sponsored Places. I think this is new, I mean, have any of you seen this before in the search results? Instead of it saying "Sponsored results" or a local pack with sponsored listings.

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Google Ads Updates Certification Process For Cryptocurrency

Google is rolling out an update for Google Ads advertisers to certify for some cryptocurrency and complex speculative financial products. This is "incrementally to all advertisers over a period of time and not all advertisers and certification applications will be affected immediately," Google wrote.

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Google AdSense Anchor & Vignette Ads Bug Won't Close Ads

There is a bug impacting a number of Google AdSense publishers where the anchor and vignette ads won't close for users. This has been an issue since February 13th and Google is reportedly working on a fix for the issue.

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Google AI Overviews Have Blue Links Before Click & Gray After Click

Did you know that the Google AI Overviews link citation paperclip icons are blue before you click to see more of the overviews and then after you click on them, that icon turns to a gray color.

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Google Ends Parked Domains (AFD) On Search Partner Network

Google AdSense has ended its Parked Domains (AFD) as an ad surface within the Search Partner Network effective February 10, 2026. Google wrote, "Parked Domains (AFD) will cease to be an ad surface within the Search Partner Network effective February 10, 2026."

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Google Search Ranking Volatility Remains Heated Through The Weekend

On February 10th, we reported the beginning of yet another unconfirmed Google Search ranking update. The volatility has not cooled yet and it seems it may have even heated up through the weekend.

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Bing Tests Underlining Name & Price In Shopping Ads Carousel

Microsoft is testing underlining the product name and product price in the shopping ads carousel at the top of the Bing Search results. I am not sure how much this adds to the interface but maybe it drives a bit more attention and thus clicks?

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Google AI Mode Launches UCP-Powered Checkout

Google is rolling out UCP, Universal Commerce Protocol, powered checkout in AI Mode. This launched as part of the Google Ads news from yesterday, and you can now see it in AI Mode for products from Etsy and Wayfair.

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Google AdSense Adds New Triggers For Vignette Ads

Google AdSense has added additional triggers for vignette ads. There are now a total of six triggers, three old ones and three new ones. These new triggers took effect on February 9, 2026.

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Google Ads New AI Mode Shopping Ad & Veo 3 Is In Asset Studio

Google announced a new ad unit for AI Mode for shopping ads which promotes retailers. Google also launched Veo 3 support in Google Ads Asset Studio. Plus Vidhya Srinivasan, VP/GM of Ads & Commerce at Google, published her annual letter to the industry on the Google blog.

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Google Releases Early Preview Of WebMCP

The Google Chrome team announced its early preview of WebMCP, "a standard way for exposing structured tools, ensuring AI agents can perform actions on your side with increased speed, reliability, and precision," André Cipriani Bandarra from Google wrote.

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Google Clarifies Google's Crawler File Size Limits Doc Again

Earlier this month, we reported that Google updated two of its help documents around Google's crawler file size limits. Well, Google made a clarification to one of those documents the other day after some confusion within the SEO industry.

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Google Business Short Names Being Removed From Business Profiles

Google will stop showing the business short names on Google Business Profiles in Search and Google Maps. The short name will still work, if you have one, but going forward, the link in your Google Business Profile will no longer be displayed to you or searchers.

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Grokipedia Seeing Decline In Google Search Visibility

There are some reports coming out that Grokipedia, the AI-based Wikipedia, is now showing a decline in search visibility in both Google and even ChatGPT. This comes after both an indexing and ranking surge in Google Search.

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OpenAI ChatGPT Ads Go Live With User Ad Controls

OpenAI has officially launched ads in ChatGPT yesterday. The company announced, "Today, we're beginning to test ads in ChatGPT in the U.S. The test will be for logged-in adult users on the Free and Go subscription tiers. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education tiers will not have ads."

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Google AI Mode Tests Citation Icons At Bottom Of Answers

Google appears to be testing showing the citation favicon site icons at the bottom of the answer in AI Mode. This is in addition to where it normally shows those icons, at the top right of the card stack, on the side of the answer response.

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Bing Tests Dynamic Results Count Under Search Box

Microsoft Bing is testing a dynamically loading results count under the search box. So when you enter your search phrase, the results count will dynamically count up from 0 to the number of results found.

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Google AI Overviews Tests Contextual Overlay Link Cards

Over the past week or so, Google has been testing a new format for link cards in the AI Overviews within Google Search. When you place your mouse cursor over a link clip icon, a new overlay will show you the page/site cards that line of text is being sourced from.

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Reddit On Google & ChatGPT AI Responses Citations & Lack Of Links

On the Reddit Q4 2025 Earnings Call (see transcript here), Steve Huffman, the CEO of Reddit, was asked about how he feels about how Google and OpenAI link or use citations to link to Reddit's content. Overall, Steve made it sound like the interfaces are adapting quickly and he is hopeful they will drive traffic to the conversation (within Reddit) in the future.

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Report: ChatGPT & Perplexity Treat Structured Data As Text On A Page

To fuel the debate in the SEO world of the topic of structured data and LLMs and AI engines, we are hearing that once again, AI engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity are not using structured data in any special way.

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February 2026 Google Discover Core Update Rolling Out - Local Impact

Google has released its first core update of 2026, which is focused on just Google Discover. Google named it the February 2026 Discover core update. This one is rolling over the next two weeks or so just English language users in the US and at some point will roll out beyond that to all countries and languages.

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Microsoft Advertising Tests Magazine Answer Card Ad Format

Microsoft Advertising is testing a new ad format within its newish Answer Card format called a magazine layout. These load ads in the card formats you see at the top of some of the Bing search results.

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Google AI Overviews Bug Removes Links & Citations

Google confirmed there is a bug with AI Overviews not showing links for some responses. The bug was spotted by Lily Ray, who posted some examples several hours ago. Rajan Patel, Google's VP, Engineering for Search, replied saying it is a bug and Google is working on fixing it.

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Google Ad Revenue Up 14% - Google's Biggest Revenue & Ad Revenue Yet

Google reported its earnings today, its Q4 2025 earnings report showed ad revenues up by 14% at $82.3 billion and overall revenue was up 17% at $113.8 billion. I specifically like to dig in as best as I can on the ad revenue side to see how Google Ads have performed.

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Googlebot File Limit Is 15MB But 64MB For PDF & 2MB For Other File Types

We have known for a long time that Google can crawl web pages up to the first 15MB but now Google updated some of its help documentation to clarify that it will crawl the first 64MB of a PDF file and the first 2MB of other supported file types.

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Google's First 2026 Winter Olympics Doodle: Curling

Google posted its first Winter Olympics Doodle, special logo, for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The first sport Google covered is curling. The Doodle is an animated GIF of an Olympian pushing the curling stone down the ice.

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Google: Don't Spend Too Much Time On Redirects Analysis For SEO

Google's John Mueller said he would "caution against assuming that you need to do this level of analysis for all URLs on a website in order to achieve optimal SEO" when it comes to reviewing bad redirects or CSP settings. Why, because bad redirects or CSP settings are often simply visible when doing normal browsing, and if you see it, then that is enough.

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February 2026 Google Webmaster Report

Welcome to the Google Webmaster report, where I sum up all the more important Google organic search topics that occurred over the past month - just in case you (or I) missed it. January was an incredibly volatile month regarding unconfirmed Google search ranking movement. I posted about it several times.

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One Click Google Ads Performance Max Ad Previews

Google Ads has this new way to preview your Performance Max campaign ads, with one click. Now you can easily preview your PMax asset group ads from the table by clicking on the images.

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Google Ads Advertiser Verification Page Moving

Google is moving the Google Ads verification page to a new section within the Google Ads console. It is moving to the Admin, then Policy and Account section.

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Google Personal Intelligence Creates AI Frankenstein Recipes

We covered the topic of Google's AI Frankenstein recipes and how bad it is for recipe bloggers and publishers. But when you have Google's Personal Intelligence serve up these Frankenstein chunks of content, it makes it so much worse.

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Google Ads API Version 23 Now Available

Google has released version 23 of the Google Ads API, this is a major release with dozens of updates. Updates include Performance Max reporting data with Ad Network type breakdown, more incentives, reporting and conversion controls - plus much more.

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Bing Ads Revenue Up 10% - Is Growth Slowing?

Microsoft reported its second quarter 2026 earnings and it showed that its search and advertising revenue was up for 10% but growth is down over the past two quarters. The previous quarter it was up 16% and the one before that was 21% and this quarter, it is only up 10%.

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Bad News: Google AI Overviews Follow-Up Questions Go Directly To AI Mode

Google made it official, now Google Search AI Overviews will let you do a follow up question after clicking on the "Show more" button and that follow up question will take you directly into AI Mode. This will no doubt lead to less clicks to your website and more traffic into Google AI Mode.

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Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance Report Beta

Bing is testing a new report within Bing Webmaster Tools named AI Performance. AI Performance shows you how many citations you are getting from Microsoft Copilot and partners. But while it shows you citations (i.e. impressions), it does not show you clicks from those Bing AI experiences.

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Google Exploring Ways To Allow Sites To Opt Out Of AI Overviews & AI Mode

Google just announced it is looking into ways to allow websites to specifically opt out of Google using its content in the Search generative AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode. This comes based on UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) new requirements for Google Search.

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Google Ads Data Exclusions For PMax Campaigns Rolling Out

Back in October, we saw signs of the ability to use data exclusions on Google Ads Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. Well, now it seems to be rolling out to many advertisers on Google Ads.

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Microsoft Advertising Launches Ad Preview Hub

Microsoft Advertising has fully released the Microsoft Advertising Ad Preview Hub to all users. "I am beyond excited about Microsoft Advertising's new Ad Preview Hub! This is GA and should be live in your accounts in all markets," Navah Hopkins, the Microsoft Ads Liaison, wrote on LinkedIn.

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Google Ads Product Campaign View Report Is Useful

Google Ads lets you see how your product ads are performing across all your campaigns in a single view. Some advertisers are saying this is a new report, so I figured I'd share what they're noticing.

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Secure Your Google Ads Account Against The Rise In Hijackings

For the past year or so, I've seen a growing number of complaints about Google Ads accounts being hijacked. It seems to be getting worse, even after we covered the Google Ads account hijacks last November. So how do you reduce the chances of your Google Ads account being hijacked?

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Apple Releasing Two New Siri; iOS 26.4 & iOS 27 (Campos, Rave & Fizz)

Apple will reportedly release two new Siri versions, one this year with iOS 26.4 and one next year with iOS 27. Plus, Apple may release an AI pin wearable device in 2027.

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OpenAI To Charge Based On Ad View Impressions, Not Clicks

As you know, OpenAI will soon show ads on ChatGPT, but now we are hearing that those ads will be charged on a pay-per-view, impression-based model, not a click-based, cost-per-click model.

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Google Search Makes Recipe Results More Publisher Friendly

A few weeks ago, we covered how damaging the Google Search results were for recipe publishers and bloggers. It was nicknamed Frankenstein recipes because it would take pieces of these recipes from bloggers, mash them together and ruin them, all while also mentioning the brand name - hurting the brand.

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New GoogleBot: Google Messages

Google added a new crawler, robot, to its list of user-triggered fetchers in the Google crawlers documentation. This specific bot is named Google Messages and it is a fetcher "used to generate link previews for URLs sent in chat messages," Google wrote.

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Google Search Monopoly Appeal Legal Docs Mention Search Signals

As you know, Google has appealed its search monopoly ruling and with that, filed a number of new documents with the court. One is an affidavit of Elizabeth Reid, Google's Vice President and Head of Search. The other is of Jesse Adkins Director of Product Management for Search Syndication and Search Ads Syndication.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: January 20, 2026

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

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Google AI Mode Shows Product Inventory & Pricing In Light Font Color

Google AI Mode is showing really light colored fonts for product pricing and inventory when you click on a product. This differs from the normal font type in the main Google Search results interface.

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Google: Comments Link Spam Has No Effect On SEO/Search

Google's John Mueller said that link spam left in the comments section have no effect on Google Search or SEO, (and maybe even your website's performance in Google Search?). He wrote on Bluesky, "These links all have no effect - they're from spammers dropping links into comments. These would not have any effect, positive nor negative, on your site."

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Google Ads A/B Tests Product Titles & Images For Shopping Ads

Google Ads is doing a limited test with some advertisers to allow them to run A/B tests with different product titles and images in Shopping Ads. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said it is "currently being tested with a small number of merchants."

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Google's John Mueller Says Universal Commerce Protocol Won't Kill SEO

Earlier this week, Google announced Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and it has a lot of the industry worried. Once SEO named Ramon Eijkemans said, "I hate to bring this, but SEOs: we're gonna be f$@*ed." John Mueller from Google responded on Bluesky and said, "I disagree."

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Google Trends Explore Page Adds Gemini

Google has added Gemini to the Google Trends Explore page to help you find new and fresh search terms. It will also compare those search terms automatically for you, all in a new design. This is rolling out now, but you might not see it just yet.

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Microsoft Advertising Releases Guide To AEO & GEO

The Microsoft Advertising team released a new PDF guide named "From discovery to influence: AEO A guide to and GEO." This guide offers "Practical data strategies to empower retailers for AI search, AI assistants and AI browsers."

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Daily Search Forum Recap: January 13, 2026

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

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Google Hotel Knowledge Panels Posting Currently Turned Off Bug

Google seems to have a bug that prevents searchers from leaving hotel reviews directly in the Google Search desktop interface. It works fine within Google Maps and Hotel search interfaces but not in the web search interface.

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Google Ads Brand Linking Experiment

Google Ads seems to be slowly rolling out a new Google Ads experimental feature in the Google Ads Lab section named Brand Linking. Brand linking lets you "Link customers to brands," it reads.

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Microsoft Advertising Reminds Advertisers To Configure Email Settings

Navah Hopkins, the Microsoft Ads Liaison, posted a reminder on LinkedIn, encouraging advertisers to ensure the email settings are all configured properly. You can get monthly invoices, billing alerts, account notifications, ad and keyword rejection notices, optimization and performance tips and more.

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Google Vehicle Ads Gains Call Assets

Google seems to be testing showing call assets on Vehicle Ads within Google Search. So on the Vehicle Ads there is a way to call the dealer or seller, like you see on some other ads.

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Google Hiring Search Intelligence Chief of Staff

Google is hiring a Chief of Staff on Search Intelligence, Strategy and Operations. This job is to "help architect the next era of Search with AI," Rajan Patel, the Vice President of Search Engineering of Google, posted on LinkedIn.

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Google Ads To Allow Ads For Prediction Markets

Google Ads will update its advertising policies to allow ads for Prediction Markets starting on January 21, 2026. This will be allowed in the United States, but only for federally regulated entities.

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Google Ads Change History Adds Go To Button

Google added a new button to the Google Ads Change history report that lets advertisers quickly jump to different campaigns and ad groups in this report. It should be a big time saver for some advertisers.

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Google Search Tests Blue Send Button In Query Box

Google is testing a blue "Send" button in the search query box on its home page. When you type in your query, you can click "Send" to search Google for that query.

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John Mueller (Personally) On If Schema Helps With LLMs & Google

John Mueller, who works on the Google Search team, responded to a question that asks, "Does extensive Schema markup actually help Large Language Models (LLMs) understand your entity better, or is it just for Google Rich Snippets?" He responded to the question, prefacing it that it is his point of view and "this is not official guidance."

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Google's John Mueller Working On New Year's Day (2026 Edition)

Just like with Christmas day every year, so to with New Year's Day - Google's John Mueller and often other Googlers, are out and looking to respond to some questions on Google Search and SEO. John Mueller so far posted a few times on Reddit this morning, January 1, 2026.

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Google Displays New Year's Eve Doodle On New Year's Day

This is weird. It is 2026, and Google.com, the Google Search home page, is still showing yesterday's New Year's Eve doodle of 2025 going into 2026. But it is after 7 am ET here on January 1, 2026, and on all my devices, I see yesterday's Google Doodle.

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