Google Ads Tests Serving Search Ads With Restrictive Match Types In AI Mode

Google has confirmed it has recently begun running a "small experiment" where it is serving regular pure Search campaigns with restrictive match types in AI Mode. Ginny Marvin, Google's Ads Liaison, told me, "This is a small experiment that recently kicked off."

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ChatGPT Ads Manager Plugin, Audience Updates, Product Feeds & More

We got a number of updates coming from OpenAI about ChatGPT Ads and the ChatGPT Ads Manager, we also suspect that the shopping results coming from ChatGPT only come from those who submit product feeds. The other updates include a plugin for integration with ChatGPT and/or Codex, custom audience improvements, conversion matching updates, ad unit formats, budget pacing, more conversion optimization options and expansion of the platform.

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Google Ads New Phone Call & Offline Conversions Details

Google added some new nuggets to its Google Ads help documentation on about conversion measurement, specifically on phone call conversions and offline conversions.

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Google Analytics September 1 Data Missing

Google Analytics seems to have another bug, this time with data missing from the main charts. September 1, 2026 data is showing zero traffic to websites; I believe this is across every Google Analytics install.

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Google Working On Fixing Local Service Ads Bug

Google is working on fixing a bug with Local Service Ads where it seems Local Service Ads are being unlinked from the associated Google Business Profiles. There are also complaints of instability and slowness on the Local Service Ads platform.

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Google Discover Not Loading Or Loading Slowly

Google Discover has been having issues for the past hour or so. Some are reporting that Discover won't load articles, some are reporting that Discover is loading but only after a long waiting period. It seems Google Discover is having stability issues this morning.

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Google: We Don't Penalize For Old Outbound Links With Shady Content

Google's John Mueller was asked if Google would penalize a site for old outbound links to a site that once hosted quality content and now changed ownership and hosts shady content. John said Google won't penalize such links; he said "no" and added, "the web is full of turmoil."

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Google AI Mode With Inline Shopping Carousel Ads & Single Ad Unit

Google is now showing shopping ads in a carousel format inline within AI Mode results. Plus, Google is also showing a similar ad unit at the bottom of the AI Mode results. We got a lot of ads in AI Mode now, and I guess Google is looking for more and more ways to monetize those ads.

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Google AI Overviews Pushing Searchers Into AI Mode, Drops Show More Button

Google Search is testing pushing searchers into AI Mode from the AI Overview by default, without having to click the "Show more" button. The new AI Overview experience that Google is testing shows a much fuller AI answer, like you'd get in AI Mode, and loads the follow up "Ask anything" box by default.

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Google Search Now Lists The Supported Favicon File Formats

Google has updated the favicon search developer documentation to list out the supported favicon file formats. Google added this line that reads, "Google Search supports the following favicon file formats: BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM, and TIFF."

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Google Won't Enforce Its Site Reputation Policy Manual Actions In Europe

Google announced it will not enforce manual actions under the site reputation abuse policy in the European Economic Area (EEA) due to a mandate set by the European Commission, effective August 30, 2026. Google said searchers in the EEA will not benefit from Google's spam prevention for sites labeled for site reputation abuse.

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IRS Website Drops Heavily In Google Search

Over the past few days, the IRS website (and other government sites) has tanked within Google's search results. My gut feeling is that the federal government implemented some bot-blocking that was too aggressive and blocked Google, among others, resulting in Google not fully showing the IRS website. I believe the IRS implemented some fixes, and the website is slowly coming back in Google Search.

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Google Ads New Troubleshoot Performance Fluctuations & Changes

Google Ads has released several new "Troubleshoot performance fluctuations and changes" across Google Ads, Performance Max, Search campaigns, Display, video, shopping, app, and more. At least I think these documents are new based on my tools, but the Wayback Machine has been offline, so I cannot double verify.

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Google Search Rolling Out google.com/goto Tracking Parameters?

Google Search seems like it is rolling out the google.com/goto URL as a passthrough URL within the search results that it began testing in July 2026. This seems like a way for Google to help prevent scraping of its search results by third-party tools and AI companies but Google has not yet commented on this goto URL paramter.

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Tell Google What You Want From AI Mode

Robby Stein, Google's Vice President of Product at Google Search, asked on X, "If you could get one feature shipped right now in AI Mode, what would it be?" So now is your chance to reply on X with what you want.

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Google Ads Channel Settings Prioritization Slider (Alpha Test)

Google is testing a new "Channels" slider that lets you adjust how much you prioritize conversions from your Google Ads channels, such as Google Search, Google Partners, Discover, Maps, YouTube, the Display Network and Gmail.

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Google Search Showing Fewer PDF Files. But Why?

Google seems to be showing fewer and fewer PDF files, and when it does show PDF files, it seems not to show them from some pretty important sites, like IRS.gov, New York State, and some others. But in some cases we are seeing Google show PDF documents, without you having to explicitly filter for PDF file types.

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Google Copyable Emojis In AI Overviews

About a year ago, Google added the ability to copy emojis directly from the search results in an answer box. Now, Google is also showing copyable emojis to AI Overviews in the Google Search results.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: August 24, 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 fixed two bugs, the favicon bug and the crawl stats bug in Search Console...

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Google Search Console Sends New Owner Email Notifications - Bug?

Many of you may have woken up this morning to emails from Google Search Console notifying you of a new owner on your Search Console accounts. I received a couple, as did many of you. I was a bit alarmed when I saw it but the notifications were about someone who already had access, which I found weird but relieving.

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