Google Tests Conversational Discovery Ads & Highlighted Answers In AI Mode
Google announced at Google Marketing Live two new ad formats that will show up in Google’s AI Mode. Google said there are conversational discover ads and highlighted answer ads, and of course, they are labeled as “Sponsored.”
Google AI Mode Shopping Ads, Business Agent For Leads & Direct Offers Coming
Google announced at Google Marketing Live that it is also bringing Shopping ads, Business Agent for Leads and expanding the Direct Offers pilot for AI Mode in the coming months.
Google Ask Advisor Brings Together Ads Advisor & Analytics Advisor
Google announced it is making one uniform AI-agentic advisor named Ask Advisor that brings together Google Ads Advisor and Google Analytics Advisor, and I assume the beta Google Merchant Advisor.
Google Search Tests For You Label In Product Grid Results
Google is testing a “for you” label in the product grid, shopping results, within Google Search. It gives you a more personalized response, in this example, a promotion code was available for this merchant.
Google AdSense Adds Dynamic Anchors Ads
Google has made a new anchor ads format named Dynamic anchor ads for AdSense. I don’t see the announcement for this yet, but Google updated its help document on anchor ads and changed collapsible anchors to dynamic anchors.
WordPress 7.0 is out: the 7 highlights of this release
On May 20th, 2026, the next major release of WordPress came out: WordPress 7.0. While previous releases focused on improving the block editor, this release takes it to a new level. It pushes the platform into the next phase of its roadmap with smarter workflows and a more app-like experience. So, let’s dive into what’s […]
The post WordPress 7.0 is out: the 7 highlights of this release appeared first on Yoast.
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 20, 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 covered all the Google Search related news from Google I/O including the new intelligent search box…
Google’s New Search Bar, The Intelligent Search Box
Google has released the first major update to the search bar, the search box, ever – Google is calling it the intelligent Search box. We saw variations of this being tested over the past year, and now it is officially rolling out – as per Liz Reid, Goo…
Google Search Now Powered By Gemini 3.5 Flash With New Agentic Features
Google Search is now using Gemini 3.5 Flash to power AI Mode globally and also there are several new agentic features in and coming to Google Search. These agentic features include information agents, agentic coding, personal intelligence is expanding …
Google Tests Preferred Sources Label In AI Mode Citations
Google is now testing adding the Preferred Sources label in the AI Mode links and citations. It is unclear if Google is showing this link in this AI Mode response because it is a preferred source or if it is just labeling it, and it would show the sour…
Google Adult Property Added To Merchant Listing & Product Variant
Google added the hasAdultConsideration property to the Merchant listing and Product variant documentation, and it is now officially supported and listed as a recommended property for both Merchant listing and Product variant structured data with Google…
Microsoft Advertising Updates Import Center, Cross-Account Portfolio Bidding & Bidding Strategy Report
Microsoft Advertising announced its monthly releases, and they include updates to the import center, cross-account portfolio bidding, bidding strategy reports, and custom column conversion metrics (that one we covered earlier).
Google Adds Markdown Files To Help Docs But Not Used For Search
Google has added markdown files, .md.txt files, to the Google Search help documents. But John Mueller from Google said that these are not being used for Search or generative AI responses in Search.
Google I/O 2026 Search Ranking Volatility & Update
Today is Google I/O, where Google announces many of its new features across its products, including Google Search. It is not uncommon to see Google search ranking volatility spike around Google I/O, and that is exactly what we are seeing today – the mo…
OpenAI / ChatGPT Has A Web Cache
OpenAI’s ChatGPT web search feature does offer a web cache, an offline, locally stored version of web pages that have been previously crawled. This should not come as a surprise, as all search engines store cached versions of web pages (even if they do…
Bing Tests New Fonts, Links & Products Within Copilot Answers
Microsoft is running a number of tests and experiments for Bing Search and the Copilot answers within Bing Search. These tests include font changes, link updates, product results and more.
Microsoft Clarity New AI Citations Report
Microsoft, not to be outdone by Google, added AI citations to Microsoft Clarity, its web analytics tool. This report shows how your content is referenced in AI-generated answers.
What are AI brand mentions? And how are they different from citations?
You prompt ChatGPT with something, and suddenly your brand name shows up in the response. Sounds like a win, right? But before you share the screenshot with your team, there’s one important question to ask: Is your brand being cited or mentioned? As AI search and LLM-driven discovery continue to grow, understanding the difference between […]
The post What are AI brand mentions? And how are they different from citations? appeared first on Yoast.
Google Search On How To Optimize For Generative AI With Myth-Busting
On Friday, Google published a new help document named Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search. This document covers much of what Googlers have said over the years, including a myth-busting section that will trigger some in t…
Google Search On How To Optimize For Generative AI With Myth-Busting
On Friday, Google published a new help document named Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search. This document covers much of what Googlers have said over the years, including a myth-busting section that will trigger some in t…