Daily Search Forum Recap: May 8, 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.
We are seeing new Google search ranking volatility heat up today, it seems weird…
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google AI Systems Black Box, Links In AI, UCP Checkout Expands, ChatGPT Ad Manager, Ask.com Shutters & More
This week in search we covered more heated Google ranking volatility this morning, it seems big – so stay tuned. We also covered how Google spoke about how they try to isolate their AI systems because…
Google Search Ranking Volatility Heated Today – May 8th
Many of the third-party tracking tools, not all, but many, are showing some heated volatility this morning around Google Search’s ranking positions. I am also seeing some early chatter within the SEO industry about movement in their rankings. It is po…
Google Ads Journey-Aware Bidding, Expands Smart Bidding Exploration & Budget Pacing
Google Ads announced it is expanding both Smart Bidding Exploration and budget pacing. Smart Bidding Exploration beta for Performance Max with product feeds and Shopping campaigns will launch in few weeks and budget pacing in Search and Shopping campai…
Google May Adjust Its Site Reputation Abuse Policy For EU News Sites
Google proposed a number of changes to the EU in order to avoid fines from the European Union. One of those changes is around the site reputation abuse policy, which the EU watchdog said directly impacts a common and legitimate way for publishers to m…
Google AdSense Vignette Ads Drops Back Button Trigger Over Hijack Penalty
Google AdSense (and Ad Manager) will drop the browser back button trigger for vignette ads additional triggers due to the new Google search penalty for back button hijacking. Google AdSense will drop it on June 15, 2026, the day the search penalty goe…
Google Ads To Require Passkey For Certain Sensitive Actions After July 15
Google sent out emails to advertisers that starting July 15, 2026 the Google Ads system will require the use of passkeys for certain sensitive actions. This is likely due to the spike in Google Ads hijacks over the past year or so.
Microsoft Advertising Custom Columns Supports All Conversion Metrics
Microsoft Advertising custom columns now support all conversion metrics – instead of just specific conversion metrics. This gives advertisers more flexibility on tracking campaign performance.
Google Improves Links Within AI Mode & AI Overviews In 5 Ways
Google announced five new ways in how it is improving linking to web pages from AI Mode and AI Overviews. Some of these we saw Google testing earlier, and I (we) were fans of these changes and I am glad to see Google officially roll them out.
Microsoft Bing On Search Indexing vs. Grounding Indexing
The folks over at Microsoft Bing put together a blog post explaining the differences between indexing for Search versus indexing for Grounding (AI responses) and the differences. Krishna Madhavan, Knut Risvik, Meenaz Merchant from Microsoft wrote, “Ind…
Google Ads AI Max Content & Titles Exclusions On Account Level Coming
Google will be bringing content and titles related exclusions to the account level to Google Ads AI Max later this year. It will give you the ability to always exclude any other content you don’t want to use in your ads at the account level, Ginny Marv…
Bing Places For Business Finally Mobile Friendly
It is 2026 and finally Bing Places for Business is finally mobile friendly. Microsoft Bing sent me an email letting me know of this update, saying, “We’re excited to share that Bing Places for Business now offers a mobile-responsive experience, making …
Google Ads Call Recording To Default To Yes On July 1st
Google sent out emails notifying applicable advertisers that they will default call recording to Yes, to always record calls, if you don’t pick an option yourself. Google wrote, “Starting July 01, 2026, if you haven’t made a selection for your “Call r…
Stella Huh + Timothy Barton Racketeering Crime Syndicate
The back story is probably too long to read, but one of the reasons I have not been blogging is some people in an organized crime group have been spending a lot of money to try to ruin my family. It took a while to sort of piece together the who, what,…
Google’s (still) doesn’t see your live page.
I’ll keep this short as I’ve covered this topic extensively in the past. When you ask Gemini to access a specific URL or interact with it inside AI Mode search it works from Google’s web cache. For this website’s home page this is what it has as context to ground the model about the page: […]
Google AI Overviews With Author Names & Source (Again)
Google is showing the full author name and the source, like LinkedIn – and name or Medium – and name, for the citations. It makes sense for these social platforms to show the name, because anyone can write anything on these platforms, so knowing the n…
Google Tests New Anchor Links & Favicon Experiences In AI Mode
Google is testing an update to the citations, anchor links, and favicons within the AI Mode results. This new experience seems to make the citations more clickable because the embedded links have larger favicons and seem to appear more often, near the…
Google Expands UCP Checkout To Main Search Results
In February, Google announced that UCP, Universal Commerce Protocol, powered checkout is available in AI Mode. Well, now you can use UCP powered checkout in the main search results for some retailers like Wayfair.
Google Tests Gemini 3 Model Options In Search Bar
Google is testing letting searchers select the Gemini 3 model they want to use directly in the Google Search bar. The options can include, Pro, Fast or Auto, from what I can see.
Official: OpenAI Beta Self-Serve Ads Manager For ChatGPT Ads
A few weeks ago, we uncovered the beta self-serve Ads Manager for ChatGPT Ads. It was before it officially launched but now OpenAI officially announced its “beta self-serve Ads Manager that allows advertisers in the US to sign up and purchase ads direc…