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 Bl…
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 Googlebo…
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…
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…
Google Testing Jumping To AI Mode Directly From AIOs ON DESKTOP
In January Google announced a change to how AI Overviews worked where clicking the “Show more” button at the end of an AIO would directly take you into AI Mode. But that was only on mobile. Now it seems Google is testing that functionality, but on de…
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”…
Google Ads Testing New Layouts for Multi-Location GBP Assets?
Spotted in the wild are what appear to be swipeable GBP location assets.
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. …
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…
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 dro…
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 1, 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.
Going offline for Passover tonight through Saturday night…
Programming Note: Offline For Passover Thursday & Friday
This is a programming note that I am completely offline for the Passover holiday Thursday and Friday. I am likely not going to schedule any stories, I apologize (still in recovery mode)…
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.”
Google Explains Googlebot Crawling, Fetching & Byte Limits
Google posted a new blog post named Inside Googlebot: demystifying crawling, fetching, and the bytes we process alongside episode 105 of the Search Off the Record segment named Google crawlers behind the scenes.
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.
Google On Why Core Updates Take Weeks To Fully Roll Out
Google’s John Mueller explained, one again, why it takes weeks to roll out a core update. It is often because there are different components to core updates through the rollout stages, and each needs to be pushed individually.
Bing Tests Sponsored Label That Is Almost Transparent
Microsoft is at it again with its sponsored labels tests. This time, Microsoft is testing almost transparent sponsored labels within the Bing search results. The labels are super grayed out and super hard to see.
ChatGPT Enables Location Sharing For More Localized Near Me Results
Last week, OpenAI announced a new feature for ChatGPT named location sharing. This allows you to share your precise location with ChatGPT, so ChatGPT can give you more localized and near me results.
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.
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.”