Google Search Live No Longer Requires Labs Opt-In Within US
Google announced that Search Live is now fully live in the US and no longer requires opt in to Search Labs. In July, Google released it on mobile in the U.S. for users enrolled in the AI Mode Labs experiment but now it is open to everyone in the US in …
Google To Label Some Search Ads With “Not A Government Website”
Google updated its Other restricted businesses: Government documents and services policy to say it may label some search ads to say, “Not a government website.”
Bing Tests Colorful Lines In Search Results
Microsoft Bing is testing colorful lines and separator sections in the Bing Search results. The colors are in blue, orange and gray (and maybe more).
Bing Search Ads With Free Shipping Text Attributes
Microsoft is testing showing text attributes that can say things like “Free Shipping on Qualified Orders” with an icon next to the search ads on Bing Search. This is not just the CTA buttons that these ads have supported for a while but additional tex…
Google Search Tests Featured Stores Sponsored Ads Section
Google is testing a new sponsored ads section in the search results named Featured Stores. This reminds me of the from online stores but that was organic/free, not ads.
Google Search Testing Shaded Stock Price Interface
Google is testing a shaded box design for the stock pricing and information in the Google Search results. Google has these shaded designs in other areas as well but for now, this may just be a test.
Google AI Mode Travel Planning Gains More Features
Google AI Mode has had travel planning for some time but according to some in the travel industry, Google recently began rolling out more of these features in the wild. These include dynamic day-by-day trip plans, hotel add-ons, tickets, and dining st…
Google: Authentication For SEO Tools & Personal Crawlers
Google’s John Mueller posted saying “Authentication for your personal crawlers & SEO tools is going to be more and more of a topic.” I believe, but I can be wrong, this is alluding to the num parameter being disabled and how tools are having issues now…
Bing Tests Bolds Titles For Search Results & Ads
Microsoft is testing bolding the title links in the Bing search results for both the organic and paid listings. I am not sure if this was a bug or a test, but I suspect it was a test.
Bing Tests Sitelinks Interfaces Again
Microsoft is testing various interfaces for the sitelinks in Bing Search. We’ve seen and reported on Bing testing sitelinks many, many times here, so here are a few more variations.
Google AI Mode Tests Moving Query To Right Side
Google is testing moving your query from the left top position to the right top position of the AI response within AI Mode. This is a subtle change but it is interesting to see Google test these small changes to AI Mode.
Programming Note: Rosh Hashanah 5786 – Happy & Healthy Jewish New Year
This is a programming note that Tuesday and Wednesday are Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 23rd and September 24th…
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 22, 2025
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 completed the rollout of the August 2025 spam update today…
Google’s Wild August 2025 Spam Update Finished Rolling Out
Google has completed the rollout of the August 2025 spam update, following a 27-day rollout cycle. This update started on August 26, 2025 and 12 pm ET, and was completed on September 22, 2025. This was a broad spam update, not a link spam update and wa…
Google Darksteel AI Search Option Test
Google is testing a new AI Search based option codenamed Darksteel. This reminds me of when we caught Google testing 47 different AI Search options back in March but Darksteel was not one of them.
Google Search Console Impressions Drop Impact With Google Blocking Bots
As you know, Google dropped the num parameter to see more search results on a page, then the third-party tools scraping became severely impacted and many saw impression declines in Search Console. Google confirmed the num parameter is not officially su…
Google AI Mode Product Listings Tests AI-Generated Product Summaries
Google is testing AI-generated product summaries in the AI Mode results, after you click on a specific product. I was able to generate this in one out of every four browser attempts, and here is how it works.
Google Search Translate A Conversation Button
Google is testing a button that takes you from Google Search short translations answers, to the ability to translate a full conversation in another interface.
Google August 2025 Spam Update To Probably Finish Tomorrow – 9/22
The Google August 2025 spam update will probably be marked as completed tomorrow, September 22, 2025. That is what John Mueller from Google said deep inside a comment on a LinkedIn post. He wrote today, “Just between us, we’ll probably mark it complet…
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Killed Tracking Tools, Impressions Dive, Ads Bug Overwhelms & AI Summaries Over Links
For the original iTunes version…