Google May 2026 Core Update Has Completed Rolling Out
Google’s May 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. It took less than 12 days to roll out, and this update felt lar…
Google May 2026 Core Update Volatility Hits Hard Again June 2nd
Just when I thought the Google search volatility would start to cool, I am seeing another spike in huge search ranking volatility today – June 2nd…
Google Ads Terms of Service Updated For AI Changes After 8 Years
Google has updated the Google Ads Terms of Service (TOS) in the area of policy, payment, and liability. The changes incorporate AI-related changes to Google Ads and more changes. I believe the last time Google updated these TOS was 8 years ago, April 1…
Google Discover Showing Threads Posts More Often?
Google Discover may be showing Threads (the Facebook Twitter alternative social network) more often in the feed. Threads is not shown as much as YouTube or X but it seems to have grown significantly and surpassed TikTok and Instagram.
Microsoft: AI Summarizes Results, Reducing Clicks & Website Visits
James Murray, Global Product Storytelling Lead, Generative AI at Microsoft, gave a webinar named How to successfully navigate the human, LLM, and agentic web last week. He had a slide come up at about the 9 minute and 30 second mark that reads…
Google AdSense New Full IP Address Sharing
Google announced a new feature in Google AdSense to share the full IP address in bid requests. Google said that full IP addresses are indicated by many buyers to be an important signal, so there is a new setting to allow you to share the full IP addres…
New SER Volatility Aggregator Chart & Backend Update
The Search Engine Roundtable Google volatility aggregator tool is finally live. This takes the volatility scores from the tools I use for my Google update stories and aggregates them into one score. You can then click in for more detail and the scores …
Daily Search Forum Recap: June 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.
The Google May 2026 core update was super heated over the weekend…
Google Ads Invalid Activity Credit Report – New Help Document
Google added a new help document to the Google Ads help documentation section named About the Invalid Activity Credit Report. I am not sure if the report is new, or if it is just that the help document is new – but either way, this is a report advertis…
Google Begins Limited Test Of Healthcare Ads In AI Mode
Google has confirmed it is doing a small test of healthcare-related ads in AI Mode. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said this on LinkedIn when asked if the rumors of Google testing ads in AI Mode for healthcare a few weeks ago were true.
Google Ads New Branded Searches Controls For AI Max
Google Ads is rolling out branded searches controls to some advertisers within AI Max. This allows advertisers to control how your ads appear in searches that include brand names.
Google Hosted Forms Leads Screen In Google Ads
Google Ads has a new leads section under the Conversions section that shows Google-hosted form leads for the past 60 days. This will give you the lead’s name, stage, date submitted, email, phone, the form contents and more.
Google AI Mode & AI Overviews Sliding Carousel For Link Cards
Google is testing a new way to show citation link cards within AI Overviews and AI Mode. In this test, if you click on a citation bubble, Google opens a carousel at the bottom of the screen that you can swipe left or right on to see the links to publis…
Google Disco Ball Doodle
Google’s Doodle today is an animated Disco ball, titled “The Art of Disco.” Google wrote, “In celebration of Pride Month, today’s Doodle celebrates the art of disco by shining a light on the LGBTQ+ artists who helped create space for everyone on the da…
Google May 2026 Core Update Hits Hard Saturday – May 30th
The Google May 2026 core update seemed to have hit some sites in a very big way yesterday, Saturday, May 30, 2026. As a reminder, the May 2026 core update was announced on May 21, 2026, and then that following weekend, we saw some significant ranking …
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google May Core Update Status, Buying AI Brand Mentions, Preferred Sources In AI Responses, Google Ads, Local & Legal
This week in search, we gave a status update on the Google May 2026 core update. Google strongly warned against buying mentions for AI or manipulating mentions for AI. Google removed the indexing lag between….
New: Google Ads Prospects Mode
Google Ads has expanded New Customer Acquisition with a new feature called Prospect Mode. Prospect mode also targets brand-unaware users, Google said. Those prospects who have not searched for, engaged with, or visited your site. Some call them cold pr…
Google: Search Quality Raters Guidelines Not A Guide For Search Rankings
John Mueller from Google said that the Google Search Quality Raters guidelines are not a guide for search rankings. Meaning, the content in those guidelines is not a blueprint on how to rank your website in Google Search.
Google 1st Order Price Labels On Shopping Ads (Again)
Over a year ago, we saw Google testing a “First order” label on shopping ads within search. Now, we are seeing Google test a variation of that named “1st order price” on those same ads. It basically tells the customer that if this is their first order …
Google Discover Publisher Profile Pages Tests Short URLs
Google is testing short URLs with @handles for the Google Discover publisher profile pages. Instead of those long URLs that go on forever, Google is testing a format that uses the publisher’s handle.