Daily Search Forum Recap: May 15, 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 is rethinking its search stack from the ground up due to LLMs…
Google Rethinking Search Stack From Ground Up With LLMs
Another Google court document from the DOJ trial showed that Google said it is currently rethinking its entire search stack, from the ground up, with LLMs playing a more fundamental role. The doc said:
Google Doc: Link Position & Click Bias Ranking Bias Adjustment
The details from the DOJ and Google monopoly case hearing exhibits just keep on flowing and with that, we have another mention of how Google does look at clicks from the search results. This one talks about how the position of the link can be a bias to…
Google Ads New Ads Funded By Details
Earlier this month, Google updated its Ads Transparency policy to specify that it will display the payment profile name as the payer name for verified advertisers. Well, now we are starting to see a new section that says “Ads funded by” on the “My Ad C…
Google Ads Device Targeting Controls For Performance Max Campaigns
Google is rolling out device targeting controls and features within Google Ads Performance Max campaigns. We knew this was coming and now it seems to be rolling out to some (not all) advertisers. This allows you to target based on device type, such as…
Google Search Tests Vertical Search Labels In Autocomplete
Google is testing showing the vertical search category a query belongs to in its autocomplete search suggestions. When you click into the Google Search box, even before you begin typing your query, Google shows search suggestions and some of those sear…
Google Search Testing New Sub/Second Menu
Google is testing a new sub or secondary menu under the search bar in Google Search. This secondary menu, or sub-menu, is below the main search vertical options and is missing the bubble format that we’ve seen Google use for this sub-menu.
Google Search Console Tests Add Annotation In Performance Reports
Google is testing adding the ability for you to add your own annotations to the Google Search Console performance reports. This is one of the requests SEOs have been asking for from Google for a long time and now Google is testing this in Search Console.
Google Business Profiles What’s Happening Feature
Google is rolling out a new feature for Google Business Profiles named What’s Happening. This feature is for bars or restaurants to better promote events, deals, and specials prominently at the top of their Google Business Profile.
Bing Search APIs To Retire August 11, 2025
Microsoft is going to do away with the Bing Search and Bing Custom Search APIs as of August 11, 2025. Microsoft posted a notice on its API documentation pages with this news.
Google Internal Emails On Google Marketing Live 2024 (Last Year)
Remember the Power Pair from Google Marketing Live 2024? Well, that and several other items of discussion were found in internal emails at Google about the GML 2024 event. It discussed how advertisers were not excited about PMax, there is frustration…
Google Tests New Pagination Bar On Mobile
Google is also testing a new pagination bar with page numbers and previous and next icons, instead of the “more search results” button. Bing was recently just testing this too and now I see Google testing it.
Google Search Ranking Volatility Spiked Thursday – May 12 & 13
Google Search may be pushing out another search ranking update of sorts, I am seeing more signs of tremors and volatility over the past 24-hours. Some of the tools are already picking up on it but the SEO community is noticing some big movement startin…
Google Updated Its Super G Logo In The iOS App
Google has updated its Google iOS app and with that, the most noticeable change was it updated the super G logo, with a more blended version of the logo. I am not sure if this is going to be the new logo going forward of this is a temporary change for …
Google: Stop Using Different URLs For Same Image
Google made what I would consider a logical clarification to its image SEO best practices help document. It now says don’t upload the same image under different URL/file names to your site, even if you embed that image on different pages on your site.
Google Navboost Is Not A Machine Learning System & More DOJ Leaks
We’ve only covered the Department of Justice vs Google documents here and there but here are some documents that may be of interest to the community here. Google said Navboost is not a machine learning system, instead it is more of a big table. And t…
18 Year Google Search Engineer Rants On DOJ’s Anti-Trust Case
Ryan Moulton, a Google Search engineer who worked on Google’s search rankings algorithms for over 18 years now, went to X to call out some of what the courts are saying as not true. He went on to say, “This is now the second time I’ve seen my work cit…
Google: Hreflang Doesn’t Guarantee Indexing
Google’s John Mueller explained that just because you use hreflang tags on your pages, it doesn’t mean those pages will be indexed and/or ranked in Google Search. He said on Bluesky, “hreflang doesn’t guarantee indexing.”
Say Hello to Your MozCon 2025 Speaker Lineup (So Far!)
MozCon is hitting the road in 2025 with two incredible events! Join us in London (August 12) or New York (November 6) to learn from industry leaders like Lidia Infante, Andy Chadwick, and Areej AbuAli. Our speaker lineup spans technical SEO, AI content…
Google Tests AI Mode Button On Google Search Box
Google is testing ways to get more people to try AI Mode with a new AI Mode button in the Google Search bar on the Google home page. We’ve seen Google test AI Mode promotions with banners in the search results but now Google is placing large buttons in…