Google now shows AI-generated images within AI Overviews
Google is now showing AI-generated images directly within AI Overviews. Google announced this last month, writing: “To help bring those unique ideas to life, we’re bringing image generation directly into AI Overviews in Search.” We’re now starting to see this play out in actual search results. Here is how it looks. Inspired Taste shared a […]
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Google updates checkout functionality in free listings
Google is testing new functionality within its free listings checkout experience. Earlier this year, Google launched direct checkout for free listings, and now it appears Google has made further changes to how it works. Brodie Clark spotted this and shared it on X and the SERP timeline. Brodie wrote: “Worth noting that the new ‘cart’ […]
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Microsoft Bing tests large images for ads, and it could dramatically boost CTR
Bing is testing large images for ads appearing at the top of its search results page. I spotted this yesterday. Last year, Bing tested something similar within Copilot ads, but this test looks different it shows larger images specifically for sponsored ads sitting at the very top of the page. Here is the screenshot of […]
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Microsoft Bing tests large images for ads, and it could dramatically boost CTR
Bing is testing large images for ads appearing at the top of its search results page. I spotted this yesterday. Last year, Bing tested something similar within Copilot ads, but this test looks different it shows larger images specifically for sponsored ads sitting at the very top of the page. Here is the screenshot of […]
The post Microsoft Bing tests large images for ads, and it could dramatically boost CTR appeared first on Search Engine Watch – SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.
Google tests showing hyperlinks below cards in AI Mode
Since AI Mode launched in Google’s search results, Google has continued rolling out changes to how it looks and functions. We’ve spotted another change: Google is now showing links at the bottom of the page, after the cards, within AI Mode. Usually, these links appear before the cards, so seeing them positioned after felt new. […]
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Google tests showing hyperlinks below cards in AI Mode
Since AI Mode launched in Google’s search results, Google has continued rolling out changes to how it looks and functions. We’ve spotted another change: Google is now showing links at the bottom of the page, after the cards, within AI Mode. Usually, these links appear before the cards, so seeing them positioned after felt new. […]
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Google sponsored ads now show star ratings
Google is testing a new addition to sponsored results on mobile, displaying a website’s overall rating out of 5. We spotted this yesterday. When searching for “best phones,” Samsung’s sponsored result appeared with a rating shown alongside it. It looks like a solid addition. Here is the screenshot of this, showing how it looks. This […]
The post Google sponsored ads now show star ratings appeared first on Search Engine Watch – SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.
Google sponsored ads now show star ratings
Google is testing a new addition to sponsored results on mobile, displaying a website’s overall rating out of 5. We spotted this yesterday. When searching for “best phones,” Samsung’s sponsored result appeared with a rating shown alongside it. It looks like a solid addition. Here is the screenshot of this, showing how it looks. This […]
The post Google sponsored ads now show star ratings appeared first on Search Engine Watch – SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 14, 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.
Google Ads is removing the ability to manually set your language targeting next month…
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google AI Home Page Test, AI Local Pack Slop, Google Poaching Advertisers & Meta Building A Search Engine
This week, we of course had more Google search ranking volatility, this time on the 12th. Google is testing new AI buttons on its home page…
Google Ads Language Targeting Update Coming In September
Google Ads will roll out a change to language targeting that will remove the ability to manually adjust the language setting. This change is happening next month, in September 2026. Google said its ad systems already match languages automatically and e…
Google AI Overviews With AI-Generated Images In The Wild
A month ago, we reported that Google said it would be rolling out AI-generated images within AI Overviews in Google Search. Well, it seems Google is starting to roll out those AI-generated images in AI Overviews this week.
Google Merchant Center For Agencies Can Link Up To 1,000 Accounts
Google updated a help document within the Google Merchant Center help area to document that Google Merchant Center for Agencies can now link to up to 1,000 Merchant Center accounts. Previously, that number was not there, and now we know – up to 1,000 a…
Googlebot Say They Are Coming From California But Might Not
As we know, Google has often declared that its crawlers, Googlebot, etc, come from Mountain View, California. But the truth is, that is where they self-declare the bots are coming from. Google has data centers all over the world, and even though Googl…
Google Local Report Owner Response
Google has a new reporting option for reviews in Google Business Profiles and Google Local. This one is called “Report owner response.” It lets you tell Google if an owner response to a review is off-topic, contains profanity, is harassing, discriminat…
Google Search Ranking Volatility Spikes On August 12-13
We saw a spike in volatility yesterday amongst the Google Search results rankings. There was a spike in ranking movement outside the day-to-day norm that seemed to start yesterday and maybe into today. The chatter is somewhat cool, but the tools showe…
Google Lowers Subscriber Requirements For Search Profiles
Google has dropped the minimum number of followers needed to be approved for a Search Profile on Google. Previously, it was 100,000 subscribers across YouTube, Instagram, X and Tiktok. Now it is 35,000 subscribers across YouTube, Instagram, and X but …
OpenAI Makes The ChatGPT Sources Less Visible
OpenAI is testing or rolling out a change to how you can click to see the sources from the ChatGPT responses. It used to be a button named “Sources” in the footer of the response, but now sometimes it is showing up within the three-dot “More actions” m…
Misconfiguring Cloudflare Can Hurt Your SEO Badly
This is just a random tip, make sure not to misconfigure Cloudflare, your content delivery network and/or your hosting server. I see way too many cases of this popping up and causing such a pain for SEOs to fix. All of a sudden, you might notice your …
Spammy Google Selected Canonical In Search Console
When you use the Google Search Console URL inspection tool, Google will show you what it calls the “Google-selected canonical.” Sometimes that URL will look off, weird and even scary, because sometimes it might be a URL for a spammy site.