Industry News

Google is testing displaying different colored and shaped buttons, assets, in the sponsored listings within Google Search. Google has the pill-shaped version and square version, one that is highlighted in a blueish color and the other in gray, all on the same page.

Google is testing grouping the favicons from the sites from advertisers at the top of the sponsored results, on the right side of the sponsored label. This is part of when Google has the larger sponsored label and groups expandable sponsored ads below.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

Google is notifying some advertisers that they do not comply with Google's EU User Consent Policy, i.e. Consent Mode v2 and that as of July 21st and will turn off personalized and non-personalized ads, remarketing and conversion tracking functionality.

Google is testing a button to drive more people into AI Mode for shopping help. The button is labeled "Help me shop in AI Mode." When you click on it, it takes you into AI Mode with the AI Mode shopping experience.

Google has now expanded AI Mode to UK users after bringing it to India last month and the US fully the month prior to that. Google said, "Starting to roll out in the UK today, you'll see it appear as a tab on your Search results page, and in the Google app for Android and iOS."

Google seems to be testing using AI to summarize the menus for local restaurants within Google Search and Google Maps. I believe it still shows the real menu but will add above and between it, AI summaries of those menu items.

A bit over a year ago, we saw Google testing a website link in the hotel local pack on desktop search. Now it seems Google is also testing it on mobile search, unless it was like that then and we didn't see the mobile version.

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.

We had even stronger Google search ranking volatility over the weekend...

I know I just reported on the super-heated Google Search ranking volatility week we had, and how the post-core update seems more unstable than during the June 2025 core update. However, we are now seeing even more volatility over the weekend, with some reporting reversals from the events of last week.