Industry News

Google seems to be testing an AI-generated version of What People Are Saying in Google Search. This shows a similar video or social media type of search results but it says generative AI is experimental.

Google is updating its hotel prohibited practices policy to specify that (1) you are required to display final room availability and rates before requesting user information and (2) you are required to avoid price changes after users enter their personal information.

For the past week, we've been discussing how most of the third-party tracking tools have been showing much calmer and cooler search ranking volatility. This is all while the chatter within the SEO community still seems super heated. The reason may be that Google has been deploying new and more advanced blocking mechanisms towards these SEO tools.

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

Google has partnered with The Associated Press to provide more real time data for Gemini. Google said "the AP will now deliver a feed of real-time information to help further enhance the usefulness of results displayed in the Gemini app."

Google is testing placing the chat button, the one that may use AI to respond to your questions, at the top of the Google Ads advertiser console. Google began testing this last week and it says "Chat" with a "beta" label next to the chat icon.

Google Search is testing a zoom animation/effect when you click to the next page of the search results. Previously, we saw Google testing sliding in the next page of results from the right side of the page, but this one is a zoom-in animation.

Google updated its review snippet documentation to recommend that ratings should be accompanied by a review comment and author's name. This is a recommendation and not a requirement, but it seems like a strong recommendation.

Google has said it has updated its child and teen ads policies to increase transparency and make it easier for advertisers to understand these policies. Google added there are no changes to enforcement with these updates.

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