Industry News

On Wednesday, Google announced a number of new AI features, which we covered (links below) but one other feature Google spoke about was "AI-powered article overviews." This is an experiment Google News is trying with a handful of publishers.

Google is now sending email notifications for when Google Business Profiles has removed the restrictions on your reviews and ratings. The email says, "Restrictions on your reviews and ratings have been removed" and it comes from the Google Business Profiles team.

Google officially announced the rollout of the December 2025 core update on Thursday at around 12:25 pm ET. This core update is expected to take up to 3 weeks to roll out. Google said this "is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites."

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

Google announced it has updated the links in AI Mode to encourage searchers to click more. Google also introduced contextual introductions to embedded links in AI Mode responses.

Google announced that Preferred Sources is now rolling out globally, after launching just in the US and India in August, following its beta period in June. Plus, Google announced Spotlighting subscriptions are coming to Gemini, AI Mode, and AI Overviews.

In June, Google moved Offerwall out of its AdSense beta, making it available to all. Now, if you are using Offerwall, Google will opt you into Offerwall optimization.

Microsoft is testing out the new Google Ads sponsored results label, ad grouping and hide button with its own Bing Search results ads. Microsoft Advertising search ads in Bing are testing grouping multiple search ads under one "Sponsored results" label, and then at the bottom, there is a "Hide" and then "Show" button.

Google has officially expanded the Web Guide to the "All" tab. Originally when it launched as a Search Labs beta, it was under the "Web" tab but as we saw, Google began expanding it to the "All" tab.

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 updated its search documentation to state that it does smaller core updates more often without confirming them. Google Discover is now minimally aligned to search rankings...