Industry News

Google is testing having the AI Overview box "Ask Anything" section stick to the bottom of the Google Search box as you scroll down the AI Overview and the search results. This keeps AI Mode in your face during the whole search experience.

Google Ads is testing a way for advertisers to preview the impact of a change, like adding negative keywords. It seems to be called "Preview impact estimates" and lets you estimate the impact of, in this case, adding specific negative keywords.

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

Krishna Madhavan from Microsoft Bing demo'ed some new AI reporting features that should launch within Bing Webmaster Tools soon. They include citation share, grounding query intent, semantic topic label, and GEO-focused recommendations.

As you know, Google announced a new search spam penalty for back button hijacking. Site owners have until June 15, 2026 to remove any such functionality from its site or it will be subject to a manual action and/or automated algorithmic adjustment. Now, Google is sending email notifications through Search Console as reminders.

Google is now showing the number of reviews that were deleted on a specific Google Business Profile due to defamation complaints. This seems to be live in Germany and not other countries right now.

I am seeing new signs of the Google search ranking volatility heating up. When I reported on it last week, the tools began to show volatility trend upwards. But now, while some of the tools are calm, the chatter within the forums has spiked over the past 24 hours or so.

Google is testing using a superscript font for the cents portion of the pricing in the Shopping Ads. So when you see a price for a product and it is listed for $99.99, the 99 cents is in superscript.

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

Google may be doing something right with improving the click-through rates from the organic search results page that contain AI Overviews. An update report shows the CTR is improving, after numerous times showing the CTR has been declining.