Google has announced the new Search Console Search Generative AI performance reports and a toggle to block your site from showing in AI responses. This is available currently only for a small subset of UK site owners, but it will expand globally at some point. Oh, and no, the reporting does not show click data - not that any of you expected that.
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...
This week, I recorded from Boston - sorry for the appearance. We covered the Google May 2026 core update rolling out. Google Search Console released to a few new AI performance reports and new AI controls. Bing...
After tons and tons of testing and tweaking, Google is officially announcing what it calls Search profiles and what I called Discover publisher pages. Google said Search profiles provide "a central place to showcase their latest articles, videos and social posts."
Microsoft emailed advertisers notifying them that Microsoft Advertising will update UTM auto-tagging beginning on September 2, 2026. Microsoft added that no action is required on your part, as the updated tags will be applied automatically.
Google will soon allow you to connect your Google Business Profile with Google Analytics. Google sent out an email to some businesses saying this is coming soon, within the next "few weeks."
With the rise of Google Ads accounts being hijacked, Google has updated its Account security and safety help document with more details on passkeys and the security agent feature. This is in addition to a number of changes Google made recently around ad account security.
About five months ago (I missed it), Google began asking searchers if the business location they are visited offers rewards in exchange for reviews. The prompt that comes up in the app asks, "Does this business offer rewards in exchange for reviews?"