Daily Search Forum Recap: August 27, 2026

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 is rolling out the new goto tracking redirect URLs in its search results to mess with scrapers and third-party tools. Robby Stein from Google wants you to tell him what you think of AI Mode. Microsoft is testing renaming the Copilot Search AI answer box at the top of the Bing Search results to AI Overviews. Google is testing once again testing swipeable Google Ads sponsored results. Google Ask Advisor to get shared memory across tools soon. Microsoft Advertising, with the release of AI Max globally, has rolled out a new Search term landing page reporting template. Google Ads has released several new Troubleshoot performance fluctuations and changes documents. OpenAI has pinned the Shopping tab to the left sidebar on ChatGPT. And Google has a new Dolly Parton easter egg in its search results.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Confirmed: Google Search Rolling Out google.com/goto Tracking Parameters
  Google Search seems like it is rolling out the google.com/goto URL as a passthrough URL within the search results that it began testing in July 2026. This seems like a way for Google to help prevent scraping of its search results by third-party tools and AI companies but Google has not yet commented on this goto URL paramter.
• Tell Google What You Want From AI Mode
  Robby Stein, Google's Vice President of Product at Google Search, asked on X, "If you could get one feature shipped right now in AI Mode, what would it be?" So now is your chance to reply on X with what you want.
• Bing Tests Renaming Copilot Search Answer To AI Overviews
  Microsoft is testing renaming the Copilot Search AI answer box at the top of the Bing Search results to AI Overviews. That is the name Google uses for its AI answer results in Google Search. Microsoft is still placing the Copilot logo with the box but trying to use the name "AI Overview" instead of "Copilot Search."
• Google Ask Advisor Soon To Get Shared Memory Across Tools
  Google posted on X that Ask Advisor, which is in Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Merchant Center and more Google tools, will soon "maintain shared memory across your Google marketing tools."
• Microsoft Advertising Search Term Landing Page Report For AI Max
  Microsoft Advertising, with the release of AI Max globally, has rolled out a new Search term landing page reporting template. This report gives advertisers "full insights into all parts of AI Max's performance," said Navah Hopkins, the Microsoft Ads Liaison.
• Google Ads Tests Swipeable Categories For Sponsored Results Again
  Google is testing once again testing swipeable Google Ads sponsored results, where you can swipe a carousel of categories to potentially change the sponsored results listed below. We saw this for shopping ads in October 2024 and Google has continued to test this since.
• OpenAI Pins Shopping To ChatGPT Sidebar
  OpenAI has pinned the Shopping tab to the left sidebar on ChatGPT. Clicking on it takes you to a landing page and a dedicated search page focused on shopping.
• Google Ads New Troubleshoot Performance Fluctuations & Changes
  Google Ads has released several new "Troubleshoot performance fluctuations and changes" across Google Ads, Performance Max, Search campaigns, Display, video, shopping, app, and more. At least I think these documents are new based on my tools, but the Wayback Machine has been offline, so I cannot double verify.
• Google Search Has A Special Dolly Parton Easter Egg 🦋
  To commemorate the life of Dolly Parton, Google has released a new easter egg in its search results. If you search for [Dolly Parton] within Google Search...
• Massive Yahoo Signage
  Here is a photo showing a massive Yahoo sign that I guess can be moved letter by letter because each one is on a stand. This photo was posted on Instagram from the Yahoo office in India a few weeks ago.

Other Great Search Threads:

• I find coding bots increasingly useful to debug this kind of thing. I used Antigravity, it found 3 issues, John Mueller on LinkedIn
• New connection being tested for claiming your Google "search profile". We've detected a new social network being tested for connection when claiming a Google profile on the page: https://t.co/8grcN86QPu Currently, YouTube, Instagram X, and TikTok are included. This results in..., Damien Andell on X
• Just got home from Judge Mehta’s courtroom for the motion to dismiss hearing in Penske Media v Google. The core issue: can Google use its adjudicated search monopoly to force publishers to provide content for AI uses at zero cost? Some notable exchanges today. 1/5, Jason Kint on X
• Thanks for asking. Location targeting capabilities have not changed for Hotel Ads campaigns., AdsLiaison on X
• Thanks for flagging, clearly not the image we want to show here. Seems like our systems pulled an image from a webpage with other relevant content. This violates our policies and we're removing., News from Google on X
• There is no such thing as "prompt search volume." If you're paying for it, you're wasting your money. I've actually looked at a bunch of data samples from clickstream providers who track what people type into ChatGPT. Can you guess what I saw? Multi-sentence paragraphs, Tim Soulo on X
• That sounds like normal search behavior - we just don't index everything. If you're seeing this, I'd recommend working on ways to highlight the URLs that you really care about, so that it's easier for search to recognize & use those for indexing., John Mueller on Bluesky
• [Hack] Google's new /goto URLs are encrypted to stop scraping Set your browser to a lang other than the results and the "Translate this page" link shows up with the clean URL. Use Latin and you get it 99.99% of the time :D Scrappers: flip the Accept-Language header in the request, Natzir on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google confirms deploying goto URL redirects to search results links
• Google Ads API Developer Assistant gets major AI agent upgrade
• The SEO blind spot is what happens after the click
• Google Ads adds reporting for AI-generated product titles
• Google adds link carousels for developing topics in AI Mode
• Google’s Discover job posting confirms what the feed already shows
• Is top-of-funnel content still worth it in 2027?
• Meta Ads: Why creative diversity matters more than volume
• Has Google demoted listicles?

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• Mark Zuckerberg had a bold plan to replace Meta staff with AI. Here’s how it imploded., Reuters
• All in on AI: The Transformation Shift, Microsoft Advertising
• Google targets AI sticker shock with suite of new tools, Axios
• Google’s new AI transcription edits out your ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’, The Verge
• Introducing Gemini 3.5 Transcribe, Google Blog
• Scale OKF bundles across an organization with Knowledge Catalog, Google Cloud Blog
• The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead, OpenAI
• What Is WebMCP? How to Prepare Your Website to Serve AI Agents, Moz
• Enabling independent research on how people use Claude, Anthropic
• Junior consultants called back to office as AI increases need for human skills, Financial Times (Sub)

Industry & Business

• Google passkey attack exposes credential enrollment weak spot, Biometric Update
• Inside OpenAI’s Reboot, TIME
• Microsoft Is Leaving Investors Flying Blind on Its AI Businesses, Wall Street Journal
• China's Moonshot in talks with Microsoft, Amazon, Google over K3 revenue sharing, sources say, Reuters
• Anthropic to Pay Nscale $45 Billion for AI Computing Power, Bloomberg
• Google’s $62 Million Tracking Settlement Upheld by Appeals Court, Bloomberg Law News
• Libertarian Org. Tells 9th Circ. Not To Let Canadian Sue Google, Law360
• Google Moves AI-Responsibility Team Out of DeepMind Lab in Latest Shake-Up, Wall Street Journal
• Google's Mountain View office building lands $147.5M finance, Silicon Valley Business Journal
• Labor Department taps tech giants for AI jobs data, Axios

Links & Content Marketing

• How To Mine Audience Data for Content Gold, Content Marketing Institute
• Build content briefs around people, not keywords, MarTech
• Are Creators Up to the Task of Their New Marketing Roles?, Vogue

Local & Maps

• This overlooked Google Maps feature has become my secret weapon for staying organized, XDA Developers
• Ohio business sues Columbus woman over one-star Google review, NBC4 WCMH-TV
• A New Google Maps Bug Is Breaking A Critical Feature For Android Auto Users, BGR

Other Search

• iPhone 17 Global Best-selling Smartphone in Q2 2026, Top 10 Contribute 26% of Overall Sales, Counterpoint

PPC

• Microsoft Pilots Audience Ads for Cryptocurrency Exchanges, PPC News Feed
• Why B2B Campaigns Built for One Buyer Keep Stalling, PPC Hero
• Google Moves Policy Manager to New Admin Location, PPC News Feed
• What is Ad Strength in Google Ads and Does it Actually Matter?, ZATO Marketing
• Stop Wasting Ad Spend: A Guide to Audience Segment Exclusions, ZATO Marketing

Search Features

• Tell us: do you think AI has made Google search better or worse?, The Guardian
• Microsoft Edge Canary Tests a Bing Banner for Default Search Engine, Windows Report

SEO

• Your Organic Competition Isn’t Always Your Direct Competition, JumpFly
• Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance review: 7 things we love, Search Engine Watch
• ChatGPT Grounding Queries Mapped in BigQuery via GSC, SEO Depths
• Google August 2026 Spam Update: What Marketers Should Know, Semrush
• Reddit‘s ChatGPT citations drop from 3.8% to 0.5%, Semrush

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News, add as a preferred source on Google and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or just contact us the old fashion way.