Daily Search Forum Recap: January 26, 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 Ads launched a new billing report. Google AI Mode product images are showing price lables. Google Ads has a new campaign mix experiments beta help document. Google Ads product campaign view report is new also. And Google Ads is updating its gambling and game certification eligibility policy

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Ads New Billing Report
  Google is rolling out a new billing report within Google Ads. The new billing report gives you line-by-line view of your Google Ads invoices.
• Google AI Mode Tests Product Images With Price Labels
  Google is testing adding price labels on top of the product images within AI Mode results. I tried to replicate this but I was not able to, so it seems like a test.
• Google Ads Campaign Mix Experiments In Beta
  Google Ads has a new help document named Campaign Mix Experiments (Beta). This describes how advertisers can test multiple campaign types, budgets, and settings across campaigns in a single experiment.
• Google Ads Product Campaign View Report Is Useful
  Google Ads lets you see how your product ads are performing across all your campaigns in a single view. Some advertisers are saying this is a new report, so I figured I'd share what they're noticing.
• Google Ads Gambling & Games Certification Eligibility: Good Health
  On March 23, 2026, Google will update its Google Ads Gambling and games policy to say that your overall account must demonstrate good policy health to be eligible for gambling and games certification. Meaning, you need to have a good account history and have a number of violations on your account.
• Long Google Staircase
  Here is a photo from the Google offices in London. You can see this super long staircase. It just looks weird, maybe at this angle. I always found this building to be interesting looking.

Other Great Search Threads:

• I'd generally refer to support.google.com/webmasters/a... where we document a lot of these details. Do you think we need to update something there? We don't update that often, because usually things just stay the same., John Mueller on Bluesky
• A new “Step by Step” Custom Command is now available in the Google Ads API Developer Assistant!, Cory Liseno on LinkedIn
• Google Discover AI Overview Video Bug?! Currently, on Discover feeds, you can see AI Overview cards with YouTube videos that have no video player, no image, and no thumbnail, only the title and then the favicon with the publish, Damien (andell) on X
• Got cc'd into an email with 27 other recipients - basically everyone in that MCC. Not only is this absolute overkill (I haven't worked on that account in years, it's also a privacy nightmare and Google needs to make it fucking st, Boris Beceric on X
• Great visual showing a company's AI slop created to rank in AI Search is not helping them Google-wise. As AI listicles surge on the site (thousands of them), you can see the initial surge in Google but now pages keep going up while, Glenn Gabe on X
• Just a reminder that ads have been serving in Copilot since 2024 and they always take a back seat to linking out to organic options., Microsoft Ads Buddy on X
• ChatGPT now testing out a product display that is more similar to AI Mode and features more products., SERP Alert on X
• ChatGPT website traffic in its first full three years, Similarweb on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Apple Ads adds more ad slots to App Store search results
• The URL mistake that killed Black Friday ft Nick Handley
• Google Ads bug removes notes option for some advertisers
• The latest jobs in search marketing
• Google Ads bug blocks edits to Performance Max asset groups
• TikTok’s U.S. joint venture could reduce long-term uncertainty for brands
• A smarter way to approach AI prompting
• Agentic AI and vibe coding: The next evolution of PPC management

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• How Playing Pokémon Became the Ultimate Test of AI’s Intelligence, Wall Street Journal
• Keeping Authenticity in the Time of AI, BrightLocal
• Latest ChatGPT model uses Elon Musk’s Grokipedia as source, tests reveal, The Guardian
• Adam Gallagher of food blog Inspired Taste discusses the dangers of AI-recipe slop, NPR
• Frequent Use of AI in the Workplace Continued to Rise in Q4, Gallup
• Science Is Drowning in AI Slop, The Atlantic

Analytics

• GA4 Monetization Reports: The Essential Guide for Marketers, KRM Digital Marketing

Industry & Business

• Google confirmed as company behind 500,000 sq ft data center in Scioto County, Ohio, Data Center Dynamics
• Exclusive: Google Acquires 3D Image Generator Startup, The Information
• Judge Sides Against Google In Search Users' Antitrust Suit, MediaPost
• OpenAI Aims to Lure Businesses From Anthropic, The Information
• Inside Apple’s AI Shake-Up, AI Safari and Plans for New Siri in iOS 26.4, iOS 27, Bloomberg

Links & Content Marketing

• The New Content Failure Mode: People Love It, Models Ignore It, Duane Forrester Decodes

Local & Maps

• Whitespark's Guide to Local Business Reputation Management, Whitespark
• Explore public datasets with Apache Iceberg & BigLake, Google Open Source Blog
• How to use Maps in iOS 26, AppleInsider
• Maybe It's Time To Abandon Google Maps? Top Alternative Gets Another Big Update, AutoEvolution

SEO

• SEO isn’t dead. But AI chat adoption is faster than most teams realize., ReadWrite
• Twitter SEO: Boost Your Discoverability, Sprout Social
• Wayfair's Framework for Picking SEO Tests, Search Pilot
• Does Real Estate Blogging Work for SEO in 2026? (CASE STUDY), SEO Savvy Agent
• When SEOs Add GEO To Their Headlines, They Become Part Of The Problem, Nikki Pilkington
• Advanced SEO Tracking for Zero-Click & AI Visibility, SEODepths
• Guide to Generative AI, Advanced Web Ranking

PPC

• Text Guidelines Now Support All Languages in Google Ads, PPC News Feed
• Update to Gambling and Games Policy: Ethiopia (January 2026), Google Advertising Policies Help
• Google Moves Logo Settings in Merchant Center, PPC News Feed
• Performance Max Gets Smarter With Data Exclusions, PPC News Feed

Search Features

• Google won’t stop replacing our news headlines with terrible AI, The Verge
• Is the improved Siri coming soon?, AppleInsider

Other Search

• Google Home is finally making devices easier to add, Android Central
• Vibes Meet Facts: Write Like the Smart Human You Are, Not the LLM Making Stuff Up Again, SparkToro
• ChatGPT is pulling answers from Elon Musk’s Grokipedia, TechCrunch
• There are now more than 1 million “.ai” websites, contributing an estimated $70 million to Anguilla’s government revenue last year, Sherwood News

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.