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 AI Mode's sidebar links do not send referrer; Google is looking into it. Google is testing colors for knowledge panel sections. Google updated its help documents to say how to influence your preferred image thumbnail in Search and Discover. Google Ads and Merchant Center updated several of its policy documents. Google added a new help document in Google Ads for Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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How Google Search & Google Discover Picks Image Thumbnails
Google updated its image SEO best practices and Google Discover documentation to clarify how Google picks a preferred image thumbnail for Google Search and Google Discover. Google wrote it "uses both schema.org markup and the og:image meta tag as sources when determining image thumbnails in Google Search and Discover." -
Google AI Mode Sidebar Links Don't Pass Referrers - Google To Fix
Google AI Mode doesn't always pass referrer data from the links on the sidebar. This is supposedly being looked at by the Google Search team and hopefully will be fixed soon, if not, already. -
Google Knowledge Panels With Colored Table Elements Sections Rolling Out
Google seems to be rolling out colorful sections in the knowledge panels. Sometimes you will see gray, sometimes blue, sometimes orange and sometimes green and maybe more. We saw this on mobile over a decade ago, so this does seem new, especially on desktop. -
Google Updates Alcohol, Prescription Drugs, Gambling & Government Policies
Google has updated or is updating a number of Google Ads and Google Merchant Center policies. This goes across alcohol, prescription drugs, gambling and games and government documents and services policies. -
Google Help Document On Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) Checkout
Google has published a new help document titled About the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and UCP-powered checkout feature on Google. This was published in the Google Merchant Center help documentation section. -
Dressed As Animal Musicians At Google Office
I am really not sure what is going on here but here are some folks dressed up as animals, a horse and panda bear, playing music at the Google office.
Other Great Search Threads:
- At some point we miscounted, and we've been pushing through ever since. No ragrets. :-), John Mueller on Bluesky
- 9 SEO Predictions for 2026 From People Watching Google Daily, Peaklora
- AdSense Earnings and Observations - March 2026, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Google expands recurring billing policy
- Google uses both schema.org markup and og:image meta tag for thumbnails in Google Search and Discover
- Own your branded search: Building a competitive PPC defense
- How to revise your old content for AI search optimization
- Google publishes Universal Commerce Protocol help page
- How Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol changes ecommerce SEO
- How to increase Google Discover traffic with technical fixes
Other Great Search Stories:
AI & LLMs
- Copilot Tasks: From Answers to Actions, Microsoft Copilot Blog
- How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance, The Verge
- What is Query Fan-Out? Understanding the Hidden Queries Driving AI Search, Ahrefs
Analytics
Industry & Business
- Apple Discusses Google Hosting New Siri as Need for Cloud Help Grows, The Information
- ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal, TechCrunch
- State Department switches to OpenAI chatbot as US agencies start phasing out Anthropic, Reuters
- What Rights Do AI Companies Have in Government Contracts?, Jessica Tillipman
- Ex-Google CEO Wins Stay Of Sexual Assault, Surveillance Suit, Law360
Links & Content Marketing
- B2B Marketers on the Move Winter 2026 Edition Celebrating Talent, TopRank
- Content Marketing Measurement in 2026: The Audience Trust Index, Content Marketing Institute
Local & Maps
- How To: Track Google Business Profile Listing Traffic, Dave Ashworth
- Local Service Ads Direct Business Search, JumpFly
SEO
- First study on the impact of AI Overviews on Spanish Publishers, Clara Soteras
- How to use embeddings to map hreflang tags at scale, Gus Pelogia
- Future-Proofing SEO: Technical Depth and Strategic Clarity in 2026 | Tory Gray, Advanced Web Ranking
- Google Zero is a Lie, SEO for Google News
- How to Use Entity-Based Topics to Prove Market Authority and Mitigate Risk, Schema App
- LLMs.txt GEO experiment: How AI models crawl websites, Reboot
- Measuring Web Accessibility from Crawl Archives, Common Crawl - Blog
- Pagination, Load More, or Infinite Scroll, Ilana Davis
- The Problem With Topic Clusters: Why Organizing By Page Is Insufficient, Schema App
- Update: 38% of AI Overview Citations Pull From Top 10 Pages, Ahrefs
- What Is B2B SEO and Why It Matters for Growth, Onely
- What is podcast SEO?, WTF is SEO?
PPC
- AI in Online Advertising: 5 Key Trends From February 2026, JumpFly
- Automation Drift: The Google Ads Problem That Looks Like Success, Hopskip Media
- Google Highly Recommends 1500x1500 Images for Product Feeds, PPC News Feed
- Recent transition to IAB TCF v2.3, Google AdSense Help
- VRC Non-Skip Ads reach general availability, Google Blog
Search Features
- New Research: Search Happens Everywhere; an Analysis of 41 Websites with Significant Search Activity, SparkToro
Other Search
- Google Home rolling out new Gemini, smart home updates, 9to5Google
- Wikipedia vs Grokipedia: 5x the Pages, 70x the Citations, 1615x the Traffic, Ahrefs
Feedback:
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