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.
Still working my way back but here are the headlines for the past couple of days.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Microsoft Bing Tests New AI Image Search
Microsoft seems to be testing a new AI-powered image search interface and result set for Bing Image Search. If you do a search on Bing Images, on the right side you may see a button for "New Version." That new version says you can "try a new version of Image Search." -
Google Business Profiles Gains Place Page Attributes
Google seems to have added a new section to the Google Business Profiles section named Place page attributes. Place page attributes allows you to let customers know more about your business by showing attributes on your Business Profile. These may appear publicly on Search, Maps, and other Google services. -
First ChatGPT Ads Share Little Data To Advertisers
The Information wrote "OpenAI's First Advertisers Can't Prove ChatGPT Ads Work." In short, the ChatGPT ad platform from OpenAI shares almost no data with advertisers. It is low tech, there is no ad performance data, and it also has very limited ad targeting features. -
Google Using AI to Create Title Links on SERP
Google confirms it is using AI to create title links on the SERP instead of headlines from news publishers, sometimes. -
Google Adds Google-Agent User Agent
Google has added a new user-agent to the user-triggered fetchers named Google-Agent. Google said the "Google-Agent user agent is rolling out over the next few weeks, and will be used by Google agents hosted on Google infrastructure to navigate the web and perform actions upon user request." -
Google News Showcase Label In Discover Feed
New label tests for news results in the Google Discover feed could make certain news results more clickable. -
AI Overviews Showing For Breaking News More Often And Above Top Stories
News publishers will not be happy to learn that AI Overviews seem to be ranking for breaking news more and more. I noticed this several times recently and shared about it on X yesterday... -
Universal Commerce Protocol Get New Additions Including Cart & Catalog
Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is introducing new optional capabilities for merchants to support agentic commerce across the web.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Yes, as far as I know, that's still the case. Make a test-page & use inspect-URL in Search Console, you might see it happen. (There was recently a thread somewhere - Reddit? idk - where it was happening.) Practically, it shouldn't matter for SEO, but it c, John Mueller on Bluesky
- GSC keeps crawling old 404 pages that it claims are "discovered via sitemap.xml" — even though the sitemap doesn't contain them anymore. What now?, Reddit
- Lost Top 3 Google rankings after moving to Https, Reddit
- Example of a manual action being removed for this publisher. Looks like they cleaned up the problem relatively quickly and had the manual action removed. Now showing back up across Google surfaces. Of course, they probably will not r, Glenn Gabe on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
- The latest jobs in search marketing
- Google launches Ads DevCast Vodcast for developers
- Google tightens rules on out-of-stock product pages
- Google Business Profile tests AI-generated replies to reviews
- Google confirms AI headline rewrites test in Search results
- Could AI eventually make SEO obsolete?
- Cloudflare CEO: Bots could overtake human web usage by 2027
- SEO’s new battleground: Winning the consensus layer
- Adobe to shut down Marketo Engage SEO tool
- Why your law firm’s best leads don’t convert after research
- 7 ways to use storytelling in a business blog
- Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website
- Perplexity’s Comet for iOS uses Google Search by default
- Microsoft Advertising simplifies automated bidding setup
- Google expands its Universal Commerce Protocol to power AI-driven shopping
- What patents reveal about the foundations of AI search
- Multi-location SEO strategy: Stop competing with your own content
- Your SEO maturity score doesn’t measure what you think it does
- AI Mode is Google’s next ads engine — and it already knows how to monetize it
- Google AI Overviews now appear on 14% of shopping queries: Report
- Small publisher search traffic fell 60% over two years: Data
- Google retires several legacy ad format policies
- SMX Now: Learn how brands must adapt for AI-driven search
- Google brings vehicle feeds to Search campaigns
- Where to focus technical SEO when you can’t do it all
Other Great Search Stories:
AI & LLMs
- Developer’s Guide to AI Agent Protocols, Google Developers Blog
- Google Tests Gemini AI App for Mac to Rival ChatGPT and Claude, Bloomberg
- Universal Commerce Protocol updates improve AI shopping for retailers, Google Blog
Analytics
- UTM Parameters for Offline Advertising: A Redirect-First Approach for GA4, KP Playbook
- What Is Cookiebot? How to Set Up and Implement Cookiebot CMP, Measure Minds Group
- 5 Signs Your GA4 Setup Is Broken (And You Don’t Know It), MeasureU
- The GA4 Audit That Gets You Hired Before You Quote, MeasureU
Industry & Business
- Google Shakes Up Its Browser Agent Team Amid OpenClaw Craze, Wired
- Valtrus Hits Google With New Patent Suit After Recent Dismissal, Bloomberg
- Chicken Soup for the Soul publisher sues tech companies over AI training, Reuters
- Search Central Live Asia Pacific 2026: Get Ready for Sydney and more!, Google Search Central Blog
Links & Content Marketing
- Evergreen Content Is "dying"? Not For B2B Service Businesses, Nikki Pilkington
- An Underused Tactic To Get Your Content Cited in AI Search, Content Marketing Institute
Local & Maps
SEO
- Breaking news Google referrals doubled to US publishers in a year, Press Gazette
- ChatGPT links in Google Search Console: How to Discover Real User Conversations That Cite Your Content, GSQI
- How to optimize images for search on Wix, Wix SEO Hub
- Your GEO Strategy Might Be Destroying Your SEO, Lily Ray
- AI Search: How the data shows that Google is winning – yet everything is changing, SISTRIX
- Out-of-Stock Products Must Now Have a Disabled Buy Button For Google Shopping, FeedArmy Co
- What Is Prompt Tracking? [Tips and Workflows To Do It on a Budget], Moz
- When Being a Local Expert is Bad for SEO, SEO Savvy Agent
- 10 Fan-Outs for Prompt Research — Whiteboard Friday, Moz
- How AI Search Personalizes Fan-Out Queries Using Memory and Context, iPullRank
- How to Get Buy-in for SEO with Data Storytelling, Women in Tech SEO
- Publishers at Press Gazette US conference agree blocking is best strategy for bots, Press Gazette
- The Hidden Variable: How Clickbait Titles Exploit Attention Through Latent Entities, DEJAN
- When the Training Data Cutoff Becomes a Ranking Factor, Duane Forrester Decodes
PPC
- Microsoft Advertising Rolls Out Simplified Bid Strategies Globally, PPC News Feed
- Reach fans during football's biggest moment, Microsoft Advertising
- Google Ads Updates Account Switcher And Navigation, PPC News Feed
- Health Check Diagnostics for Lodging Feeds in Microsoft Ads, PPC News Feed
- How AI has changed the role of the PPC manager in 2026, Smarter Ecommerce
- Judge rejects lawyers' preemptive fee bid in Google ad tech class action, Reuters
- Negative Keywords Updated with Lists and API Integration, PPC News Feed
- Why POAS can’t replace true Profit Optimization, Smarter Ecommerce
- Disabled Buy Button Required for Out-of-Stock Products, PPC News Feed
- How to Fix “Product Page Unavailable” in Google Merchant Center, FeedArmy
- Introducing: Ads DevCast, Google Ads Developer Blog
- The Paid Search Freelancer Transition Guide, PPC Live
- Upcoming changes to Lookalike user lists in the Google Ads API, starting April 30, 2026, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Veo in Google Ads: A Field Test, Hopskip Media
- Campaign Creation Gets "Tell Us About Your New Campaign", PPC News Feed
- Google Ads API Adds Duplicate Check for Lookalike Lists, PPC News Feed
- Google Shows Identical Web Stats Across Multiple Search Ads, PPC News Feed
- Google Updates UCP With Cart, Catalog, and Loyalty Features, PPC News Feed
Search Features
Other Search
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