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 Business Profiles may be seeing a spike in suspensions. Google Ads updated its data retention policy. Google has a new experimental Web Bot Auth feature. Bing said its 1 billion monthly active users are all human. ChatGPT ads click-through rates have been revealed.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google Business Profile Suspensions Spike Over User Account Restrictions
Google seems to be suspending Google Business Profiles due to user account restrictions. There may have been a wave of suspensions over the past several days related to this issue and local SEO experts are unclear if this is a bug or some other issue. -
Bing: 1 Billion Monthly Users Are Human, Not Agents
Microsoft, during its earnings call last week, announced that Bing hit a huge milestone of 1 billion monthly active users. Krishna Madhavan from Microsoft later confirmed these "users" do not include AI agents but are real actual humans. -
Google Ads Data Retention Policy Updated
Google has posted an update and emailed advertisers on changes to its Google Ads data retention policy. What changed? Here is what Google said. -
Similarweb Data: ChatGPT Ads Click-Through Rates
Similarweb published some data sharing the click-through rates for OpenAI's ChatGPT ads. The overall CTR for ChatGPT ads are 0.68%, the top quartile is 1%, the best brands are 1.57% and the peak CTR is 5.4%. -
Google Web Bot Auth: Validate Authentic Bots
Google posted new developer documentation for how to authenticate requests with Web Bot Auth. This is a "new cryptographic protocol that helps websites to validate that bots are authentic," Google wrote. -
Google Garage Bench Chairs In Kirkland
So where do they put the Googlers who do not play nice? Maybe in the Google Kirkland garage. They have these nice new looking benches or chairs in that gated garage.
Other Great Search Threads:
- For some sites impacted heavily by the Jan 2026 unconfirmed update, some got hit even harder when the March spam update and core update rolled out. Like this one. Oof., Glenn Gabe on X
- Google using spam reports to hand out manual penalties has caused a war in competitive SERPs. Same people who DMCA are now seemingly reporting all their competitors. Sadly it seems only choice is to do the same in return. Code of honor, SEOwner on X
- The ads are co-branded with the brand and creator who made the video and can run as Shorts or in-stream formats. Check out the link above to see some examples., AdsLiaison on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Google fixes Search Console’s year-long data logging issue – well, kind of…
- Why brand authority beats topical authority in AI search
- 7 tools for doing AEO right now
- Why AI visibility starts before search and ends with citations
Other Great Search Stories:
AI & LLMs
- Anthropic and OpenAI are both launching joint ventures for enterprise AI services, TechCrunch
- Chrome Extensions for GenAI Visibility, Practical Ecommerce
- OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft Back Bill to Fund ‘AI Literacy’ in Schools, 404 Media
- Supercharging LLM inference on Google TPUs: Achieving 3X speedups with diffusion-style speculative decoding, Google Developers Blog
- What 81,000 people want from AI, Anthropic
Analytics
- Conversion support in the Data API, Google Analytics Help
- Smart KPIs: Accountability Over Outcomes Over Activity, Avinash Kaushik
Industry & Business
- Apply now for the Google for Startups Accelerator, Google Blog
- Attys Defend $85M Fee Bid Blasted By Judge In Google Deal, Law360
- Google Kids Privacy Settlement Advances, MediaPost
- How Sundar Pichai Pushed Google To the Front of the AI Race, TIME
- Musk sought settlement with OpenAI two days before trial, CNBC
- OpenAI Finalizes $10 Billion Joint Venture With PE Firms to Deploy AI, Bloomberg
- OpenAI's head of sales leaves for role at Thrive Capital, CNBC
- OpenAI: 2026 TIME100 Most Influential Companies, TIME
- What Was Discussed at Google’s White House Meeting About A.I., New York Times
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
- 5-Star Fraud: The FTC Targets Law Firms & Property Managers for Review Abuse, Near Media
- Google Maps vs. Waze: I've driven with the two best navigation apps, and one is much better, ZDNET
SEO
- Global Growth Gone Wild: Reddit's AI Translations Continue To Expand and Boom (One Year Later), GSQI
- Google Finds a New Villain, Websites That Trap Users Better Than Google, Search Engine World
- Google Search Central Live: What Actually Matters in AI Search, Schema App Solutions
- I Crawled 65,000 Pages of My Own Site Without Parsing a Single Line of HTML, Metehan
- The Hidden Complexity of International SEO | Jonathan Moore, Advanced Web Ranking
PPC
- Buying ads on ChatGPT? Why you should check organic reputation first!, Seer Interactive
- How to Do Keyword Research for SEO & PPC (Step-by-Step), WordStream
- Sophisticated “Microsoft Advertising” Phishing Campaign Targeting Microsoft Ad Users, JumpFly
Search Features
- Google's Gemini for Home expansion is gaining speed, Android Authority
Other Search
- Ashley MacIsaac Sues Google Over False Sex Offender ID in AI Overview, Hollywood Reporter
- Google expands Binary Transparency for Android apps, Google Blog
Feedback:
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