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's CEO, Sundar Pichai, doesn't think web publishing is dead. Google Business Profiles has a new chat clicks chart. Most SEOs are scared about Google AI Mode. Google Search has a third level overlay for product search results. Google AI Overviews tests new query expansion at the top. Google Merchant Center notifications will soon no longer show, you need to see them in Merchant Center Next.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google's Sundar Pichai Doesn't Think Web Publishing Is Dead
Nilay Patel of The Verge had a great one-on-one conversation with Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO. Nilay did put on the pressure around how the changes with AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search are impacting publishers in a very negative way, but Sundar seemed unconvinced that web publishing is dead. -
Poll: Most SEOs Are Scared About Google AI Mode
With Google rolling out AI Mode in the US and calling it the future of Google Search, many SEOs are worried about how organic search will lead traffic and conversions for their business and their clients. Well, a small poll showed that most SEO are scared about AI Mode being the future of Google Search. -
Google Search Products Third-Level Overlay With Store Pricing & More
Google Search now lets you see the pricing history and pricing details, including more store details of a specific product, directly from the search results. When you click on the three dots in the product secondary overlay, you get this third-level overlay with those details. -
Google AI Overviews Tests Query Expansion Tabs
Google needs even more queries, the 10% growth isn't enough, so Google AI Overviews is testing query expansion tabs at the top of the AI Overviews. We've seen variations of this within the AI Overviews, but now they are testing them at the top of the AI Overviews. -
Google Moving Notifications To Merchant Center Next June 25
Google announced it will be removing the notifications and email archive section from Google Merchant Center into Google Merchant Center Next on June 25, 2025. After June 25th, Google Merchant Center will no longer have your email notifications archived there. -
Google Business Profiles Chat Clicks Performance Analytics
Google added a new type of data point to the Google Business Profiles performance reports named Chat Clicks. Chat clicks show you how many people are clicking over from your chat conversations in the local and maps results within Google Search and Maps. -
Doogler Of The Month - Really?
I've covered so many photos of Dooglers, Google dogs, in this search photo of the day section, but I've never seen a "Doogler Of The Month" until now.
Other Great Search Threads:
- A "getting fooled by the AI-hype" article touching on a general problem of not publishing findings when they were either wrong or just not strong. www.understandingai.org/p/i-got-fool... (graph shows the gap between published positive & neg, John Mueller on Bluesky
- Some SEOs hate the "it depends" but if you don't understand "it depends" *and* what it depends on, you will - at best - do useless things., John Mueller on Bluesky
- Unless a LLM provider that you care about explicitly supports this, save yourself the work. And should they care at some point, it's trivial to create one. (And, if it's trivial to create one, why would a LLM company not just do it themselves?), John Mueller on LinkedIn
- Web search is now available to all Claude users on our free plan., Anthropic on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Sundar Pichai defends Google’s AI search future
- SMX Advanced kicks off in two weeks in Boston… will you be there?
- Google shifts Enhanced Conversions configuration to a new GTM tag
- Inside the AI-powered retrieval stack – and how to win in it
- Search is having a midlife crisis. And it’s glorious.
- 5 practical SEO experiments with AI as a co-pilot
- How to improve PPC campaign performance: A checklist
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
- Ad Tech Briefing: Google’s AI updates are portent of antitrust cases to come, Digiday
- ChatGPT Defeats Defamation Lawsuit Over Hallucination-Walters v. OpenAI, Eric Goldman
- Employees Searching Payroll Portals on Google Tricked Into Sending Paychecks to Hackers, The Hacker News
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai says AI will be ‘bigger than the internet’, The Verge
- Metals billionaire Potanin acquires minority stake in 'Russia's Google', Reuters
- Industry leaders gather to discuss tackling fraud together., Google Blog
Links & Content Marketing
- Performance Reviews That Help Marketing Performance, Content Marketing Institute
- Why Your Content Strategy Isn't Broken — Just Outdated, Skyword
Local & Maps
- New GBP feature: What's happening specials callout, SearchLab Digital
Mobile & Voice
- Anthropic launches a voice mode for Claude, TechCrunch
- Law firm sees opportunity to sue over Apple delaying Siri improvements, AppleInsider
- Google gets three new voices for spoken search results, Android Police
- Google, Samsung, Warby Parker take on Apple's Vision Pro, Axios
SEO
- AI Search and SEO: Data and Perspective You Need to Know, seoClarity
- Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): Reach the Zero-Click Search Majority, MarketingProfs
- Exploring MCP Servers for Technical SEO Monitoring, Chris Lever
- Google I/O 2025: Announcements, Takeaways & Impacts on SEO, Amsive
- Google is Using AI to Censor Thousands of Independent Websites Like Mine (And to Control the Flow of Information Online), Travel Lemming
- Google Search Impressions Drop 12.3% YoY What’s Behind It?, Search Engine People
- Google Translate Proxy Pages Are Dominating AI Overviews in Europe, too — And No One Controls It, Metehan
- Google's AI optimization tips for Search include the same practices SEOs already use, Coywolf
- How AI Mode Works and How SEO Can Prepare for the Future of Search, iPullRank
- Measure CTR per search term, not site wide, Ilana Davis
- Measuring Your Brand for SEO, Sara Taher
- Remove or Keep? What To Do With Low-Activity Webpages, BruceClay
- What happened at Google I/O, WTF is SEO?
- What I learned at Google I/O 2025: A new era of Search, Marie Haynes
- Why SMBs Must Think Beyond Google & Build Brand, Sitebulb
- How To Perform an SEO Audit, Exploding Topics
- IndexWatch Q1 2025: UK Winners & Losers, SISTRIX
PPC
Search Features
- Google Trust & Safety publishes May 2025 scam advisory, Google Blog
- Query Fan-Out: A Data-Driven Approach to AI Search Visibility, WordLift Blog
- Survey: What People Want from Search—and How That’s Changing, Resolve
- Will Google and AI/LLMs Turn To Email When The Web Goes Dark?, SEO for Lunch
- The Future of Google, DEJAN
Other Search
- Build AI agents with the Mistral Agents API, Simon Willison
- This Film Was Made Entirely With Runway AI and Google’s Veo. It Nearly Broke Us., Wall Street Journal
Feedback:
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