Daily Search Forum Recap: August 4, 2025

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.

Danny Sullivan has left the Google Search Liaison role and will be working within the Search team on other projects. Google is pitching advertisers on new AI Mode ads. Google is testing a new AI Mode rainbow animation. Microsoft Advertising updates its website exclusions. I also posted the monthly Google webmaster report.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• August 2025 Google Webmaster Report
  The past month was a bit intense with Google search ranking volatility. With the June 2025 core update kicking off the day before July 1st, we started to see ranking movement in early July and it continues throughout the core update, even after it finished. It was just a super-heated month with Google Search.
• Google Pitching AI Mode Ads
  Google is reportedly pitching advertisers to buy into ads in AI Mode. The folks over at AdAge have some slides from a Google presentation with the pitch. "Google is getting ready to roll out AI Mode ads widely by giving ad agencies and brands more information about how the new channel differs from traditional search and details about how paid AI search will work," AdAge wrote.
• Danny Sullivan Steps Away From Google Search Liaison Role
  Danny Sullivan is no longer the Google Search Liaison. He is switching roles within Google to work on new projects on the Google Search team. Danny Sullivan started at Google over seven years ago, and was very public-facing up until several months ago.
• Reddit CEO: Anyone Using Google Will End Up At Reddit At Some Point
  As you all mostly know, Reddit had an amazing earnings statement and its stock is up 25% since earnings day. But let's dig into the statements Steven Huï¬man, Reddit's CEO, made on that earnings call.
• Microsoft Advertising Website Exclusions Updated
  Microsoft has updated its exclusions controls and reporting for Microsoft Advertising Audience Ads and Search Ads. You can now centrally manage website exclusions across accounts and campaigns, apply exclusions in bulk and add up to 10,000 websites per exclusion list.
• Google Search Tests Rainbow Effect To AI Mode & Web Tabs
  Google is testing adding a rainbow effect to the AI Mode and Web tabs within the search bar. We've seen this on the AI Mode button on the search box and it seems Google is testing it to highlight some of the tabs.
• Google Movie Marquee Entry
  Here is a photo from a video from the Google office in Venice Beach. They have this movie theatre marquee entry way with the Google logo and it is named The Big Lebowski for some reason.

Other Great Search Threads:

• I just released the first #childrensbook solely dedicated to #PPC advertising. Why? Because why not give future generations a head start! This isn’t just a kids’ book. It’s how you build legacy. Let’s, Dii Pooler on X
• FAQ : Fix Merchant Center Warnings and Suspensions, Google Merchant Center Community
• Bing is showing a bold black line at the bottom — not sure why., Sachin Patel on X
• Thanks for the input. We have added prominent links at the bottom, in the "See links" area and on hover for each of the citations. But we keep talking to publishers to get their feedback. Traffic back to publishers is key to, Jordi Ribas on X
• OK, I finally had time to dig into the post-June core update volatility in greater detail. Super-interesting to see the movement across sites in late July. First, most sites I documented that were heavily impacted by the June core update, Glenn Gabe on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• The latest jobs in search marketing
• Google Ads adds ‘Locations of Interest’ targeting to AI Max for Search
• Microsoft Ads rolls out website exclusion tools for Search, Audience ads
• Danny Sullivan no longer the Google Search Liaison
• ChatGPT kills Google-indexable chats over privacy fears
• PMax and the illusion of trust: ‘I’m Google – what could go wrong?’
• How to write high-performing Google Ads copy with generative AI

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• How to Connect Google Analytics to n8n (step by step guide), Optimize Smart
• Google Tag Manager introduces new client-side API for reliable analytics data access, PPC Land

Industry & Business

• Anthropic Revokes OpenAI's Access to Claude, Wired
• Bing made Google dance and then stole some search traffic, The Verge
• Inside OpenAI’s Rocky Path to GPT-5, The Information
• OpenAI Raises Another Funding Deal, From Dragoneer, Blackstone and More, New York Times
• Reddit wants to be a search engine now, The Verge

Links & Content Marketing

• Content marketing ROI: How to Build and Measure It, Sprout Social

Local & Maps

• Don't Count Out Google Travel Search – Booking.com, Skift
• This is the Google Maps feature I really want to see, Android Authority

Mobile & Voice

• New Circle to Search redesign looks like the TVA portals from 'Loki', 9to5Google
• Google Has Quietly Been Detecting Earthquakes by Sensing Rumbling in Android Phones For Years, Futurism
• Apple’s ChatGPT Rival from New ‘Answers’ Team; iPhone 17 Spotted in the Wild, Bloomberg

SEO

• 5 Signs Your SEO Migration Has Gone Wrong, Koozai
• Indexing Isn't Ranking, And Why Your Freelancers (probably) Hate You, Nikki Pilkington
• SEO Myths Debunked: Parasite SEO Is The New Secret Weapon!, Nikki Pilkington
• Why Site Health Is Vital For AI Search Visibility, Semrush
• Top Pages to Protect During a Migration, Koozai

PPC

• Is Performance Max Cannibalizing Your Search Campaigns? Our New Data Study Says… Probably, Optmyzr
• Microsoft Advertising Introduces Premium Streaming Campaigns, PPC News Feed

Search Features

• Gemini 2.5: Deep Think is now rolling out, Google Blog
• What Is AI Mode?, Moz
• It’s wild how similar Google AI Mode and Gemini are right now, 9to5Google
• Microsoft Bing's sneaky ad doesn't want you to use Copilot's rivals like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Windows Latest
• Will Google’s AI Overviews kill news sites as we know them?, NPR
• Google’s AI Search Is Here And Nearly Half of Us Are Worried, Andy Drinkwater
• The ChatGPT sharing dialog demonstrates how difficult it is to design privacy preferences, Simon Willison

Other Search

• Google is breaking millions of websites to save a few bucks, Washington Post
• What's next for AI at DeepMind, Google's artificial intelligence lab, 60 Minutes - CBS News
• Do search engines like Google limit creative thinking? Yes, according to this Carnegie Mellon study, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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