Daily Search Forum Recap: August 28, 2026

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.

A first, Google won't enforce a spam policy within the European region, the site reputation abuse policy. Google Search had indexing/serving issues this morning. The IRS website dropped heavily in Google Search. Google announces search updates for transparency reasons but does blog posts and doc updates for actionable items for site owners. Google has updated the favicon search developer documentation to list out the supported favicon file formats. Google is expanding the book button through Reserve with Google partner integration to Google Ads Search and Performance Max campaigns. Google preferred sources, the tailor your feed and search profiles are all different features. Google Ads will be updating its alcohol advertising policy on September 30, 2026. Google is testing asking searchers to sign in within the AI Mode response. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Won't Enforce Its Site Reputation Policy Manual Actions In Europe
  Google announced it will not enforce manual actions under the site reputation abuse policy in the European Economic Area (EEA) due to a mandate set by the European Commission, effective August 30, 2026. Google said searchers in the EEA will not benefit from Google's spam prevention for sites labeled for site reputation abuse.
• Google Search Having Indexing/Serving Issues August 28th
  Google Search seems to be having indexing or serving issues in the past hour or so. New content from the past hour doesn't seem to be showing up in Google Search results. Content from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN and other news sites that post content constantly are not showing much or any new pages in the Google search results.
• IRS Website Drops Heavily In Google Search
  Over the past few days, the IRS website (and other government sites) has tanked within Google's search results. My gut feeling is that the federal government implemented some bot-blocking that was too aggressive and blocked Google, among others, resulting in Google not fully showing the IRS website. I believe the IRS implemented some fixes, and the website is slowly coming back in Google Search.
• Google Announces Search Updates For Transparency, Actionable Updates Get Blog Posts
  Google's John Mueller said Google "primarily" announces search updates to provide "transparency for site owners." He added that when Google publishes blog posts, updates policies, and help center documentation, that is an actionable announcement site owners could use.
• Google Search Now Lists The Supported Favicon File Formats
  Google has updated the favicon search developer documentation to list out the supported favicon file formats. Google added this line that reads, "Google Search supports the following favicon file formats: BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM, and TIFF."
• Google AI Mode Adds Flight Price Tracking, Mile Rates & Hotel Booking
  Google is rolling out three new travel features within AI Mode in Google Search. These features include track flight prices, view points or miles rates, and book hotels directly within AI Mode, through your conversational search.
• Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google GoTo Parameter Fight, PDFs Go Missing In Google, SEO For AI Responses & Google and Microsoft Ads News
  Another week...
• Google Ads Book Buttons Expand To Search & Performance Max
  Google is expanding the book button through Reserve with Google partner integration to Google Ads Search and Performance Max campaigns. Previously, I believe, this was only available on Google Local Service Ads and maps ads.
• Google Preferred Sources, Tailor Your Feed & Search Profiles Are Different
  Google has two, well, maybe three, features that are being confused as one. The preferred sources, the tailor your feed and also search profiles. All kind of customize what you see across Google Search features including Google Search, AI Mode, Discover and so on. But they are all different features.
• Google Alcohol Advertising Policy Update On September 30
  Google will be updating its alcohol advertising policy on September 30, 2026. The update "revises country-specific guidelines, expands allowed advertising locations, and provides clearer details on specific advertiser requirements and responsibilities," Google wrote.
• Google AI Mode Asking Searchers To Sign In
  Google is testing asking searchers to sign in within the AI Mode response. Google shows a big Google super logo and a sign in button that says "Sign in to save your..."
• Google Intern Event
  Google held a "Google Intern Event" on International Intern Day at the Google offices in California. Supposedly 800 Bay Area based interns came to the event.

Other Great Search Threads:

• "How to Be Found When the Query is a Picture" - This set of guides on image search & searching with images is great. Especially for ecommerce (where images are so important to users!), this is worth spending time & resources on. , John Mueller on LinkedIn
• Congratulations to Google leaders Dr. Marian Croak, VP, Human Centered AI and Foundational ML, Liz Reid, VP and Head of Search, and Lila Ibrahim, Chief AI Readiness Officer, @GoogleDeepMind on being a part of @TIME’s 2026 #TIME100AI! This milestone recognizes their ongoing, News from Google on X
• ChatGPT Work did, in fact, book me a haircut for 90 minutes ago and it did work I did get a haircut, Max Weinbach on X
• The CTR will depend on the specific case - if someone is looking for a specific form, they're likely going to jump at the PDF. If someone is just looking for an informational text, then maybe a PDF won't be their first choice. People make & use these files for all sorts of reasons :), John Mueller on Bluesky
• @rustybrick yes, definitely an area of continued focus!, Robby Stein on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google won’t respect manual actions for site reputation abuse in European Economic Area
• Google expands Demand Gen with messaging ads, travel tools and AI video creation
• Google’s August 2026 spam update hit rankings harder than normal
• Moving from Google Display to Demand Gen: What you’ll lose and gain
• Reddit is the keyword research tool you’re probably not using
• Your images have a new job in AI search
• If an AI watermark scares you, your content may be the real issue

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• Build with Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash, Google Blog
• Google and Khan Academy build classroom AI tools, Google Blog
• OpenAI Is Developing a ‘Persistent’ AI Agent, Wired
• OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft warn of growing AI cyberattacks, Axios
• Piloting the world's first double-blind AI evaluations, Google DeepMind
• AI's memory crunch is coming for Android apps, TechCrunch
• This Is How Anthropic Thinks AI Agents Should Navigate the Physical World, Wired
• Meta Memo Reveals What Its New 'Hatch' AI Agent Can Do, Business Insider
• Meta Projected It Could Spend $10 Billion on Anthropic’s A.I., New York Times

Analytics

• Google Tag Manager Snippets Will Stop Honoring gtag('config') Commands, PPC News Feed
• How to Edit and Delete GA4 Data Streams: Step-by-Step, KRM Digital Marketing
• Increase in spam referring domains in August 2026, Hallam
• #GTMTips: The GTM Template Status Page, Simo Ahava's blog

Industry & Business

• Anthropic Has Never Signed a Licensing Deal, Yet Never Been Sued. Why?, AdWeek
• Alphabet agrees to pay £260mn to settle UK class action lawsuit, Financial Times (Sub)
• Anthropic Considers Letting Shareholders Sell In IPO, Departing from SpaceX Playbook, The Information
• Feds Want Ex-Google Engineer To Get Over 5 Yrs For AI Theft, Law360
• Google agrees to settle UK app developers' lawsuit for $353 million, Reuters
• Google takes am at Anthropic, Microsoft with budget-friendly AI pricing, CNBC
• Google, Microsoft and OpenAI among 100 firms calling for better cyber defences, BBC

Links & Content Marketing

• How to Turn Brand Awareness Into Customer Consideration, Brainlabs
• The Easy Content Route Won't Win in College Athletics, Content Marketing Institute

Local & Maps

• Google agrees to stop hyphenating a tiny town's name, Talker News
• Google builds Korea team for full-functioning Maps service, The Korea Herald
• 4 key navigation features in Waze that Google Maps still cannot replicate, Android Police

Other Search

• Android 17 introduces 4 new network security features, Google Blog

PPC

• Microsoft Advertising Documents Campaign-Level Tracking for PMAX Product URLs, PPC News Feed
• Microsoft Advertising Rolls Out Aggregate Campaign Delivery Status, PPC News Feed
• OpenAI to start showing ads on ChatGPT's free and Go tiers in India, TechCrunch
• AI Max for Search is now available, Microsoft Advertising
• October 2026 changes to the Display & Video 360 API and Structured Data Files, Google Ads Developer Blog
• Reach more customers with August’s Demand Gen Drop, Google Blog
• Short Title Attribute Now Used in Performance Max, PPC News Feed

Search Features

• Analysis: Reddit Appears in 83.9% of Google's Discussions and Forums Results, Ahrefs
• Google launches ‘Expert Intelligence’ with Play Books in Gemini Notebook, 9To5Google
• Microsoft found another unapologetic way to nag Edge users about Bing, Piunikaweb
• More controls in temporary chat, ChatGPT Release Notes

SEO

• Relax. Google won't penalize all AI generated content., DEJAN
• 4 steps to optimizing your tracked prompts, STAT Search Analytics
• Fragmentation is not reach, Jono Alderson
• Guide to Images & Visual Search, Advanced Web Ranking
• UK AI Usage in 2026: What It Means for SEO and Marketing, Grumpy Old SEO
• Google is encrypting its search result URLs. I'm still recovering all of them in one pass., Suganthan

Feedback:

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