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 Search is making AI Overviews fully expanded for some queries, making it more like AI Mode and pushing the core search results down. Rajan Patel, VP of Engineering for Google Search, has confirmed that the Google Search team is still well-resourced in its fight against search spam. Microsoft Advertising is previewing a new design and usability update for its ad platform. Google posted a note that it has made enhancements to the Merchant Center's Popular products reports. Microsoft is now forcing all users to log in before using Copilot, but this currently does not apply to Copilot Search answers within Bing Search. Google is now showing shopping ads in a carousel format and singular ad formats inline within AI Mode results.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google AI Overviews Pushing Searchers Into AI Mode, Drops Show More Button
Google Search is testing pushing searchers into AI Mode from the AI Overview by default, without having to click the "Show more" button. The new AI Overview experience that Google is testing shows a much fuller AI answer, like you'd get in AI Mode, and loads the follow up "Ask anything" box by default. -
Google Confirms Search Spam Team Is Fighting & Well Resourced
Rajan Patel, VP of Engineering for Google Search, has confirmed that the Google Search team is still well-resourced in its fight against search spam. The spam team continues to update its spam algorithms, such as the latest Google August 2026 spam update, to help reduce spam in Google Search results. -
Microsoft Advertising New Updated Design Preview
Microsoft Advertising is previewing a new design and usability update for its ad platform. This update has a redesigned navigation and improved tables and layouts. This update should make managing your ad campaigns more efficient and intuitive. -
Google Merchant Center Popular Products Enhanced Coverage & Insights
Google posted a note that it has made enhancements to the Merchant Center's Popular products reports. Specifically, the coverage and insights sections were improved back in June of this year, but Google just posted about this information on this past Friday afternoon. -
Microsoft Forcing Copilot Users To Login But Not For Copilot Search Answers
Microsoft is now forcing all users to log in before using Copilot, but this currently does not apply to Copilot Search answers within Bing Search. When you try to go directly to Copilot, even by clicking on the Copilot button on Bing's home page, you are asked to sign into your account. -
Google AI Mode With Inline Shopping Carousel Ads & Single Ad Unit
Google is now showing shopping ads in a carousel format inline within AI Mode results. Plus, Google is also showing a similar ad unit at the bottom of the AI Mode results. We got a lot of ads in AI Mode now, and I guess Google is looking for more and more ways to monetize those ads. -
Growing Organic Google Signage
This Google signage, a super G logo, at the Google Sydney office caught my eye. It looks like the logo is growing organic stuff on it but it is just part of the design of the logo.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Case in point - first 14 days of a new campaign Google Shopping and PMAX; home decor products with longer purchase cycle Screenshot 1 - day after 14 day period Screenshot 2 - 30 days later, Menachem Ani on X
- Quick update - that Bing AI Perf. Report dip - seems to have recovered the 1/2 dozen sites I saw this same pattern on - all seem to have bounced back., Dan Lauer on Bluesky
- Dreambeans (Google Labs) offers even more personalization within Google, and it can retrieve a YouTube video watched a few days ago for personalization within the prompts used to build the feed. See the prompts at the end of the tweet. This Google app is a daily drop, Damien Andell on X
- Two examples of the new expanded AIO when Google's systems determine that's helpful for users (these are both YMYL queries). This can clearly cause big problems for sites that rank in the 10-blue links... You can't even see the end of the answer in my screenshots. And the 10-, Glenn Gabe on X
- Google Ads — Video Spark (Beta), Arpan Banerjee on LinkedIn
- On my test sites the only crawlers who claim to accept markdown are SEO tools. Ymmv., John Mueller on Reddit
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Google is dynamically expanding AI Overviews for some queries
- Greg Finn on 20 years of PPC: From exact match to AI Mode
- The latest jobs in search marketing
- Google says better YouTube creative can more than double ROI
- Google announces October changes to Display & Video 360 API
- More leads or better leads? Optimize for what your business needs
- Use Claude for SEO. Don’t let Claude do SEO.
- 7 ways to use AI for the SEO work that matters
Other Great Search Stories:
AI & LLMs
- Google Employees Are Already Testing the Next Gemini Flash AI Model, Business Insider
- Teamwork: When AI Becomes a Research Partner, Google Antigravity Blog
- South Korea’s ‘AI for All’ Push Gives Free Chatbot Access to Every Citizen, Wall Street Journal
- How AI chatbots and AI overviews parse foreign propaganda, NPR
- How Apple Stumbled Into AI Hardware Success With the Mac, The Information
- When AI Has Nothing On Your Company, It Describes Someone Else., Duane Forrester Decodes
- Anthropic warns infostealer malware is hijacking Claude sessions to drain usage, Bleeping Computer
- How Salesforce Is Overhauling the Way It Charges for AI, The Information
- OpenClaw 2.0, Accidentally, OpenClaw Blog
Industry & Business
- US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting, Reuters
- Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX, OpenAI
- Grading to begin for Google Data Center Campus in Botetourt County, WSLS
- 'Exemplary Performance' Earns Google Users' Attys $146.8M, Law360
- Apple’s New CEO John Ternus Takes Reins From Tim Cook, Focusing on AI, Bloomberg
Links & Content Marketing
- How to keep a crisis from defining your brand online, MarTech
- How We Use AI for Every Article Without Making AI Slop, Ahrefs
Local & Maps
- 5 Google Maps Settings Drivers Should Enable, BGR
- How To Add An Intro To Apple CarPlay Using Shortcuts, Engadget
- This former PG&E engineer is building a 'Google Maps for the underground', TechCrunch
- Lake Ontario Renamed Lake America: Google Maps Must Label Two Nations on One Lake, Tech Times
- Steady Demand Research Index - AI and GBP Stats 2026, Steady Demand
- Google Reveals How ‘Lake America’ Name Change Will Appear on Maps, Newsweek
- How the GNIS Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps, Google Blog
Other Search
- More compute flexibility in Gemini Notebook, Google Blog
PPC
- Google Changed the Rules on tCPA and tROAS. The Auction Is Still Catching Up., Amsive
- Microsoft Tightens Brazil Gambling Rules, PPC News Feed
- The Truth about Google Ads Reps (And Why to Avoid Them), MarlinSEM
- Google Tests 'For You' Label in Dynamic Remarketing Ads, PPC News Feed
- Google Ads Enhances Creative Insights With A/B Testing, PPC News Feed
- The Hidden API Problem in Google’s LSA-to-PMax Migration, HackerNoon
- Automatic and Manual Payments Renamed to Postpay and Prepay, PPC News Feed
- Google’s Bidding Change Proves Agentic Advertising Has An Agency Problem, AdExchanger
Search Features
- ChatGPT and Codex now support multiple Gmail and Google Calendar accounts, 9to5Mac
- Connect multiple Google accounts to ChatGPT, ChatGPT Release Notes
SEO
- Structured Outputs: Orchestrating AI Knowledge, Hill Web Creations
- When SEO Best Practices Backfire, SearchPilot
- A study of query fan-out in ChatGPT using brand searches, MJ Cachon
- AI Search Visibility for Ecommerce: SEO/GEO Case Study, Jenny Munn
- Buffer Teardown: SEO, AI Search, and Onboarding Analysis, Packted
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