Google Ads announced it is expanding both Smart Bidding Exploration and budget pacing. Smart Bidding Exploration beta for Performance Max with product feeds and Shopping campaigns will launch in few weeks and budget pacing in Search and Shopping campaigns is rolling out in the coming months.

Many of the third-party tracking tools, not all, but many, are showing some heated volatility this morning around Google Search’s ranking positions. I am also seeing some early chatter within the SEO industry about movement in their rankings. It is possible that there may have been an unconfirmed Google update in the past 24-hours or […]

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. We are seeing new Google search ranking volatility heat up today, it seems weird…

This week in search we covered more heated Google ranking volatility this morning, it seems big – so stay tuned. We also covered how Google spoke about how they try to isolate their AI systems because…

Google sent out emails to advertisers that starting July 15, 2026 the Google Ads system will require the use of passkeys for certain sensitive actions. This is likely due to the spike in Google Ads hijacks over the past year or so.

Microsoft Advertising custom columns now support all conversion metrics – instead of just specific conversion metrics. This gives advertisers more flexibility on tracking campaign performance.

Google AdSense (and Ad Manager) will drop the browser back button trigger for vignette ads additional triggers due to the new Google search penalty for back button hijacking. Google AdSense will drop it on June 15, 2026, the day the search penalty goes into effect.

Google proposed a number of changes to the EU in order to avoid fines from the European Union. One of those changes is around the site reputation abuse policy, which the EU watchdog said directly impacts a common and legitimate way for publishers to monetize their websites and content.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

Google sent out emails notifying applicable advertisers that they will default call recording to Yes, to always record calls, if you don’t pick an option yourself. Google wrote, “Starting July 01, 2026, if you haven’t made a selection for your “Call recording” setting, it will automatically default to “Yes”.”

Google will be bringing content and titles related exclusions to the account level to Google Ads AI Max later this year. It will give you the ability to always exclude any other content you don’t want to use in your ads at the account level, Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said on LinkedIn.

It is 2026 and finally Bing Places for Business is finally mobile friendly. Microsoft Bing sent me an email letting me know of this update, saying, “We’re excited to share that Bing Places for Business now offers a mobile-responsive experience, making it easier to view, update, and manage your business profile from any device-desktop, tablet, […]

The folks over at Microsoft Bing put together a blog post explaining the differences between indexing for Search versus indexing for Grounding (AI responses) and the differences. Krishna Madhavan, Knut Risvik, Meenaz Merchant from Microsoft wrote, “Indexing for grounded AI answers is not a reinvention of search ‘” it is a major evolution of it. […]