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. The Google September spam update had a big impact this weekend…

The first stage of the Google September 2026 Spam update seems to have been felt in a big way starting Friday, September 25th, with even more movement on Saturday, September 26th and then ending on Sunday, September 27th. There is more to come, since we are only five days into the two-week rollout.

A couple of weeks ago, Google seemed to accidentally publish its Web Search Service API documentation, then pulled it down last week. Google doesn’t offer a public Web Search Service API, so we really can’t access it, but I assume it does have some partners with access, like Apple.

Google has completely revamped the Google Merchant Center API help document page. It was previously named “API access to Merchant Center” and was renamed to “Google Merchant Center API.” Plus, the content on the page has been completely rewritten and expanded.

Google seems to have removed the Follow button from the desktop search results page, but it is still on the mobile search results page. The follow button lets you quickly follow a Search profile for the individual or brand you searched for.

Google has updated several Google Merchant Center policy documents late last week. The documents include Products that enable dishonest behavior, Dangerous products, Counterfeit products, Sexual content, Editorial & professional requirements, the overarching Shopping ads policies overview and probably more.

Google is testing replacing the “Show more” button under the AI Overviews with a “Loading…” button. Also, earlier this year, Google tested “Enter AI Mode” for the button text but that obviously did not stick.

Google continues to test variations of designs and user experiences for Sitelinks within its search results. The new design spotted has the Sitelinks listed line by line, with a horizontal line across the left side of the mobile search result snippet.

Today is Google’s 28th birthday and Google has a special Google Doodle to celebrate. The Doodle takes you back in time to an early Google logo. Plus, when you click on the Doodle, you are taken into AI Mode where you can take “a fun trivia quiz about Google’s company lore, historical quirks, and birthday […]

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 has released a new algorithm update, not a core update, but a spam update and this spam update will take two weeks…

This week, Google announced yet another spam update, the fourth of the year, the September 2026 Google spam update. Prior to that, we reported on more Google Search ranking volatility. Google Search Console released multimodal search filters…

As you know, Google has thousands of quality raters they use to help test and improve the search results and AI results. OpenAI does the same thing, with AI trainers according to a report by 404 Media.

Google seems to have made a change in which phone number they use for tracking calls, even when you tell Google to use the Google Ads number, it is still using the Google Business Profiles phone number. I am told this is a confirmed change and Google still has not changed it back, and it […]

Google updated two of its Google Posts help documents to allow phone numbers in Google Posts only if they are verified contact information, but if it is unverified, it is not allowed.