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

OpenAI announced it is expanding its ChatGPT Ads service and product to 31 European countries. These countries include Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Austria.

Google Trends has added two new features this morning, explore maps and regional breakdown. Google said it “designed new interactive maps for clearer data storytelling…

Google seems to be showing the video carousel within Google Search a lot less often. Semrush had the video carousel showing up in Google Search at just over 30% of queries but now it is under 20% of the time. Some other data shows it dropping even worse.

Google Ads is now letting you bid more using the customer retention option named “Loyalty program members.” This gives you the option to (a) Bid higher for loyalty program members and (b) Show member benefits to loyalty program members in eligible countries.

Google seems to be testing a revamped and updated Q&A feature for Google Business Profiles (GBP). There is an added Q&A button in the GBP dashboard in Google Search and a flow that prompts you with yes or no responses for questions tailored to your business.

Google’s John Mueller reiterated what Google has said numerous times already, that Google does not wait to announce the update. When Google begins rolling out the search update, whether a core or spam update, it will announce it shortly after it starts. Google does not wait a day or two to announce the update is […]

Google has just announced the release of the August 2026 spam update and said it should only take a few days to roll out. This is a global update and is expected to impact all languages. This only impacts sites that spam, but with any update, there may be collateral damage.

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

Google is dropping support for Euro-denominated check payments for AdSense publishers after August 7, 2026. Google wrote this as a note in this document saying, “Effective August 7, 2026, Google will no longer support Euro-denominated check payments. If you’re receiving payments via USD-denominated checks, you can continue to do so.”

Gary Illyes from Google said Google Search will eventually support the new HTTP QUERY method. He said as the “ecosystem catches up” Google will then support the HTTP QUERY method.

As expected, Google is now enabling those with Google Search Profiles to edit their handle, their short name. This is available by going to your Google Search Profile, click Edit profile and then next to your @handle, click Edit.

Google is testing underlining and maybe hyperlinking the word in the related searches for section of the search results. Normally, that section is not underlined, but for some reason, Google is testing underlining the query.

Sometimes when you look at the ads within OpenAI’s ChatGPT, you might notice an ad from one advertiser first loads and then it quickly blinks and loads a different advertiser. I suspect this is a bit of a deficiency with the ad server, but I am not certain.