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 said Search Console position reporting may change as Search, AI Mode, AI Overviews…

Google has announced a number of updates to Google Merchant Center including the AI performance insights generally available, it has simplified Universal Commerce Protocol integration, and Google highlighted how using conversational and video attributes can help.

Google is now testing linking the product and shopping results within Google Search directly to the merchant or retailer website. This is instead of Google opening the side panel with more details about the product.

Google posted another new help document on multi-source conversions (beta). Last month, Google reportedly renamed conversions with multiple data sources to multi-source conversions, but now there is this new help document as well.

Google Image Search lets you save images to collections and folders. Well, now Google will suggest new folders or collections using AI – it says “suggested by AI” with a Gemini icon over a folder.

Microsoft Bing is testing adding product/shopping related filters on the left sidebar of the search results. This makes the Bing all search tab look more like Google’s all tab, when you search for product or shopping related queries.

Google Ads is rolling out an update to the Spend benchmarks report that now shows you how your spend is comparable to businesses like yours. In short, it shows you if you are spending more, less or the same as your competitors on Google Ads.

Google’s John Mueller said that he expects the position and impression tracking for AI Mode, AI Overviews and Google Search to “evolve over time” as Google Search, AI Mode and AI Overviews “evolve too,” he wrote.

Google Search Live is now powered by Google’s latest AI model, Gemini 3.8 Live. Search Live has been around for a couple years now, both in audio only format and then video format. Search Live was released globally in March, and before that, it removed the opt-in requirements.

Google announced new ad metrics that are being tested within the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX). These metrics include Ad Count, Ad Density, Ad Weight (Network) and Ad Weight (CPU).

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. I am seeing signs of a big update lurking with Google Search…

Google is testing a text-based link format for ads within AI Mode. So the ads look like normal AI Mode responses, with normal looking text links with anchor text, but they are labeled as “Sponsored” above the AI-generated response.

Google has posted the date of when the Google Ads bidding update, the target-based bid strategies rolled out, completed globally. It started on yes, August 17, 2026 and completed on August 27, 2026.

Google Ads added a new option within your Performance Max campaigns to select “Where should people go after clicking your ads?” The two available options for that question are (1) Your website and (2) Google Business Profile (optimized for ads).

Google Search seems to be heating up this morning, I am seeing a huge spike in chatter in the past few hours and the tools may be starting to heat up as well. We will know more tomorrow but I am suspecting we are seeing the start of a Google update, hopefully one Google will […]