Category Archives: computers

All things computers/servers…

Google Ads Text Disclaimer Override Pinned Descriptions Position One

Google Ads is testing a new text disclaimer feature that lets you set the text disclaimer to override descriptions pinned to position 1. This is labeled as “new” under where you add text disclaimers in the Google Ads interface.

Handle Swapping Coming To Google Search Profiles

Google is currently beta testing a new Search Profiles feature named Handle Swapping. Handle Swapping allows you to switch your handle to any of your linked verified platforms within Google. Some sources say it’s launching very soon.

August 2026 Google Webmaster Report

Here is the big Google Webmaster Report for August 2026, including of course the ongoing Google search ranking volatility; we saw volatility on…

Google Ads Tests Anchor Text Hyperlinks In Ad Descriptions

Google is testing adding keyword-rich anchor text hyperlinks to the ad descriptions in the sponsored results within Google Search. Clicking on the link takes you to the same ad landing page URL as it would if you clicked on the main title link in the ad.

Google Ads Ad Preview & Diagnosis Captcha Bug

The Google Ads Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool, where you can preview your ads in the Google Search results, within the Google Ads interface is broken. It loads a CAPTCHA box and doesn’t let you remove the CAPTCHA from being displayed. So you cannot use the tool to preview your Google Ads.

Daily Search Forum Recap: August 3, 2026

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 Google Search ranking volatility starting on August 1st and kicking up today…

Google Search Tests Sign In To Verify Searches Are Human (Not Captcha)

Google Search is testing asking searchers to sign in to verify they are humans and not bots conducting the searches. I don’t think Google has done this before, geneally when Google tries to verify human versus bot activity, Google will serve a captcha and has done so for many years. But this test is asking […]

Google Trends Lets You Compare 220% More Search Terms

Google Trends now lets you compare up to 400 search terms across 8 groups of terms and up to 50 terms in each group. Previously, it was 125 search terms across 5 groups of terms and up to 25 terms in each group. That is a 220% increase, if my math is correct.

Google Search Ranking Volatility Hits August 1st & Heats Up Into August 3rd

I am seeing signs of another Google Search ranking update with a lot of volatility hitting this past weekend again. This one started on Saturday, August 1st, and has continued thus far through today, August 3rd. Both the third-party tracking tools are showing a spike and there is chatter within the SEO community about a […]

Google Business Profiles Protect From Fraudulent Calls and Texts Updated

The Google Business Profile help page on Help protect against fraudulent calls and texts has been updated. It now includes how to identify legitimate texts over WhatsApp and RCS messages, it also updated a lot of the examples of the types of calls and messages you get, plus more.

Bing Webmaster Tools Page & Query Level Filtering Coming To Reports

Microsoft has confirmed it is working on bringing filtering capabilities to the Bing Webmaster Tools performance reports. Right now, there is no way to add a filter for any of the metrics in the report. Of course, you can download the data and do what you want with it, but there is no native filter […]

Google Search Filter By Recent Broken

If you try to filter you Google Search or Google News tab results by the recent search tools option, it simply won’t work. If you try to select the “Tools” and then “Recent” options, including the past hour option, it won’t listen to that filter and it won’t filter the content by the last hour.

This month in security with Tony Anscombe – July 2026 edition

OpenAI models going rogue, the first documented agentic ransomware operation, and an emergent AI-driven supply chain threat made for a packed July roundup

Beyond the screenshot: Why you should verify what you see

The screenshot may look convincing, but it doesn’t necessarily prove that the payment, booking or conversation is genuine

Microsoft Ads Predictive Matching Moving To Search Term Matching

Microsoft Advertising is moving its Predictive Matching targeting option to Search term matching within AI Max. Microsoft added a note to various help document pages about the change, it says: