Google Search had some issues handling square brackets punctuation marks (i.e. [ ]) within URLs. John Mueller from Google responded to former Googler, Vanessa Fox, saying that he is “seeing some of the issues internally that came up with these kinds of characters in the URL.”

Microsoft seems to be testing not showing sitelinks under the main Bing search result snippets. I am honestly not sure if this is new but I was able to replicate Bing showing sitelinks for the first search result snippet in one browser and for the same query, it not showing the sitelinks.

Google is testing a new way to verify your Google Business Profiles, the method is by uploading a photo of your government ID. This is in addition ot the phone/text, email, live video call or snail mail verification methods.

Google is testing removing the HR, thematic line break or horizontal rule line, that is found under the search tabs under the search box in the search results page.

Google Business Profiles review appeals are delayed again. Dan Boguslavsky from the Google team posted about the delay last Friday saying, “Due to high volume of review related appeals, processing times are currently extended.”

Google seems to have moved the Google Posts section of a local knowledge panel higher up on the page. In 2018, Google moved the Google Posts section to the bottom of the local panel. Now it seems Google is moving it back up.

Google confirmed it will now show ads in AI Mode results with Personal Intelligence enabled. Back in March, Google said AI Mode with Personal Intelligence turned on would be ad-free, but that is now changing.

Google is testing letting users view and modify their preferred sources list directly from within the AI Mode citations sidebar. There is a new button named “Source preferences” and when you click on it, it opens up your preferred sources list where you can add or remove preferred sources.

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

Here is something new for you – the Is it new? AI scan tool. It is a feature I thought would be neat to build, where instead of you reaching out to me to see if this or that is a new Google, Bing, etc search feature, you can upload a screenshot, add some descriptive […]

OpenAI announced a number of product updates to ChatGPT Ads late Friday. These updates include new visual ad formats, a redesigned conversions page, performance emails, new measurement partners and a bug reporting / product feedback system.

Google Ads posted a message to Local Service Ads advertisers saying that featured professionals will no longer show on your ads, and headshots will be optional and won’t impact ad serving.

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

Google Ads will allow some advertisers to apply for certification for the category of online gambling. This started this month, October 2026, and will gradually be available to some advertisers in Google Ads.