Category Archives: computers

All things computers/servers…

Further Exploration Found In The Wild Within Google AI Overviews

Back in early May, Google announced five new ways to explore the web with generative AI in Google Search. One was a feature that was titled “Further Exploration” at the bottom of the AI Overview within Google Search. Well, now it seems some are seeing this feature in the wild.

Google & YouTube Shopify App Sync May Cause Mess After August 18th

Those of you who use the Google and YouTube Shopify app to sync your products automatically from Shopify to Google Merchant Center may have a huge headache to deal with after August 18, 2026. The rumor is that you will need to reinstall the app by this date and when you do this, every product […]

Google: Cloudflare Content Signals Robots.txt Directive Has No Effects

John Mueller from Google said that the new Content Signals robots.txt directive invented by Cloudflare last year has “no effects whatsoever for any crawler or LLM.” He added that it “just adds bloat and future maintenance to your robots.txt file.” As far as he knows, he said, none of the crawlers or LLMs use the […]

Cyber readiness for SMBs: Getting the basics right

AI is changing cybercrime, but SMB cyber readiness still largely depends on closing the familiar gaps

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 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. Google Local reviews are disappearing from many businesses…

Google Business Profile Restrictions & Penalties Are Additive

Google will add to existing penalties or restrictions on your Google Business Profiles if you continue to violate the same policy over and over again. The initial restriction might be 30 days but then if you are caught doing the same thing, Google can make that restriction twice as long.

Google Tests New Local Places Layout Design

Google is testing updating the design for the local pack and places listings within Google Search. The map was moved to the top, instead of on the right and the action buttons are also moved and changed. I am not sure which version I like more, but here is what changed.

Google Page Indexing Report Has Been Fixed & Updated

Google has fixed the page indexing report within Google Search Console after it was struck and delayed for over three weeks. It was literally just fixed within minutes of this story going live, as I continuously check the report like an unwell-OCD man.

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June Spam Update Done, Fraud DMCA Takedowns Breaks Google, Costly Google Ad Budget Changes & More

This week, I covered that Google’s June 2026 spam update completed last Friday afternoon. Fraudulent DMCA takedown requests are breaking Google Search and no one seems to be doing anything. Google AI Mode improved links…

Google Local Reviews Go Missing For Many Businesses

Google reviews seem to be disappearing from Google Business Profile local listings. In the past few days or so there has been an influx of complaints in the Google Business Profile forums. I have not seen Google respond to the complaints, but either there is a bug or a change to the review policy that […]

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 2, 2026

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

Google Ads Updates All Campaigns Drop Down

Google has reportedly updated the Google Ads “All Campaigns” drop-down selection box to be from the center of the screen to the top-left corner and added the full campaign hierarchy in an expandable view.

Google Sends Searchers To Site-Hosted AMP Pages Instead Of Cached Page

Google updated how it handles sending searchers to AMP pages within Google Search. Now Google will send searchers directly to publisher-hosted AMP pages instead of the cached pages displayed in an AMP viewer. Google said this was done because it “simplifies and reduces maintenance efforts for publishers who are creating AMP content.”

Google Ads Makes Changes To Bidding For Campaigns Limited By Budget

Google Ads, as we covered earlier, made changes to Target CPA & Target ROAS. But now, Google sent out an email about even more changes starting on August 17, 2026 around bidding for campaigns limited by budget. It seems like this bidding update will end up costing advertisers even more money.

July 2026 Google Webmaster Report

Here is the monthly Google Webmaster report, where I summarize the major organic Google Search news and SEO topics from the past month. The big news was the Google June 2026 spam update, which took only two days to roll out and felt like it started earlier and was substantial.