Google is testing a new “Channels” slider that lets you adjust how much you prioritize conversions from your Google Ads channels, such as Google Search, Google Partners, Discover, Maps, YouTube, the Display Network and Gmail.

Google Ads has placed Customer Lifecycle Optimization directly within the conversion goals section of the Google Ads platform.

Microsoft Bing is testing a new “Shorts” tab in the search menu on Bing Search. This should filter the results by short videos across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and so on. The tab is called “Shorts” and looks like a video play icon in vertical format.

Google seems to be showing fewer and fewer PDF files, and when it does show PDF files, it seems not to show them from some pretty important sites, like IRS.gov, New York State, and some others. But in some cases we are seeing Google show PDF documents, without you having to explicitly filter for PDF […]

Google Ads is testing loading the sponsored results in the mobile search results interface with an animation. It shows that Gemini is also involved by saying, “Evaluating sponsored results” and has a Google and Gemini logo as the ads load in.

Google’s John Mueller said on Bluesky that there is nothing special for one to do for generative AI responses within Google Search. He wrote, “from our POV there’s nothing really special you need to do for generative AI responses in search.”

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

Google sent out emails to some advertisers notifying them that starting October 1st, Google Local Service Ads will charge for some missed and subsequent calls over the platform. “On October 01, 2026, we are updating how and when you are charged for call leads originating from Local Services Ads,” the email wrote.

Google seems to be showing AI Overviews at the top of the search results page when you specifically search for stock price queries – such as for [GOOG stock] or [MSFT stock] and so on. I was able to replicate this myself and it is just weird to show the AI Overview at the top […]

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 fixed two bugs, the favicon bug and the crawl stats bug in Search Console…

Google has updated the Google Ads help document for About Maximize conversion value bidding with a number of changes. The change that stood out the most was Google lowering the conversion cycles requirement from three cycles to one or two conversion cycles.

Google sent out an email to Google Merchant Center advertisers and users that the minimum size for product images is going up to 500 x 500 pixels starting on January 31, 2027. Google recommends at least 1500×1500 pixels or above, but the minimum size requirement is 500×500, which, in my opinion, is way too small.

Google is aware of and in the process of addressing an issue where reviews are missing after a Google Business Profile gets reinstated after it was suspended. Google is reportedly actively working on a resolution but there is no estimated time for when that resolution will take place.

Typically, when Google highlights phrases in a featured snippet or AI Overview within Google Search, the highlighter color is blue. We’ve seen Google test other colors before, but here is a new one – a pink highlight.

Google has made some minor updates to the canonicalization help documents including the What is canonicalization and Fix canonicalization issues. I am not sure if anything fundamentally is different on the page outside of making it easier to understand and follow what the page is explaining, which is why I guess Google did not document […]