Jordi Ribas, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Search and AI, posted a comparison of Microsoft’s Copilot to Google’s AI Mode on LinkedIn. He said, “They’re both excellent AI search products but we’re taking a different approach for some query segments.”

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

Google posted a new policy on Friday, July 18, 2025, that immediately prohibits advertising of Daily Fantasy Sports on Google Ads within California. This is based on a new law by the California attorney general that says daily fantasy is illegal in the state.

Google Ads is adding a tips icon in the Optimization Score column within the Google Ads reporting. Clicking on the icon will bring up tips and recommendations that Google thinks will help improve your campaign optimization scores.

After months of testing, it seems Google is rolling out a button for AI Mode directly in the search box on Google’s home page – on Google.com. This seems like a big deal to me, and goes along with AI Mode being the first tab in the main search results.

Google Ads is letting some advertisers add negative keyword lists to their Performance Max campaigns. This is despite Google’s very own help documentation specifically saying, “Negative keyword lists aren’t available to use in your Performance Max campaigns.”

Google is testing moving the “Ask” button to one of the main buttons on some Google local listings. I cannot replicate this but the Ask button in this example below comes right after the directions and start buttons, and before the call button.

Google told us the June 2025 core update completed early on Thursday, July 17th, but now, four days later, we are still seeing incredibly heated volatility, even through today. The tools and community are still experiencing significant ranking movement and instability, even today.