Google launches AI Mode in 180 countries and territories
Google also added new agentic and personalization features in AI Mode.
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Barry Schwartz's latest articles
Google Preferred Sources rolling out in US and India
Initially a labs feature, Preferred Sources lets searchers pick which sites they want to see more often in the Top Stories section in Google Search.
Bing Webmaster Tools now with 24 months of data, filters by country and device, and keyword trendlines
Bing Webmaster Tools has added some useful upgrades.
Google Business Profiles Posts creation tool refreshed
Google Posts is easier to manage and use with these new user interface updates.
Danny Sullivan no longer the Google Search Liaison
Sullivan is moving into a new role within the Google Search team, after seven and a half years being with Google.
Google Search Live video goes live and AI Mode uploads, Canvas and Lens in Chrome
Google announced a number of new AI features for AI Mode and Search Live today.
Google releases AI Mode in the UK
The third country to get AI Mode in Google Search is the United Kingdom.
Google Web Guide for AI organized search results
This is a search labs experiment, opt in only now, for the web tab within Google Search.
Google says normal SEO works for ranking in AI Overviews and LLMS.txt won’t be used
Google said it won't be crawling your LLMS.txt files and just do normal SEO if you want to rank in its AI Overviews.
Google launches Google Trends API
This is a limited Alpha release, so only a small number of people will gain access to this tool.
Data providers: Google June 2025 core update was a big update
Google's June core update overall was a bigger update; where some sites hit by the previous helpful content and reviews updates some partial recoveries.
Google homepage search box rolling out AI Mode button
It seems Google is adding an AI Mode button to the Google home page. Google has been testing this for a couple months now.
Google June 2025 core update rollout is now complete
This is the second core update of 2025 and it took over 16 days to complete.
Google Search adds Gemini 2.5 Pro, AI Deep Search, and agentic local calling
Gemini 2.5 Pro powers Google’s AI Mode and Deep Search, while new agentic features let Search call local businesses to check prices.
Google Search Console adds 24-hour comparison views to performance reports
You can access these new views under the comparison section.
Google updates local ranking documentation
Are these changes signaling changes to how Google local rankings work or did Google just clarify its existing document.
Google Search Analytics API new fields for incomplete data points
Now the API will report when the data is incomplete - a useful feature when integrating the Search Console API with your toolsets.
Google Search Console adds Discussion forums search appearance filter
Google has long supported Discussion forums rich results but now you can report on those search results.
Google AI Mode available in India without sign-in
Just two weeks ago, Google launched AI Mode within Search Labs - now Google made it available to all, without sign-in.
Google Ads investigating reports of issues
The issue may result in slowness, errors and other problems within the Google Ads and Search Ads 360 consoles.
Cloudflare to block AI crawlers by default with new Pay Per Crawl initiative
Major publications have already signed up, including Ziff Davis, The Atlantic, ADWEEK, BuzzFeed, Time, O’Reilly Media, Internet Brands, and more.
Google June 2025 core update rolling out now
This is the second core update of 2025 and this update will take about 3 weeks to complete.
Google releases new Search Console Insights report
It is now also a new tab within Google Search Console.
Google Search tests “Preferred Sources” for Top Stories
Clicking on the star icon will show more news content from that site in Google Search. It is a Search Labs feature, and opt in right now.
Google AI Mode now available in India
Google's first international expansion of AI Mode goes to India, via Search Labs.
SEO pioneer and content expert Jill Whalen passes away
Whalen was known for her relentless pursuit of providing value with your content and shepherding the industry to a more ethical form of search marketing.
Google updates its URL structure best practices document with added examples
There was no change to how Google Search handles URLs with this document update.
Google launches Search Live with talk and listen within Google App
This is available for those U.S. for users enrolled in the AI Mode experiment in Labs.
Google AI Mode finally rolling out to all users in the U.S.
Google announced at I/O, three weeks ago, AI Mode will roll out to all US users and now that seems to be happening.
Google Lens, Discover, and Voice Search serving issues
Google confirmed an issue with serving content across numerous surfaces for some users. May be part of the Google Cloud outage.
Google to drop support for several rich result types to simplify the search results page
Specifically these will no longer be supported; Book Actions, Course Info, Claim Review, Estimated Salary, Learning Video, Special Announcement and Vehicle Listing.
Reddit uses AI to translate millions of pages and Google’s OK with it
Google also removed the section in their help docs on using the robots.txt to block all automatically translated pages.
Google offers buyouts to Search and Ads units
Google sent out an internal email offering a "voluntary exit program" to U.S. based employees, according to reports.
Google adds loyalty programs support to organization structured data
This will enable you to show your special membership pricing in Google Search, espesially if you don't use Merchant Center to send Google this data.
Bug with Google Search Console Discover performance report
If you noticed your Discover report showing a huge drop in impressions and clicks, you are not alone - it seems like a bug.
Google updates event and recipe structured data
Google removed the online event properties, added new examples and also said recipe image markup doesn't influence which image is chosen.
Google Ads API v20 adds more negative keywords, DemandGen upgrades and more
To use some of the v20 features, you must upgrade your client libraries and client code, Google explained.
Google updated its ranking algorithms for explicit videos and explicit content
Google has released new best practices, video bytes and what to do if your site was flagged incorrectly, as well.
To show in Google AI Mode & AI Overviews, your page must be indexed
But being indexed, does not guarantee your pages will show within these AI results.
Google Lens coming to YouTube Shorts
Google said that during the beta period, there won't be any ads.