Industry News

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.

We are seeing more Google Search ranking volatility kick off yesterday...

We are less than a week after the Google March 2025 core update finished rolling out and we are seeing some heated volatility again, maybe more heated than what we saw during the last core update.

We've seen a similar format in the Google Shopping results with a show more button to show more shopping ads but now we are seeing something similar within the main Google Search results. Google is testing overlaying a show more button on the second row of Google Shopping ads in the main search results.

Microsoft seems to be serving produt and shopping results within the Bing Copilot Answer boxes. When I first saw this I thought this was a bug, but it keeps happening and I can replicate this.

Google is testing promoting the Google Maps app in the desktop interface of Google Maps. Google is placing a little icon at the bottom left corner of the desktop interface that says "Mobile app." When you click on it, it takes you to an overlay that has links to the iOS or Android Google Maps app and a large QR to scan as well.

Last November, Google began using AI to generate review summaries in Google Maps. Well, now they seem to be showing up in the local knowledge panels on the right side of the Google Search results page.

Google's Local Service Ads advertiser console, where advertisers go to manage their LSAs, has been inaccessible for many advertisers since this morning. Google has not yet confirmed the issue but I see a number of complaints from advertisers starting at around 8 am ET.

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

Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, said it again, that Google does not have a system to recognize if a site is run by a big brand and then automatically just ranks it higher. He said on X, "but no, we don't have a brand-ranking system."

In late February, Microsoft began quietly testing its new AI Search interface and engine probably named Bing Copilot Search or maybe just Copilot Search. Well, now it seems to be more rolled out, according to Mayank Parmar at Windows Latest.