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 some spooky Halloween Google search ranking volatility. OpenAI is rolling out Search in ChatGPT...

Google is testing more local search features and sections including a section in the local finder named "Discover more places" and a local search box in web search named "Explore places nearby."

This week, we covered that Google told creators that a new search ranking update is coming fairly soon, but you shouldn't expect to recover with this update. Google is now downgrading the rankings of content that is starkly different from the main content of the site. Google said again that it is doubtful...

Microsoft seems to be testing a new design for its local knowledge panel or local listing for a specific brand. This new design has a more card-like interface, showing company photos and information, reviews from third party sites, a map, and other details.

After beta testing SearchGPT for a few months, OpenAI is now rolling out Search within ChatGPT for ChatGPT Plus and Team users, which will come to free users in the future. The first thing most of us will look at are the citations, links, will Search in ChatGPT drive searchers to our sites.

Google added a number of AI, Gemini-powered, features to Google Maps including new search features, review summaries for place listings and a way to ask about a specific business listing where AI will give you answers.

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

Google is rolling out new sales and leads conversion reports in the Google Ads advertiser console. These reports are under the Goals section, then Conversions and then Summary tab and there are then toggles to see sales versus leads.

Google seems to be showing trust scores for some website entities in the knowledge panel box. It can show a trust score from APIVoid and ScamAdviser. I can replicate it for some websites but not for most.

Google can show a restaurant's menu right at the top of the search results for a search on that restaurant's brand name. It comes up in this "menu highlights" carousel and showcases some of the items on that restaurant's menu.

Google is testing replacing the question and answer box for Google Business Profile listings with a title that reads, "Lear something specific." At least I think it is the same functionality as the question and answer box.

Google Ads has been rolling out its conversational ad experience and more and more advertisers has been seeing the Google Ads chat feature come up. This Google Ads AI Chat can sometimes be at a loss for words. Thomas Eccel posted a screenshot of the Google Ads AI Chat bot responding with nothing, no words, just emptiness.

Microsoft reported its first quarter 2025 earnings and it showed that its search and advertising revenue was up 18%. The last quarter it was up 19%, but as I noted then, the last time it was up over 19% in a quarter before last quarter was 10 quarterly earning reports ago, in Q3 2022.

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 held that Web Creator summit yesterday at the GooglePlex, where Google told victims of previous search ranking updates including the September 2023 helpful content update, that a new search ranking update is coming fairly or very soon, but if they were hit by the helpful content update, they should not expect to recover and they likely should move on to new things.

Google / Alphabet reported its Q3 2024 earnings last night, where its ad revenue hit $65.85 billion, up 10% from last year's quarter of $59.65 billion. Google's revenue was up 15% with $88.3 billion and its profit was up 33% to $26.3B. Search revenue specifically was up 12% to $49.39 billion.