Industry News

We had more of the same Google ranking volatility but this time...

Google announced a bunch of new AI Search features including search ads finally rolling out to AI Overviews, the new link format rolling out, AI-organized search results, new AI shopping features, Google Lens and more.

Microsoft is testing placing a Bing button on the Bing Search home page. This is both under the search box and then as you start to type, it is in the bottom of the expanded autocomplete drop-down box.

Google Ads is testing variations of its Click-To WhatsApp Messages feature. This feature is only available in select regions, but it allows you to enable searchers to click on a "send message on WhatsApp" button. Google is testing various styles of that button.

Google is reportedly testing showing Local Service Ads (LSAs) without a photo of an attorney or attornies. Instead, Google can show a photo from its business profile or law firm and not of its attornies.

Google is testing another variation of "from the web" sections in its search results. This one is more for local queries, where Google shows a carousel of cards snippets titled "From the web." They can come up for [near me] types of queries but I am not able to replicate this.

Google seems to be testing showing videos, videos from YouTube, in the image carousels within the knowledge panels. Generally, Google will only show images in this carousel but now Google is showing playable videos from YouTube.

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

Surprise, surprise, the heated Google Search ranking volatility has continued into October. This is the longest ongoing period of heated Google Search ranking volatility we had ever recorded according to data provided by me from Semrush and it continues on through October 2nd.

Microsoft announced a new streamlined experience below Copilot's organic response and two new capabilities, diagnostics and performance snapshot. Microsoft sent a low resolution screenshot of how the ads in the Copilot results will appear.