Industry News

Google is testing using Gemini to generate the Things To Know section using AI. Yes, AI-generated Things to know results in Google Search that look and feel like AI Overviews. This also seems to be in the What People Are Saying section too.

Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, reportedly held a meeting for its employees where he spoke about the upcoming challenges in 2025 and how important it is for Google to ship AI products fast. One line that really stood out for me is "Scaling Gemini on the consumer side will be our biggest focus next year," Pichai later added.

Google often shows images in the knowledge panels within the Google Search results, but when you click on them, they often load smaller in an overlay window. It seems Google is testing (or it is a bug) showing the image full screen.

Google is now testing titled sponsored search ads in the Google Search results with "Find related products & services." And as you guessed it, those buttons lead to more search results with more ads to click on.

I am not sure I'd call this new, because I believe I've seen this numerous times before, but Google has two AI Overview rendering animations. One for when you are not logged into Search Labs and the other for when you are just using normal Google Search with normal AI Overviews.

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

Google's December 2024 spam update was completed yesterday at 2pm ET, but it had a busy and volatile week, burning through Christmas and the week. Google rolled out new AI-organized search results for restaurants. Google Ads is testing...

Google Search is testing showing a "nearby stores" section that has an embedded map with a "more options" button that leads to a local pack. This is instead of showing the local pack immediately, instead you need to click on the "more options" button to have Google load the local pack.

I always find it funny how I have so much to write about, day in and day out, on the topic of SEO and search marketing. I mean, fundamentally SEO hasn't really changed much over the years, but maybe the details have...

Google is testing showing a section under the Local Service Ads for call out extensions or other extensions. This increases the visibility of these already super-visible Local Service Ads.