Friday, September 18, 2026

Google is testing a 'Dive deeper' button in Discover to let users explore video topics more deeply.

Google is testing a 'Dive deeper' feature in Discover that surfaces AI-generated topic summaries with links to articles rather than sending users directly to publisher content.

Google updated its EEA search result units to include local business queries alongside directories and direct providers.

A Semrush survey found that 81% of shoppers using chatbots have rejected purchases based on AI guidance, creating a new challenge for brands beyond traditional search visibility.

Cloudflare launched Bot Preference Sync, allowing sites to set AI crawler access policies by category rather than managing individual crawlers in robots.txt.

Semrush published 16 ready-to-use MCP prompts for Claude and ChatGPT to streamline keyword research, competitor analysis, content work, and reporting.

Google Search experienced unusual ranking spikes this week while the company released remedies for its ad tech monopoly ruling and launched an AI publisher payment pilot.

Google, Cloudflare, and Microsoft are each testing different models for compensating publishers when AI systems use their content.

Google appears to have strengthened its ability to block AI scrapers, search scrapers, and third-party tracking tools starting around mid-September.

Google is expanding where it displays its AI Mode button by adding it to the search bar on search results pages, not just the homepage.

Bing has started requiring some users to complete human verification before displaying search results, mirroring a practice Google already enforces.

John Mueller addressed how cross-domain canonicals can cause de-indexing and how publishers should monitor for such issues.

Google updated its policies to require ecommerce sites to explicitly label adult products in their product feeds and structured markup.

Google has removed free product listings and carousel formats from Search in the European Economic Area as mandated by the Digital Markets Act.

Google expanded its aggregator and supplier search units to now support local business queries.