Daily Search Forum Recap: February 25, 2025

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.

Chegg sued Google over AI Overviews hurting traffic and revenue. Microsoft Bing is testing Copilot Search. Google crawlers spike for some sites after some IP changes. Google is testing AI-generated answers opened by default. Google Search Console'a API is delayed. Google Merchant Center is testing a Physical Stores tab.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Microsoft Bing Testing Copilot Search
  Microsoft seems to be testing a more fully AI-powered search engine, which may be named Copilot Search. Copilot is the name of Microsoft's AI features, formerly known as Bing Chat.
• Google Sued Over AI Overviews For Hurting Traffic & Revenue
  18 year old, publicly traded education technology company, Chegg, has sued Google over its AI Overviews and how it has hurt their traffic and revenue. Chegg has "filed a complaint against Google, which has unjustly retained traffic that has historically come to Chegg, impacting our acquisitions, revenue and employees," said Nathan Schultz, CEO of Chegg.
• Google Crawler Update Causing Spikes In Crawling For Some
  Some sites, hosted on some CDNs (content delivery networks), are experiencing a big spike in server response times for crawling, while seeing a drop in total crawl requests. So technically, the crawling has dropped but Google is taking much longer to crawl a lot less.
• Google Tests AI-Generated Answer Results Open By Default
  Google is testing opening the normally closed/collapsed AI Answer box. Meaning, normally you need to manually tap to expand the answer, here Google is testing opening these boxes by default, without you needing to click expand.
• Google Search Console API Is Delayed
  The Google Search Console API has been delayed for the past several days. Data is days behind the web interface and causing issued for those who use Looker Studio, Big Query and other solutions to see the Search Console data when accessed through the API.
• Google Merchant Center Next Physical Stores Section
  Google seems to have added, for some merchants, a new section named Physical Stores to the Google Merchant Center Next console. In this section is random data from within the store's Google Business Profiles listing.
• Google Pixel Basketball Hoop & Court
  Here is a photo from the Google San Francisco office where they had some Pixel event. You can see there is a custom Google Pixel basketball hoop on a decked out basketball court.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Bing tests work menu filter, Sachin Patel on X
• This is a pretty cool. Solve problems people have. Autocomplete in Search works by aggregating real searches that happen on Google and showing common and trending ones relevant to the characters that are entered (also related to your lo, Rajan Patel on X
• Google no longer shows reviews on the Business Profiles of some types of schools in the UK. 1/3, Stefan Somborac on X
• Google testing horizontal and vertical bars at product sponsored carousal., Khushal Bherwani on X
• New Google Tag Manager feature, Adriaan Dekker on LinkedIn
• Oh good, Google Store is now publishing health content and outranking MayoClinic, ClevelandClinic, Healthline, and other health websites on weight loss topics. What could go wrong. Have you seen this before?, Matt Smith on X
• Some pages are recrawled / reprocessed multiple times a day, some pages are crawled once every half year. I think "weeks / months" is a reasonable middle to cover a bulk of an average site, but you know how they say in SEO ..., John Mueller on Bluesky

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google sued by Chegg over AI Overviews hurting traffic and revenue
• Microsoft Bing testing Copilot Search
• X launches AI-powered tools that create ads, analyze campaigns
• MTA vs. MMM: Which marketing attribution model is right for you?
• Top 4 PPC mistakes and how to fix them
• Optimizing for AI search: Why classic SEO principles still apply

Other Great Search Stories:

Industry & Business

• Apple Says It Will Add 20,000 Jobs, Spend $500 Billion, Produce AI Servers in US, Bloomberg
• Apple will spend more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, Apple
• Google Store Santa Monica opening March 7, 9to5Google
• Microsoft Cancels Leases for AI Data Centers, Analyst Says, Bloomberg
• South Africa Penalizes Google, Meta for Anti-Competitive Moves, Bloomberg
• EU Court Backs Italian Antitrust Ruling on Google’s Android Auto Platform, Wall Street Journal

Links & Content Marketing

• 7 (New) Laws for Content Marketing Success, Content Marketing Institute
• Search Intent: Aligning Content with What Users Are Really Searching For, Search Engine World

Local & Maps

• Android Auto 13.8 update now rolling out, 9to5Google
• Android Auto reboot issue was caused by developer settings, 9to5Google
• Google says it's updating Canadian parks listed as state parks in its search and maps, CBC News
• Setting Up Multi-Location Google Business Profiles, Online Ownership

Mobile & Voice

• 6 of the biggest updates for Gemini on Pixel, Google Blog
• Listen to an early preview of the new voices for Google Search's AI Mode (APK teardown), Android Authority
• New ‘Hey Gemini’ hotword and ‘Hey Google’ might coexist together, 9to5Google
• Siri in iOS 18.4 is getting worse before it gets better, AppleInsider

SEO

• Branded search for news SEO, SEO For Journalism
• How Can I Educate My Clients on Local SEO to Build Trust and Show Value?, BrightLocal
• How To Create (Actually Useful) Custom GPTs for Marketing Automation, Seer Interactive
• Robots Refresher: introducing a new series, Google Search Central Blog
• SEO is dead and technical SEO is useless, right?, SEM King
• SEO product manager role is a future of SEO, Ivan Palii
• Sometimes SEO Isn't The Answer, Believe It Or Not!, Nikki Pilkington

PPC

• From hype to execution: Why you need a conversational AI marketing plan now, Microsoft Advertising
• Google Now Serving RSA Headlines as Sitelinks, Cypress North
• Why You Should Use Conversion Values in Google Ads (+How To Do It!), WordStream

Other Search

• Perplexity teases a web browser called Comet, TechCrunch
• There Is No AI Revolution, Edward Zitron

Feedback:

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