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 Image Search turned 25 years old and with that, Google revamped its simple clean image search home page with an image gallery. Google AI Overviews will create AI images for its responses. Google confirmed it is testing hiding the sponsored products toggle. Google's John Mueller commented on A/B testing and Google Search. Google expanded shopping ads and free product listings to more countries and banned product ads for Prediction markets in Michigan and New York. ChatGPT Ads now supports location and audience exclusions.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google Image Search Home Page Goes From Simple Search Box To Gallery
Google Image Search turned 25 years old and to celebrate, Google revamped the Google Image Search home page. Instead of a clean image search box, Google added an image gallery and placed a search bar at the top of the page. -
AI Image Generation Now Within Google AI Overviews
Google AI Overviews can now generate AI images based on your questions, directly in the AI Overview response in Google Search. Google wrote, "To help bring those unique ideas to life, we’re bringing image generation directly into AI Overviews in Search." -
ChatGPT Ads Get Location & Audience Exclusion Controls
ChatGPT Ads Manager added the ability to exclude your ads from showing based on geo-location and/or audience lists. -
Google Confirms Testing Hide Sponsored Products In Shopping Results
Google has confirmed that it is testing the hide and show sponsored results within the Google Shopping search results interface. Google launched the hide/show sponsored results in the main search results last October and is now testing this feature within Google Shopping. -
Google: Significant Differences With A/B Tests Can Show In Search Results
Google's John Mueller noted that if your A/B tests are "significantly different" from one and the other, then that "could be visible in search results too." He also said, "Depending on your setup, what might happen is that one or the other version is used for indexing." -
Google Bans Prediction Markets Product Ads Michigan & New York; Expands Shopping Ads & Free Listings
Google announced it is no longer allowing the advertisement of prediction markets contracts and related products ads in Michigan and New York. Plus, Google expanded eligibility for Google Shopping ads and free listings to more countries. -
Google Boat Pillow
Google rented a boat to go on the Hudson River in New York City and on that boat they had these pillows with a boat and the Google logo. The picture above is from Instagram but here is a video as well.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Make more insightful & useful stuff., John Mueller on Bluesky
- New in Account Settings: High-Engagement Ads for App Campaigns, Arpan Banerjee on X
- I noticed two new items inside Google Ads Account Settings today., Natasha Kaurra on LinkedIn
- Visibility ranking of News & Media brands on ChatGPT, US, June 2026., Similarweb on X
- A Framework for Frontier AI and the Dawning of a New Age, Demis Hassabis on X
- Google will soon add a new “Skills” feature for its EU users and, of course, Gemini in Chrome., Radu Oncescu on X
- Do you still build external links in 2026?, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- OpenAI’s ChatGPT ads could miss $100 billion revenue target: Report
- Google Image Search drops clean search box and adds gallery of images
- Google AI Overviews will let you create image
- Visual semantics: The missing piece of topical authority
- Why standard SEO advice fails for travel websites
- Hidden gem publishers outperform major media on audience affinity: Study
- How AI search gives old negative content new life
Other Great Search Stories:
AI & LLMs
- Google Just Told Small Businesses What They're Getting Wrong About AI Search, JXT Group
- Google’s Michael Howell on proving AI in healthcare can work, Modern Healthcare
- Now, defenders are embracing the prompt injection, too, Ars Technica
- OpenAI Is Showing Kalshi’s World Cup Odds in ChatGPT, New York Times
- Anthropic is giving teachers free access to premium Claude features, details here, 9to5Mac
- Anthropic's newest ad is creeping people out, TechCrunch
- Google's Hassabis calls for new US-led global AI watchdog "before year end", Axios
- Why Brand Positioning Is Now an AI Search Variable, Semrush
Analytics
- New GA4 Channel Tracks AI Traffic, Practical Ecommerce
Industry & Business
- Court Economist Says Epic-Google Deal Isn't Evidence-Based, Law360
- Apple in talks with startup that shrinks AI models to run on an iPhone, CNBC
- Deepening our commitment to India’s AI ambition, Google Blog
- Google's Android search defaults scrutinized by Swiss watchdog, dpa international
- Hachette, Scott Turow Sue Google for Using Books to Train AI, The Wrap
- Google Fails to Escape Antitrust Claims in Voice Assistant Suit, Bloomberg Law News
- Google to partner with Steel River Energy Center in Arkansas, Google Blog
- OpenAI Responds to Apple Lawsuit, Denies Knowledge of Trade-Secret Theft, Bloomberg
- Google and Epic give up fighting — third-party Android app stores are coming next week, The Verge
- Systems Engineering Playbook: Optimizing Qwen 3.5-397B MoE on Ironwood (TPU7x), Google Developers Blog
- Google Search AI Poses ‘Unacceptable Risk’ to Kids, Report Finds, Bloomberg
Links & Content Marketing
- 10 Creative Ways to Write with AI (Without Losing Your Soul), Ahrefs
- Content Distribution Isn’t Promotion, Content Marketing Institute
- ‘Permission marketing at scale’: How Vestas uses video to build brand, product and community, Marketing Week
- Why interactive campaigns outperform static content for list growth, SmartBrief
- Why content marketers need to think like film producers, Marketing Mag
Local & Maps
- What Does HOV Mean On Google Maps?, BGR
- Android Auto prepares media player redesign with more buttons, 9To5Google
- He saw a pit on Google Maps. It turned out to be a 390-million-year-old meteor crater, CBC News
Other Search
- Apple opens its new Siri AI to everyone with the iOS 27 public beta, TechCrunch
- OpenAI’s First Device Will Be Home Speaker Built as AI Companion, Bloomberg
PPC
- Again, What About the AI Ads?, John Battelle's Searchblog
- AI Mode shows ads on 1 in 3 queries: 50K keywords studied, SE Ranking
- How to Measure B2B Paid Media Performance Beyond Platform Metrics, Brainlabs
- Performance Max Introduced Theme Library, PPC News Feed
- When Your Bid Target Starts Acting Like a Target, JXT Group
- The Case of the Missing Click: What Zero-Click Search Actually Means for Paid Strategy, Seer Interactive
Search Features
- Google AI Mode's shift to citing itself, Profound
- Search across chats, projects, and files is now supercharged., ChatGPT Release Notes
SEO
- Do GEO/AI Visibility Platforms/Tools Matter? Help Me Find Out. (An industry wide survey.), Duane Forrester Decodes
- Open Knowledge Format: What Google Actually Shipped , I Love SEO
- The One Sentence Every Brand Needs for AI Visibility, Joe Hall
- The Only True SEO/GEO/Reddit Strategy: “If It Is Easy to Do, It Is Not Effective in the Long Run”, Ann Smarty
- Can Real Estate Agents Use AI to Write SEO Content?, SEO Savvy Agent
- The Worst Thing You Can Be in an SEO Job Interview Is Forgettable, SEO For Lunch
Feedback:
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