Google Search Console Generative AI Performance Report Data Bug Nov 9 - 11

Google has confirmed a data logging bug in the Search Console Generative AI performance report in Search between the dates of November 9 and November 11, 2026 which resulted in a decrease in impressions.

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 1:55 pm

Google Search Gets Massive Upgrade With Gemini 4 Hydrogen

Google Search has received a "massive upgrade with Gemini 4 Hydrogen," said Nick Fox of Google. "The biggest model upgrade to Search yet has landed," said Robby Stein of Google. It is super fast, has better understanding, improved query fan-out and linking, more visual responses and richer language understanding.

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 12:20 pm

New Google Help Doc Explains How To Identifying Traffic From Google Search

Google has published a new help document named Identify Google Search traffic in your web analytics or server logs. This document explains how to see if Google Search is sending you traffic in your own web analytics system or server logs by inspecting the HTTP Referer header.

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 11:08 am

OpenAI ChatGPT Ads Updates: Intelligent Bidding, New Cost Targets, Geo-Flexibility & Product Set Filters

OpenAI just sent out its weekly ChatGPT Ads update email announcing a number of updates including intelligent bidding, new cost targets in Ads Manager, more geographic flexibility for product feed campaigns and more flexible product set filters.

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 10:38 am

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 12, 2026

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

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 9:00 am

Google Ads New Invalid Traffic (IVT) Overview Card

Google Ads announced a new Invalid Traffic (IVT) overview card within Google Search. Google's Keerat Sharma wrote, "We're rolling out the Invalid Traffic Overview Card in Google Ads to give advertisers front-end transparency into how we protect their campaigns."

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 7:00 am

Google Ads Disallows Impersonate Public Figures With AI Even If Disclosed

Google Ads clarified in its unacceptable Business Practices policy that impersonating public figures using AI isn't allowed, even if they disclose that they were generated or edited using AI.

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 6:51 am

Google Ads Disallows Targeting Users Based On Prohibited Content Interests

Google Ads has added a single line to the Restricted targeting in Personalized advertising policy. Google wrote, "Additionally, advertisers are not allowed to target users based on an interest in categories prohibited in Google's ad network."

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 6:41 am

Google Ads 'Found On Site' Icon & More Pages Label On Sponsored Results

Google is testing a new label on its sponsored results on Google Ads named "Found on site." The label also has a text with a magnifying glass icon next to it. Next to the label is a site link that you can click on.

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 6:31 am

Google Ads Editor Version 2.14 Is Now Available

Google has released version 2.14 of the Google Ads Editor, which includes 10 new features.

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 6:21 am

Google Ads Data Strength Uplift Metric Doc

Google Ads has posted a new help document about the data strength uplift metric. This comes a month after Google posted another help document on Data Strength Best Practices. "The data strength uplift metric gives you a clearer picture of the value your first-party data setup delivers in Google Ads," Google wrote.

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 6:11 am

Bing Touts Two Methods To Turn Off AI In Search But It's Not A Search Setting

Microsoft announced, again, that there are ways to turn off AI features in Bing Search. We covered it twice before, but the first time we covered it, Bing had a search setting to disable AI Search (aka Copilot) from showing up in Bing. The second time, Bing removed that setting and asked people to download a browser extension or add -ai to the query to disable AI search features.

Posted on: 12 November 2026 | 6:05 am

Google Placing Source Icons At Bottom Of AI Overviews

Google is testing moving the citations or sources icons to the very bottom of the AI Overviews. Previously, these icons appeared at the top of the AI Overview; now Google is testing placing them at the bottom, which may make it even harder to find the sources of the answers Google generates in these AI Overviews and could reduce clicks to your site even more.

Posted on: 11 November 2026 | 7:15 pm

Google Ads API Version 26.2 Now Out Available

Google Ads has just released a minor update to its Google Ads API - version 26.2. This update touches on assets, campaigns, reporting, and more general updates.

Posted on: 11 November 2026 | 2:45 pm

Google Search AI Overview Definitions Expanded By Default

Google is expanding the AI Overviews for definitions by default, where you no longer have to click on "Show more" to see the full version of the AI Overview. This is similar to when Google confirmed it dynamically expands some AI Overviews based on the query, but now Google is doing this for all definition searches.

Posted on: 11 November 2026 | 1:51 pm