Google is testing bolding the query in the search box when you click your cursor outside of the search box, otherwise the query is in normal plain font text. This is a weird one – don’t you think?

Google announced that Google Merchant Center Next, the updated version of Google Merchant Center it announced at Google Marketing Live in 2023, is now coming to all merchants this month. Google has already begun notifying merchants and advertisers of this via email and will continue to do so over the month.

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

Google seems to be testing a query refinement ad option. Where Google is showing other search queries related to the ads it is showing under a sponsored ad carousel in the search results.

There was a lot of speculation that Google would remove the Search Notes feature from the Google Search labs results last May after living past its official end date of December 2023. Well, Google told 9to5Google that Notes on Search and Discover is finally going away.

Google is testing showing store ratings review stars in the knowledge panels for some retail stores. Clicking on the stars will take you into the Google Store Rating panel.

Google is testing renaming the short videos carousel to quick takes in the Google Search results. Short videos are quick videos Google surfaces in its search results from YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and other sources and now Google is testing naming them “Quick Takes.”

Google Ads has changed what they call broad match to intent match in Japan. So now it is called ã’¤ã³ãã³ãããã (Intent Match), it was called é¨åä’è’ (Partial Match).

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

Yesterday, July 15th, Google ended support for new chats to be initiated within Google Local, Google Business Profiles, in Google Search and Google Maps. This is not a surprise, Google told us in May this was coming and now it is here.

Google may have some type of classification score for if your site uses AI to write content. This score might label your site as being artificially generated content with an AGC classification. Maybe.

Google may allow publishers to exclude some of their content from being displayed in Google Discover. Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, said he thinks that option would be useful and thus passed it on to the team to look into.

Google Search is testing a way to jump back up to the AI Overview after you scroll past it. This button shows up after a searcher decides to scroll past the AI Overview and look at the normal search results. Google wants you to click the “Overview” button to go back to the AI Overview at the top, the one you decided to scroll past.

Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, said that he expects the next core update will be rolling out in the coming weeks. He said it is hard to predict because these updates are not scheduled to a particular day but rather tested and then once approved are launched.

Google Search seems to be continuing to test highlighting words in blue in its search results snippets. Plus, Google is also testing showing light background color for some words in the search result snippets.

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

Google AI Overviews is rarely ever showing citations from Reddit or Quora anymore, according to a new report from BrightEdge. In fact, Reddit citations have declined by around 85%, whereas Quaora citations have declined by around 99%, within the Google AI Overviews in Google Search.