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Google has released its third spam update of the 2026 year, the August 2026 spam update this week and finished rolling out Friday morning at 4:50am. Google Search’s AI Mode is now being powered sometimes by the new Gemini 3.7 Flash. Google’s John Mueller says it does not roll out updates prior to the announcement. He also explained why Google announces some search updates and not others. The Google Performance report for generative AI features had an impressions data logging bug. Google also may have a bug with favicons disappearing from the search results. Google Search will eventually support the new HTTP QUERY method. Google is pausing the AI-generated images in AI Overviews. Google is hiring a product manager for content automation. Google seems to be showing fewer video carousels in search. Google has updated the Preferred Sources button for the better. Google is bringing back Google Posts impression data. Google Business Profiles seems to be revamping the Q&A feature, maybe. Google Trends has new explore maps and regional breakdowns. Google Ads is testing enhanced matching setting in customer match. Google Ads and AI Max have new experimentation and planning features such as A/B test capabilities, brand and location parameters options and new Performance Planner predictions. Google Ads is testing a supersized review star layout. Google Ads can find sitelinks options for you. Google released the Google Ads API version 25.1. Google Local Services Ads new pre-badge ads and expansion of verticals. Microsoft Advertising is rolling out AI Max globally. Microsoft Ads Max CPC will no longer be available when creating new non-portfolio campaigns after October 1, 2026. Bing is testing larger images in the sponsored results. OpenAI is expanding ChatGPT Ads to 31 European markets. Apple added thousands of new IP addresses for Applebot to crawl from. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
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