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.

Apple Visual Intelligence is Apple’s version of Google Lens but it uses Google, ChatGPT, Yelp and others. Google AI Overviews are showing for commercial queries again, showing product and shopping results. A new report on AI Overviews says about half of the links in the AI Overviews overlap with the traditional organic results. Google is showing Business Profile photos on its review sentiments. And Bing Search has a footer message to search again.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Apple Visual Intelligence – Local, Shopping & More
  
  
  Apple had its big event yesterday, and during the iPhone talk, they announced Apple Visual Intelligence. Where you can take photos of anything, and it will use Apple Intelligence for local search, shopping, homework help, and more.
• 
  Google AI Overviews Show Shopping Results For Commercial Queries Again
  
  
  Google is bringing back shopping and product results in the AI Overviews for commercial queries. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember them going away but I am told they have now returned. Maybe they went away with the Ray update, when Google restricted how often AI Overviews showed.
• 
  Report: Half Google AI Overviews Links Overlap With Top Search Results
  
  
  A new Google AI Overview study says that about half of the links displayed in the AI Overviews overlap with the links shown in the traditional Google Search results. Plus, the most linked to sources are YouTube and Wikipedia, according to the new report.
• 
  Google Maps Showing Business Photos On Review Sentiments
  
  
  Google is now showing business submitted photos from Google Business Profiles in the Google Local and Maps review sentiments section. So above the reviews, Google may show photos submitted by the business, related to those reviews.
• 
  Bing Search Footer Message To Encourage More Searches
  
  
  Microsoft is testing, showing a notice at the bottom of the Bing search results that says, “Search by typing anything on the keyboard.” This happens when you reach the footer of the Bing Search results. When you start typing, your characters appear in the search box for a new Bing Search session.
• 
  Google Flying Dutchman Cafe In Netherlands Office
  
  
  Here is a photo from the Google Netherlands office, they have a cafe there named the Flying Dutchman cafe. This is the salad station in that cafe and you can see the art on the walls.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

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 Ads will sunset enhanced CPC in March 2025. Google Business Profiles sends out broken appointment link notifications. Bing doesn’t yet use ProductGroup markup, but may use it soon. Bing treats 308 redirects like 301 redirects. Bing is testing a button for shopping results named “see details.”

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google Ads Saying Goodbye To Enhanced CPC In March 2025
  
  
  Google Ads emailed advertisers using Enhanced cost-per-click (eCPC) to let them know that in March 2025, Enhanced CPC will be sunset and any campaigns using Enhanced CPC will be migrated to Manual CPC bidding.
• 
  Google Business Profile Appointment Link Broken Notifications
  
  
  Google is emailing some businesses when it detects that their Google Business Profile appointment link is not working. Google’s email says, “Fix your business Google link.”
• 
  Bing Treats 308 Redirects Same As 301 Redirects
  
  
  Fabrice Canel from Microsoft said that Bing Search treats 308 redirects the same as they treat 301 redirects. This is the same as what Google said back in 2021, although Google has been a bit wishy-washy on redirects over the years.
• 
  Bing May Use ProductGroup Markup In The Future
  
  
  Microsoft Bing may use ProductGroup markup in the future for its “captions” in the Bing Search results. Fabrice Canel from Microsoft said while they do not support it yet, “it’s on our radar” and “the team is closely monitoring its adoption.”
• 
  Bing Product Search Results With See Details Button
  
  
  Bing is testing a big blue “see details” button for some of the product listings in its search results. Normally when you hover your mouse cursor over the products, they expand a little but now they are also showing a blue button to “see details.”





• 
  Google European France Fence
  
  
  Here is the fence in front of the Google office in Paris, France, I believe. It is one of those European castle-like fences, but the polls are in the Google red, blue, green, and yellow colors.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

• Bill Gates Talks to CNET About AI, Misinformation and Climate Change, CNET
• Google second antitrust trial advertising model, CNBC
• How to fix Google search, Financial Times (Sub)
• Remedies to Google’s Search Monopoly Will Be Decided by August 2025, Judge Says, New York Times
• DOJ May Seek To End or Change Google’s AI Overviews, Hall Analysis
• Google’s $20bn ad tech business to play for at next antitrust showdown, Financial Times (Sub)
• Google’s case in the Department of Justice ad tech lawsuit, Google Blog
• Kremlin claims $235m from Google, Telegraph
• Google’s Ad Technology to Be Challenged in Second Antitrust Trial, New York Times
• Trawling The Google Trial Exhibits For Privacy-Related Tidbits, AdExchanger

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

It is like the Google August 2024 core update didn’t finish rolling out, or maybe something else is going on, because I am still seeing a lot of signals of intense search ranking volatility in the Google Search results. The tools are all still heated and the chatter within the SEO community is still pretty lively.

I mean, Google may have announced the August core update is done rolling out, but maybe this is the remnants of the end of the rollout? It can also be a totally different update that Google did not confirm? It is hard to say but what we do know is that many site owners and SEOs are still seeing a lot of volatility and movement in the Google Search results.

It seemed to have started or continued the day Google announced the rollout was complete. The movement continued from September 3rd through today, September 6th.

Google Tracking Tools

Just look at these tools, you’d expect them to calm down a bit after September 3rd, but most have not:

Semrush:

SimilarWeb:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Cognitive SEO:

Algoroo:

SERPmetrics:

SERPstat:

Accuranker:

Mangools:

Wincher:

Mozcast:

Data For SEO:

SEO Chatter

The chatter across WebmasterWorld, social and here did not die down at all. Here are some quotes:

G analytics is broken or this update killed my main site. Has anyone else noticed this huge drop today?

GA4 has practically been unusable for us. Even with just the basics. Traffic way down for us as well today.

Big drop yesterday and today looks terrible as well.

Someone could think that the end of the update was the update, cause just in time traffic got worse again, sales are non existent from google traffic. google user engagement is near to ZERO.

Traffic is ridiculously high since the return from Labor Day holiday for me. Search traffic is up 60% today at 1pm. Yesterday search was up 30% overall. Will be nice if that keeps up, but…

There’s been a lot of volatility here all day since yesterday. Moments of high traffic, followed by huge drops. Old pages receiving a lot of traffic, then disappearing… The update is definitely still active…

Something is going on for sure. The SEMrush Sensors still on a high range.

Like I commented earlier… Something happened on the 3rd of September.

Just when some of us thought we had a boost or was safe from the core update, Googlers hit the “Nuke!” button and now more sites got obliterated.

There is still something running. The traffic and serps are all over the show again. Many of our keywords are out of the top 100 again. Started 2 days ago.

Same here. 2 days ago I had many sales, which was very unusual. Now again nothing

I wrote earlier that there is still something moving around. We can look at 3rd September as the start point of this movement. The movement in and out of serps again.

100% agree. Something is going on for sure.

This type of chatter just goes on and on.

Again, I am not sure if this is the tail end of the completed core update or of this is something new. But something is still brewing.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.