Google's selection of an image preview is completely automated and takes into account a number of different sources to select which image on a given page is shown on Google (for example, a text result image or the preview image in Discover). You can influence which image gets selected by providing your preferred image through one of the following metadata sources: Specify the schema.org primaryImageOfPage property with a URL or ImageObject, or specify an image URL or ImageObject property and attach it to the main entity, or specify the og:image meta tag.
You've long been able to ask Google to remove certain personal information from its search results, such as your name, home address, phone number, and email address. But now the search giant has expanded the types of details it will delete in response to your request. First up, you'll soon be able to give the heave-ho to any of your government-issued IDs that pop up in a search result. That includes your passport, driver's license, and Social Security number. Right now, this option is just rolling out in the US and should hit other countries down the road.
The "Results about you" tool already allows users to remove Search results containing their phone number, email address, or home address, and it can now also be used to request the removal of results that include information such as a driver's license, passport, or Social Security number, the company said in the update Tuesday. You can access the tool in the Google app by tapping your Google account photo and selecting "Results about you."
Just a couple of months ago, Google had ads on the local pack for less than 3% of tracked keywords; now it's up to about 22% of tracked keywords. This was data posted by Joy Hawkins on X she got from Places Scout. Joy wrote, "Just had Places Scout re-run the data to see how this looks in January so far (we're tracking across 1200 mobile ranking reports). The increase isn't slowing down yet."
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. I am seeing some really heated Google search ranking volatility over the past 24-hours again. Google is testing third-party endorsement content on search ads. Google added a preferred sources help document. Google Business Profile review appeals are no longer delayed. Google Ads PMax has new one click ad previews. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap.
Britain's competition watchdog said Wednesday that Google should give news sites and content creators the choice to opt out of having their online content scraped to feed its AI overviews. It's part of a set of proposals from the Competition and Markets Authority aimed at loosening the U.S. tech giant's stranglehold on the U.K's online search market. The watchdog last year labeled Google a "strategic" player in online search advertising, using new digital powers to promote more competition by forcing changes to the company's business practices.
Google is testing the ability to add color to your search results page with a color palette picker. There is this palette icon at the top of the results that when clicked on says "Add a splash of color to the top of Search," and "Pick color." When you click on pick color it loads 10 colors to "Choose an accent color for the top of Search."
As a reminder, I covered a number of unconfirmed Google search ranking updates including the January 21st, January 15th, January 12th and January 6th. Prior to that, we had the Google December 2025 core update kick off on December 11, 2025 at around 12:25 pm ET and ended on December 29, 2025 at around 2:05 pm ET. It had two spikes, one on December 13th and the other on December 20th.
A few weeks ago, we covered how damaging the Google Search results were for recipe publishers and bloggers. It was nicknamed Frankenstein recipes because it would take pieces of these recipes from bloggers, mash them together and ruin them, all while also mentioning the brand name - hurting the brand. Well, Google may be rolling out a fix or adjustment to those results, by bringing back the recipe carousel results and removing or pushing down the AI Overview section for many recipe queries.
For example, when it was asked what the normal range for liver blood tests was, the AI would give false numbers due to lack of information. Nationality, age, and sex are all factors that play a role in determining the correct results. Therefore, someone could believe they are healthy when they should have actually been seeking medical attention. "Google's AI Overviews can put inaccurate health information at the top of online searches, presenting a risk to people's health,"
Google seems to be testing showing call assets on Vehicle Ads within Google Search. So on the Vehicle Ads there is a way to call the dealer or seller, like you see on some other ads. I scoured the web looking to see if this is new and I couldn't find any mention of this before, nor any screenshots of this.
Google is testing a blue "Send" button in the search query box on its home page. When you type in your query, you can click "Send" to search Google for that query. Shameem Adhikarath spotted this change and posted screenshots and a screencast of it on X - this seems to replace the new AI Mode button. So when you start typing in your query, the AI Mode button may switch into this blue Send button. Clicking "Send" take you to Google Search results and not into AI Mode.
