Measure PPC performance in 2026 with AI-driven auctions, smarter attribution, profit-based metrics, and reporting frameworks built for Google Ads automation and AI search. The post How To Measure PPC Performance When AI Controls The Auction appeared first on Search Engine Journal

A recent announcement by Google signals the start of a massive change in how the internet and search work.

Research on language models reveals how brands win or lose in AI-generated recommendations based on association strength. The post How AI Chooses Which Brands To Recommend: From Relational Knowledge To Topical Presence appeared first on Search Engine Journal

The NY Times commissioned a study that says AI Overviews have holes in both grounding and accuracy.

Google announced that on August 20, 2026 it will experiment with an updated set of commonly used ad technology partners. If the experiments go well, Google will switch it “on or after June 5, 2026.”

It looks like Google is testing a new report within Google Search Console named AI contribution. I have no clue what it looks like but I suspect it is a lot like the Bing Webmaster Tools AI performance reports.

Google was asked if it is possible to add a new status to the XML sitemap statuses for “still processing.” John Mueller from Google responded on Blueshy saying, “I’ve chatted with the teams involved about this on & off, I’ve seen that it can be annoying.” But he added he has nothing to announce.

Google’s John Mueller reconfirmed that Google Search may simply ignore outbound links from sites that violate its search spam policies.

Websites built with semantic HTML, accessible patterns, and visible server-rendered content are better positioned for the agentic web. The post How AI Agents See Your Website (And How To Build For Them) appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Sundar Pichai outlines search as an “agent manager,” signaling a shift from link-based results to task completion and multi-step workflows. The post What Pichai’s Interview Reveals About Google’s Search Direction appeared first on Search Engine Journal