Google announced checkout capabilities in AI Mode and a new Business Agent feature that puts branded AI chat on Search results. Available to U.S.

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

Paid media in 2026 demands sharper focus. Learn which strategies matter now and where marketers should shift budgets for stronger, more reliable performance this year. The post Paid Media Marketing: 8 Changes Marketers Should Make In 2026 appeared first on Search Engine Journal

This week’s SEO Pulse highlights the tensions emerging as search engines tighten quality standards for sites while defending their own AI outputs. The post SEO Pulse: Core Update Favors Niche Expertise, AIO Health Inaccuracies & AI Slop appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

This week, yep, we had another story on Google Search ranking volatility. I posted the Google webmaster report for January 2026.

Google’s Danny Sullivan and John Mueller spoke on the Search Off the Record podcast about whether hiring an AEO/GEO or buying an AI-optimization tool is any different than hiring an SEO or buying an SEO tool. In short, the advice is the same – both Googlers said.

Reddit simplifies campaign setup with Max Campaigns, Google enhances creator discovery inside Ads, and Microsoft expands audience targeting The post PPC Pulse: Reddit Max Campaigns, Google Creator & Microsoft Targeting Updates appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Google’s Danny Sullivan said on the Search Off the Record podcast that was published yesterday that Google does not want you to turn your content into bite-sized chunks to rank well in LLMs. He said, “we don’t want you to do that” and he even spoke to Google engineers about this.

Microsoft announced its AI-agents agentic experiences under the names of Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents. Copilot Checkout lets you shop and checkout directly in the Copilot chat experience and Brand Agents lets you add AI-chat experience to your site, and the AI is trained on your product data.

In September, we posted about a number of local pack design tests from Microsoft Bing. But now, Bing might be testing a more retro, older-looking interface for the local pack in the Bing search results.