A well-rounded view on search engines and search engine marketing from five segments of the Web population represented by senior members of the major SEO/SEM forums on the Internet.https://www.seroundtable.comen-usBarry SchwartzWed, 06 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400en-usnoSearch Engine Roundtablesearch,search,engines,google,yahoo,ask,com,microsoft,live,com,adcenter,adwords,adsense,ypn,barry,schwartz,search,engine,roundtableThe Pulse with Barry Schwartz and co-hosts Ben Pfeiffer and Chris Boggs covers search topics that receive the most buzz from within the search community. Each Tuesday, The Pulse will recap those important search topics in a roundtable style format, allowing the hosts to debate and argue some of the latest trends and stories in the search industry.Search Pulse from the Search Engine RoundtableBarry Schwartzbarry@rustybrick.comBarry Schwartzhttps://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-06-2026-41282.htmlWed, 06 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-06-2026-41282.htmlHere 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...Search Forum Recapbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overviews-with-author-names-source-41261.htmlWed, 06 May 2026 07:51:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overviews-with-author-names-source-41261.htmlGoogle is showing the full author name and the source, like LinkedIn - and name or Medium - and name, for the citations. It makes sense for these social platforms to show the name, because anyone can write anything on these platforms, so knowing the name makes it more useful.Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-anchor-links-favicon-ai-mode-41281.htmlWed, 06 May 2026 07:45:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-anchor-links-favicon-ai-mode-41281.htmlGoogle is testing an update to the citations, anchor links, and favicons within the AI Mode results. This new experience seems to make the citations more clickable because the embedded links have larger favicons and seem to appear more often, near the text it is referencing.Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-expands-ucp-checkout-to-search-41272.htmlWed, 06 May 2026 07:41:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-expands-ucp-checkout-to-search-41272.htmlIn February, Google announced that UCP, Universal Commerce Protocol, powered checkout is available in AI Mode. Well, now you can use UCP powered checkout in the main search results for some retailers like Wayfair.Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-gemini-3-model-options-search-41278.htmlWed, 06 May 2026 07:31:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-gemini-3-model-options-search-41278.htmlGoogle is testing letting searchers select the Gemini 3 model they want to use directly in the Google Search bar. The options can include, Pro, Fast or Auto, from what I can see. Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/openai-self-serve-ads-manager-41279.htmlWed, 06 May 2026 07:21:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/openai-self-serve-ads-manager-41279.htmlA few weeks ago, we uncovered the beta self-serve Ads Manager for ChatGPT Ads. It was before it officially launched but now OpenAI officially announced its "beta self-serve Ads Manager that allows advertisers in the US to sign up and purchase ads directly to appear in ChatGPT."Other Search Enginesbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-local-service-ads-account-access-broken-41277.htmlWed, 06 May 2026 07:11:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-local-service-ads-account-access-broken-41277.htmlThe Google Local Service Ads account access tab has not been loading and working for advertisers for the past several days. There are numerous reports of it failing throughout the day and it has become a huge frustration for a number of Google advertisers.Google Adsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-05-2026-41271.htmlTue, 05 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-05-2026-41271.htmlHere is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...Search Forum Recapbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profile-suspensions-account-restrictions-41268.htmlTue, 05 May 2026 07:51:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profile-suspensions-account-restrictions-41268.htmlGoogle seems to be suspending Google Business Profiles due to user account restrictions. There may have been a wave of suspensions over the past several days related to this issue and local SEO experts are unclear if this is a bug or some other issue.Google Mapsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-1-billion-monthly-users-are-human-41266.htmlTue, 05 May 2026 07:41:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-1-billion-monthly-users-are-human-41266.htmlMicrosoft, during its earnings call last week, announced that Bing hit a huge milestone of 1 billion monthly active users. Krishna Madhavan from Microsoft later confirmed these "users" do not include AI agents but are real actual humans.Bing Searchbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-updates-data-retention-policy-41269.htmlTue, 05 May 2026 07:31:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-updates-data-retention-policy-41269.htmlGoogle has posted an update and emailed advertisers on changes to its Google Ads data retention policy. What changed? Here is what Google said.Google Adsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/chatgpt-ads-click-through-rates-41267.htmlTue, 05 May 2026 07:21:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/chatgpt-ads-click-through-rates-41267.htmlSimilarweb published some data sharing the click-through rates for OpenAI's ChatGPT ads. The overall CTR for ChatGPT ads are 0.68%, the top quartile is 1%, the best brands are 1.57% and the peak CTR is 5.4%.Other Search Enginesbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-web-bot-auth-41270.htmlTue, 05 May 2026 07:11:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-web-bot-auth-41270.htmlGoogle posted new developer documentation for how to authenticate requests with Web Bot Auth. This is a "new cryptographic protocol that helps websites to validate that bots are authentic," Google wrote.Google Search Engine Optimizationbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-04-2026-41265.htmlMon, 04 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-04-2026-41265.htmlHere 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 explained how using AI in isolation works better for them...Search Forum Recapbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-fix-data-logging-issue-41260.htmlMon, 04 May 2026 07:51:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-fix-data-logging-issue-41260.htmlA month ago, Google posted that between the dates of May 13, 2025 through April 27, 2026, just about 50 weeks, there was a "logging error prevented Search Console from accurately reporting impressions." Google updated the post to now say "This issue has been resolved."Google Search Engine Optimizationbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)