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, 30 Sep 2026 12:12:00 -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/google-ai-overviews-large-brand-names-42195.htmlWed, 30 Sep 2026 12:12:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overviews-large-brand-names-42195.htmlGoogle seems to be showing more and more AI Overviews these days and even for many large brand names. It don't have a ton of data but Google does seems to be showing more and AI Overviews for almost every large brand name except for Google's own name and news publications.Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/openai-chatgpt-ads-updates-42194.htmlWed, 30 Sep 2026 11:33:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/openai-chatgpt-ads-updates-42194.htmlOpenAI just sent out an email to advertisers about new ChatGPT Ads product updates that include several new features. The new features include bulk creation for product feed campaigns, product review status, report conversions beyond your campaign goal through the API, separate account, brand, and legal names and ChatGPT Ads are live in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.ChatGPT Adsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-09-30-2026-42189.htmlWed, 30 Sep 2026 10:00:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-09-30-2026-42189.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 is only paying about 100 publishers in the AI contribution pilot...Search Forum Recapbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-maps-account-reviews-42186.htmlWed, 30 Sep 2026 07:51:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-maps-account-reviews-42186.htmlGoogle Maps now requires you to sign in to a Google account to see all the reviews on a Google Business Profile listing. It is also required in order to sort the reviews, leave a review, and more. I assume this was done to help prevent AI, bots, and third parties from scraping the Google reviews. Google Mapsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-contribution-pilot-01-percent-42188.htmlWed, 30 Sep 2026 07:41:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-contribution-pilot-01-percent-42188.htmlAs you know, Google has a small pilot named the AI contribution pilot, where they are paying some publishers for using their content in AI features like AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini. Well, according to The Information, it is about 100 publishers and those publishers are getting about "one-tenth of 1% of their advertising revenue."Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-tests-sponsored-products-block-42184.htmlWed, 30 Sep 2026 07:31:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-tests-sponsored-products-block-42184.htmlGoogle is testing making the sponsored products search results block or grid look more like the organic products/shopping grid. Instead of showing a long carousel of products across the top or on the right, this shows a product grid format we are more accustomed to for the free product listings.Google Adsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-product-features-labels-42161.htmlWed, 30 Sep 2026 07:21:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-product-features-labels-42161.htmlMicrosoft Bing is testing adding product feature labels to product listings in the search results. This can add labels like "great for...," "effective," "performs well," "lightweight", and so on.Bing Searchbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-consumer-review-ads-42183.htmlWed, 30 Sep 2026 07:11:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-consumer-review-ads-42183.htmlMicrosoft Advertising now shows "consumer review" ad extensions in the Bing search results sponsored results section. These are one-line snippets of text, added under the sponsored result, that come a "from consumer review."Bing Adsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-analytics-fix-42187.htmlTue, 29 Sep 2026 21:17:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-analytics-fix-42187.htmlGoogle has confirmed there are issues with Google Analytics loading the platform. Google updated its status report to say that it has "restored for some users" and Google expects "a resolution for all users in the near future."Web Analyticsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-09-29-2026-42182.htmlTue, 29 Sep 2026 10:00:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-09-29-2026-42182.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's Nick Fox was interviewed again and said the DMA changes make him sad and are terrible for searchers...Search Forum Recapbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/nick-fox-google-dma-42178.htmlTue, 29 Sep 2026 07:51:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/nick-fox-google-dma-42178.htmlPietro Valetto interviewed Nick Fox, Senior Vice President of Knowledge & Information at Google. Nick Fox shared a snippet from the full video about the DMA changes that led Google to say it had to make the biggest reduction in search quality in its 28-year history. Fox said doing so made him feel "terrible" and "sad."Misc Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-local-panel-two-rows-of-buttons-42176.htmlTue, 29 Sep 2026 07:41:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-local-panel-two-rows-of-buttons-42176.htmlGoogle is testing showing two rows of action buttons of the local panels within mobile search. Google has been testing showing a more + sign to load more or a scrollable carousel of buttons and now here it is with two rows.Google Mapsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overviews-citations-cards-bottom-42177.htmlTue, 29 Sep 2026 07:31:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overviews-citations-cards-bottom-42177.htmlGoogle is testing showing citation cards at the bottom of AI Overview responses on desktop, instead of on the right side. Google tested variations of this at least twice before, once in March of 2026 and before that in September 2025. Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/googlemap-pins-ocean-42181.htmlTue, 29 Sep 2026 07:21:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/googlemap-pins-ocean-42181.htmlA new bug with Google Business Profiles and Google Maps is placing some businesses' Google Maps pins in the middle of the ocean. This is reportedly happening for some service area businesses that do not list their address publicly on their Google local listings.Google Mapsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profiles-misuse-of-support-channels-42175.htmlTue, 29 Sep 2026 07:11:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profiles-misuse-of-support-channels-42175.htmlGoogle has added a new policy to the Google Business Profiles policies document. The new policy is named "Misuse of support channels."Google Mapsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)