Daily Search Forum Recap: August 26, 2026

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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.

We are seeing some more Google Search ranking volatility post spam update. Google seems to be showing fewer and fewer PDF files within the search results. Google is beta testing a new AI-created Product title report within Google Ads. Google is testing a new "Channels" slider that lets you adjust how much you prioritize conversions from your Google Ads channels. Google has expanded the booking partners for Local Service Ads from about 20 partners to over 500 partners. Google Ads has placed Customer Lifecycle Optimization directly within the conversion goals section of the Google Ads platform. Microsoft Bing is testing a new "Shorts" tab in the search menu on Bing Search. This should filter the results by short videos across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and so on.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories: #

Google Search Ranking Volatility Continues Post Spam Update As you know, Google's August 2026 spam update began on August 18th and concluded on August 21st. But the volatility has not calmed down since and I think it is time I document it. We've been seeing chatter within the SEO community, in addition to the third-party Google tracking tools pick up on volatility within the Google Search results after the conclusion of the August spam update. -

Google Search Showing Fewer PDF Files. But Why? Google seems to be showing fewer and fewer PDF files, and when it does show PDF files, it seems not to show them from some pretty important sites, like IRS.gov, New York State, and some others. But in some cases we are seeing Google show PDF documents, without you having to explicitly filter for PDF file types. -

Google Massively Expands Booking Partners On Local Services Ads Google has expanded the booking partners for Local Service Ads from about 20 partners to over 500 partners. That is about a 2,400 percent increase. "We’re vastly expanding booking capabilities for Local Services Ads to include more than 500 Reserve with Google booking partners – up from just 20," Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison said. -

Google AI Mode Also Gains Link Carousels For Developing Topics Back in June, Google released link carousels for top stories or developing topics to AI Overviews. I was happy. Now, Google is also releasing this for AI Mode queries, which adds carousels of web pages directly in the AI Mode response. -

Google Ads Customer Lifecycle Optimization Within Conversion Goals Google Ads has placed Customer Lifecycle Optimization directly within the conversion goals section of the Google Ads platform. -

Bing Tests Shorts Video Tab In Search Menu Microsoft Bing is testing a new "Shorts" tab in the search menu on Bing Search. This should filter the results by short videos across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and so on. The tab is called "Shorts" and looks like a video play icon in vertical format. -

Google Ads AI-Created Product Titles Report Beta Google is beta testing a new Product title report within Google Ads. This is a special product title report for Al-created product titles. The report should show in your ads when they're more relevant than your original titles, Google wrote. -

Google Ads Channel Settings Prioritization Slider (Alpha Test) Google is testing a new "Channels" slider that lets you adjust how much you prioritize conversions from your Google Ads channels, such as Google Search, Google Partners, Discover, Maps, YouTube, the Display Network and Gmail. -

Google Gemini AI Military Presentation Here is someone from the US military presenting at the Google Washington, D.C. office on the use of AI and Gemini for the military. I don't know the specifics, all I know is I saw this photo on Instagram with this slide that says "Gemini Enterprise on GenAl.mil."