Daily Search Forum Recap: September 3, 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.

Google has dodged being broken up for a second time on its monopoly ruling, this time over ad tech. Some publishers are noticing their content is disappearing from the Google News tab. Google released Gemini 3.8 Flash for AI Mode but it seems it is not link or citation friendly. Google Merchant Center has expanded the AI performance insights. Google Ads re-review status is showing up. Google Ads has new information on phone call conversions and offline conversions.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories: #

Judge Rules Google Ad Tech Business Won't Be Broken Up A federal judge in Virginia ruled against breaking up Google's ad tech business after Google was found to be a monopoly over its ad technology platforms. The judge ordered Google to end its practices that depress ad rates for web publishers, but declined to order divestiture of Google's ad exchange and other technology. -

Publishers Noticing Google News Tab Content Disappearing Over the past several days, I have been hearing from some publishers that while their content is being crawled, indexed, and served in Google Search results, some of it is missing from the news tab. It may then later show up in the news tab, much later. I was able to replicate this but it seems completely random. -

Google AI Mode Gemini 3.8 Flash Not Link / Citation Friendly? As you know, Google rolled out Gemini 3.8 Flash for subscribers to AI Mode and some have started to play with it. And the early feedback is that AI Mode running Gemini 3.8 Flash is not link or citation friendly. Meaning, AI Mode with Google's latest AI model is less likely to cite sources and link to sources than previous models. -

Google Search Using Gemini 3.8 Flash In AI Mode Google's Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google Search, said on X, "Gemini 3.8 Flash has landed in Search." This comes only a couple of weeks after Google brought Gemini 3.7 Flash to AI Mode within Google Search. -

Google Expands Merchant Center AI Performance Insights In July, Google began to roll out AI performance reports within Google Merchant Center to United States based merchants. Google said the AI reports are now available to merchants within Australia, Canada, India & New Zealand as well. -

Google Ads Under Re-Review Label Status Google Ads is showing under the status of your ads a label that says "Under Re-Review." It says the ad is eligible but limited and "this ad is serving to a limited audience." It then breaks down where the ad may not be serving. -

Google Ads New Phone Call & Offline Conversions Details Google added some new nuggets to its Google Ads help documentation on about conversion measurement, specifically on phone call conversions and offline conversions. -

Google Unpacking Numerous Webby Awards Here is a photo of Googlers, including Josh Woodward, unpacking numerous Webby awards. I see at least six of them but I am sure there are more.