Google is continuing to expand ads across AI Mode and now there's another type of ad unit for retailers to play with. We know that AI Mode is the future of Search and that means Google will need to continue innovating on the advertising front. In January, Google announced "new tech and tools" for retailers which included agentic commerce and direct offers for retailers. But I just spotted "Sponsored Stores" when performing an ecommerce search and that's the first time I have seen that in AI Mode.

Once I performed the search and clicked a product in the answer within AI Mode, ecommerce information was populated in the right sidebar (like it normally is). But, when scrolling through the information, I spotted "Sponsored Stores". This is a great, and easy, way for Google to generate ad revenue within AI Mode. We know a ton of people search for shopping-related information and giving retailers the ability to sponsor their store is a no-brainer in my opinion.

You can see a screenshot below of what this looks like:

And here is my tweet about this, which also contains information about "Quick results from the web", which I also found interesting. Google provided two quick links out to gap.com for the shopping query before the answer was provided in AI Mode. "Quick results" is not necessarily new, but it was interesting to see that above the answer. Note, those are organic links and not ads.

More ads in AI Mode -> Two interesting AI mode findings this morning. First, a "Sponsored stores" link when clicking a product in AI Mode. More monetization options for Google there.

Second, AI Mode provided "Quick results from the web" at the top of the response (driving me'... pic.twitter.com/grEnmxu3gk

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 25, 2026

Again, it will be interesting to see how Google innovates on the ad side when it comes to AI surfaces like AI Mode. Sponsored Stores is another option for retailers. Keep your eyes peeled for the new ad unit when using AI Mode.

GG

Google first rolled out Web Guide in July of 2025 as a labs experiment, which uses AI to organize the search results. It initially triggered in the Web tab in the Google SERPs and not the default search results. And then Google expanded Web Guide to the All tab in the search results in December of 2025 (for those with the experiment active). It's an interesting SERP and can be helpful in certain situations. That said, I've been using it since the experiment launched and I often find myself clicking the "Classic Search" button to view the standard SERPs...

Well, now Google may be testing calls to action to drive people to a Web Guide-like SERP. @lenraleigh pinged me on X about the test he was seeing across several queries. In the test, Google provided a call to action saying, "Skip the digging, start guided research", which drives you to results that look very similar to Web Guide (organized by topic). I could not see the test across my accounts so it definitely feels like a test.

Google is testing or rolling out a new feature "Skip digging, start guided research" - seeing it on desktop.@rustybrick pic.twitter.com/Ksh3b4QJkm

'" Len (@lenraleigh) March 25, 2026

Here are some screenshots based on what Len saw:

I've been wondering lately what will happen with Web Guide. Again, I often click the "Classic Search" button to exit Web Guide... but for certain queries it does provide helpful results organized by AI.

Stay tuned.

GG

News publishers will not be happy to learn that AI Overviews seem to be ranking for breaking news more and more. I noticed this several times recently and shared about it on X yesterday. When the AIO shows up, Top Stories are pushed down, which is a key way that news publishers drive traffic for those stories.

Here is what I shared on X:

Focus on news SEO? -> AI Overviews are now triggering for breaking news more often... When that happens, Top Stories drops below the AIO. Not good for news publishers covering those stories. See below. pic.twitter.com/m7vwsj5aBE

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 19, 2026

And here are the two screenshots of what I shared.

News publishers shielded in the past for breaking news:

In the past, news publishers were somewhat shielded for breaking news... Top Stories would rank at the top of the SERP and AIOs were typically not showing up. Then as time went on after the news broke, AIOs would start to show for queries related to those stories (but again, that was not right away.)

In addition, Google itself even said last May at a news event that "AI Overviews are purposefully not triggered for hard news queries." That quote was from Google's vice president of news partnerships Jaffer Zaidi at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress 2025.

Here is my tweet about that from May of 2025:

Yep, yep, and yep -> Google AI Overviews leads to dramatic reduction in click-through for Mail Online. Also, Google explains AIOs don't trigger for hard news queries (yet), and Carly also warns about AI Mode eating clicks

"She said: 'On desktop, when we are ranking number one in'... pic.twitter.com/xLF7wcO0zT

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 14, 2025

Anyway, if you are a news publisher, be aware that AIOs are starting to show up more for breaking news. I would track this heavily for your key topics and see how much that is happening (and how much it has increased).

GG

Google announced that Personal Intelligence is expanding across AI Mode in Search, the Gemini app, and in Gemini in Chrome to all users in the U.S. When Personal Intelligence first rolled out, it was only for paid users (Pro and Ultra plans). Well now it's for all users in the U.S. that choose to activate the feature.

Personal Intelligence first rolled out to Gemini on January 14, 2026 and then quickly expanded to AI Mode a few days after. Again, that was for Google AI Pro and Ultra users. Now Personal Intelligence is available to all users in the United States without a paid plan.

Heads-up, Personal Intelligence is expanding -> Personal Intelligence is expanding in the U.S. across AI Mode in Search, the Gemini app and Gemini in Chrome

"It's available today in the U.S. for AI Mode in Search and it's starting to roll out in the Gemini app and Gemini in'...

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 17, 2026

Personal Intelligence enables you to give Gemini access to Gmail, Google Photos, your Search history, YouTube history, etc., when providing answers to your questions. The results are powerful since Gemini taps into that data to provide answers based on what it knows about you, where you have been, the photos you have taken, what you have searched for, and more.

I am in the Gemini early access program and wrote an in-depth post about how Personal Intelligence works, what you can do with it, how powerful it can be, and more. It's a stepping stone to Jarvis, which is a super personal AI assistant that knows everything about you, what you have done in the past, it can see what you can see, understand your surroundings, and more. Think of Jarvis from Iron Man... that's where all of this is headed.

Anyway, as Google explains, Personal Intelligence can help you:

• Get tailored recommendations.
• Troubleshoot without the headache.
• Navigate tight schedules with ease.
• Create a custom travel itinerary.
• Discover new hobbies.

Here is Robby Stein's share on X about Personal Intelligence expanding.

Today, we're opening up access to Personal Intelligence for AI Mode in Search in the U.S. ð This feature has totally changed how I use AI in Search. Here's how it works:

1ï''£ Opt in to connect apps like Gmail and Google Photos. Search connects your info to give you responses that'... pic.twitter.com/hz8Q0Wx9ip

'" Robby Stein (@rmstein) March 17, 2026

Again, if you want to see the power of Personal Intelligence, check out my post about it. I provide a number of examples of Personal Intelligence in action across different types of queries...

GG

In March of 2025 Google announced a new SERP feature that would organize and surface health conversations from online discussions. For example, from Reddit, X, Facebook, and other social media sites. As Google said at the time:

"While people come to Search to find reliable medical information from experts, they also value hearing from others who have similar experiences. That's why we're making it even easier to find this type of information on Search with a new feature labeled 'What People Suggest.' Using AI, we're able to organize different perspectives from online discussions into easy-to-understand themes, helping you quickly grasp what people are saying."

Here is what the feature looked like:

Well, that didn't last very long. Google confirmed to The Guardian that they have indeed removed the search feature as part of a "broad simplification" of the search results. Health and medical is a sensitive area for Search, and sourcing conversations from across the web via AI can always be challenging. That said, Google did say that the removal had nothing to do with safety or quality of the feature.

Google explained:
'It had nothing to do with the quality or safety of the feature, and we continue to help people find reliable health information from a range of sources, including forums with first-person perspectives that people find incredibly useful.'

Well, this is at least one area where Reddit will be surfaced less frequently... Google's "Check Up" event is being held today and its Chief Health Officer is set to present. Let's see if anything new is announced on the SERP feature front.

GG

OpenAI continues to drive forward on the ads front. This weekend AdWeek reported that OpenAI is currently testing an Ads Manager for ChatGPT advertisers. As AdWeek explained, "The Ads Manager is a dashboard that lets marketers run, monitor, and optimize campaigns in real time."

And what ending up being somewhat comical, an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that advertisers currently get weekly CSV reports with performance data like clicks and impressions. As you can guess, the advertising community collectively laughed out loud about that... You have one of the top AI companies sending CSV files to advertisers spending a lot of money with them. That said, I'm sure they are going to move quickly with rolling out Ads Manager. Time will tell.

OpenAI Ads Manager (confirmed) -> OpenAI is Testing An Ads Manager, As Its New Ads Business Fights Growing Pains

"The Ads Manager is a dashboard that lets marketers run, monitor, and optimize campaigns in real time."

And hey, the testers currently get WEEKLY CSV files with'... pic.twitter.com/jqgDTjQlNU

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 14, 2026

Beyond that, Adthena recently explained they saw an uptick in ChatGPT ads across the platform. They are tracking ads in ChatGPT heavily.

Update on ChatGPT Ads: Adthena is seeing an uptick in activity. Their CMO posted more examples this afternoon on LinkedIn of ads they are seeing and pinged me there.

Advertisers spotted so far:
ð"< Best Buy
ð"< AT&T
ð"< Pottery Barn
ð"< Enterprise
ð"< Qualcomm
ð"< Expedia'... pic.twitter.com/QadQWpokut

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 25, 2026

On that note, I have explained before that spotting ChatGPT ads in the wild was like spotting Bigfoot. They were very hard to find... But today, I'm seeing many ads when searching ChatGPT via one of the free accounts I have. And after sharing about that, Anthony Higman also said he is seeing a ton of ads there today. So I do believe they are continuing to expand the number of ads they are running across ChatGPT.

Its like every search now LOL pic.twitter.com/pJmtIUNwkd

'" Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) March 16, 2026

Like I said in my tweet, some of the ads were targeted, while others were not so targeted... Anyway, keep an eye out for ChatGPT ads. They seem to be showing up more and more.

GG

Google just emailed site owners about new Google Business Profile Playbooks containing recommendations for optimizing local listings. Daniel Hale pinged me on LinkedIn about this the other day after receiving the email.

There are several variations of the playbook including pdfs for restaurants, hotels, service area businesses, and more. I also noticed that a Google employee posted about this in the GBP forums. And if you don't fit into one of the verticals listed, they also provide a general playbook covering universal best practices for optimizing GBP listings.

Here are the playbooks that covered in the email:

• Restaurants & Cafés
• Hotels & Accommodations
• Tour & Activity Operators
• Service-Based Businesses (Plumbers, Cleaners, etc.)
• General Business Playbook

Here are some screenshots from the pdfs:

So if you focus on local search, you should check out the pdfs by vertical. There may be some good nuggets of information there directly from Google about optimizing your local listings.

GG

Google just announced "Ask Maps", which is a new feature in Google Maps that leverages Gemini to help users research local businesses, plan trips, get recommendations, and more. I've had to the opportunity to test "Ask Maps" over the past week and it's powerful. I was also able to get on a call with the Gemini team to ask questions about the feature, where it's headed, if ads are coming, and more. You can read my post about "Ask Maps" to see examples of the feature in action and to learn more about what I think.

"Ask Maps" is rolling out today to users in the U.S. and India in the Google Maps app (both Android and iOS are supported with the rollout). And desktop is coming soon according to the post.

Here is a gif of the feature in action. This was provided to me by Google during my week of testing:

Some additional notes: With the initial rollout, ads are not part of "Ask Maps" yet. I was told that's not part of the feature at this stage but they are not ruling that out. To me, it's a logical and smart place for local ads to show up, so I'm sure we will see that at some point.

Tracking-wise, I was told standard maps impressions apply. So I'm assuming that will show up in GBP reporting, but will not be broken out (at least yet). It would be great to see "Ask Maps" show up as a new surface there in GBP... Stay tuned on that front.

If Local Search is important for your business, then I highly recommend digging in soon to see how your business shows up, what customer sentiment looks like, and how your overall listings look while part of the AI response.

GG

Google's John Mueller revealed an interesting tip on Bluesky the other day for anyone still disavowing links. John explained that site owners can indeed disavow entire TLDs if they want to. Note, he's not referring to disavowing all links from a site (domain)... he's actually referring to ALL links from an entire TLD (like .xyz, .biz, .info., etc.)

When I commented that the technique wasn't documented in Google's disavow documentation, John explained that 'it's a big hammer' and they probably shouldn't document that technique.

News on the disavow front. It ends up you CAN disavow an entire TLD (like xyz, biz, etc.) This was never documented by Google but John Mueller explained you can actually do that. He also said that Google probably shouldn't document it since "it's a big hammer"... I agree & think that's crazy to do.

[image or embed]

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 9:26 AM

Note, Christian Kunz actually covered comments from John in 2021 about disavowing at the TLD level based on tweets from John at the time, but that technique still never made its way into the documentation.

I totally agree that disavowing at the TLD level is excessive. Google has explained many times that most sites owners never need to touch the disavow tool, let alone disavowing entire TLDs. Google's systems are very good at ignoring spammy, junky links. If you don't have a manual action, didn't set up unnatural links, etc., then you never should have to disavow any links. Also, Bing already removed the disavow tool in 2023 and Google could do the same at any time. It's already buried in the GSC interface, and that's by design.

Anyway, it was an interesting note by John since it was never officially documented. But be careful, disavowing at the TLD level is a huge hammer (like John said). Beware.

GG