Shockwaves were sent through the SEO industry as a new test spotted AI Overview citations with a white background, not a blue one.

Spotted by Sachin Patel on X, the citations still appear to the right of the results, but in his example are on a non-shaded background. Here are some of his screenshots:

White:

Blue:

Google is changing the color design of the AI Overview link cards. Previously, they had a blue background; now they appear with a white background @brodieseo @rustybrick @gaganghotra_ pic.twitter.com/6Z3y9U1gGT

'" Sachin Patel (@SachuPatel53124) March 27, 2026

I still see the shady AI Overviews personally:

I personally like the blue shade, it makes the citations feel more noticeable, so I can then not click on them.

Glenn Gabe and Brodie Clark also spotted these:

Oh, and the new formatting being tested for citations is also present in AI Mode. Again, the links definitely pop more... pic.twitter.com/7P8mLXxVJ2

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 27, 2026

Google is now testing out white citation cards within AI overviews instead of the standard blue cards on desktop.

The change now draws more attention toward the in-answer bubble links that rolled out last month, which remain in blue with this experiment.

This was first'... pic.twitter.com/kbPuHTvylP

'" SERP Alert '¡ï' (@SERPalerts) March 29, 2026

Here is another:

@rustybrick did you see the Ai overview card became small? Is it new? pic.twitter.com/RfHLNK38mr

— ylsSEO (@seoyls) March 27, 2026

Forum discussion over in the shade.

In his quest for the best cushions on earth, Sachin Patel has spotted another change to Bing's shopping SERP.

In this test, there is a huge section of sponsored products in a double-rowed carousel along with some cards from individual websites (organic).

As you can see in the images from Sachin's X account, the sponsored section is pretty enormous:

Bing Test: Increased the number of products added to the shopping cart through ads. @rustybrick @MordyOberstein pic.twitter.com/ru5fxJnASF

'" Sachin Patel (@SachuPatel53124) March 27, 2026

I both don't use Bing much, nor shop for cushions, so take my results with a grain of salt, as here is what I see:

I guess Sachin's format is just way better than the one I get.

Forum discussion in the comfy corner.

Google is testing a new way of showing citations in AI Overviews. Honestly, this feels like a throwback to the days of 'SGE.'

Spotted by Sachin Patel on X, the format has ginormous link cards at the bottom of the AI summary:

Google AI Overview is now showing a new type of link cards @rustybrick @brodieseo @gaganghotra_ @glenngabe pic.twitter.com/puJnYWEgqf

'" Sachin Patel (@SachuPatel53124) March 24, 2026

It's just a giant blue card broken up like a merged cell in a table that includes a thumbnail of no apparent value, the site name, favicon, description, and title.

Again, here's how the citations normally appear on the right side of the output:

It sort of feels like something just went wrong here, and the proportionally sized blue box got shoved under the output. Maybe it's a bug?

Barry previously reported on a test that shows a very similar format but in normal proportions back in 2025.

There is no way that this test gets rolled out. This thing is ugly. I guess maybe it's more noticeable, so maybe more clicks. All the more reason this test never gets rolled out.

Forum discussion rolling out.

On March 17th, Google announced Personal Intelligence was hitting AI Mode for all US users who opt in. Prior to this you had to have a Google AI Pro and Ultra account to access the functionality.

Well, the rest of the world feels left behind. As usual.

Chu Zhen asked Google's Nick Fox if Google 'forgot' about 'paid subscribers' who do not live in the US (or I guess who don't want to spring for a VPN either).

Did Google forget about the PAID subscribers outside of US?

'" Chu Zhen (@ChuZhen1) March 17, 2026

Nick replied back saying, 'working on it, stay tuned.'

working on it, stay tuned!

'" Nick Fox (@thefox) March 20, 2026

I assume the 'working on it' part refers to a more global release for paid users (as opposed to 'working on it' meaning working on not forgetting users beyond the US).

I think it's safe to assume that this was Google's intention all along. Very often, a feature gets a release in the US before Google releases it to additional markets. Meaning Personal Intelligence in AI Mode is coming'... at some point.

Stay tuned for forum discussion, working on it.

Google is creating their title links on the SERP and not relying on a one-to-one duplication of your title tag is'... not new.

Back in 2021, it became evident that Google was not simply 'copy and pasting' your title tag and was generating custom title links more often than it had been. Correct, even in 2021, this was not new; the frequency was.

Now, according to a report by The Verge, but as personally read on Google 9to5 (since I am not paying for access to The Verge and have no intention to, thus they do not get this juicy link) - Google is using AI to generate title links for some new articles and beyond.

Insert dramatic music.

Danny Goodwin, from Search Engine Land, reported that Google confirmed the test saying it was 'small' and 'narrow.' (Which is generally how people would describe my mindset.)

Google also said that this test impacts news sites, but not exclusively news sites.

I get the frustration that you want to control your own title link appearance. I personally think that news content should be left to the author (who are generally good at writing headlines).

I will say that title tag generation is one of the places where I am less concerned about AI-generated content. It's generally half decent at that task from my experience. I also wonder how many AI-created titles are being replaced with AI-created title links that we are complaining about here.

There is one (perhaps more than one) use case where I do think this is helpful. And this goes back to my days at Wix and when Google started writing more of its own title links and relying less on the title tag'.... There are a lot of website owners out there who are not inserting title tags or who are not writing compelling or even relevant headers and headlines. In this case, I think what Google is doing can be helpful. In many cases, I am sure it's just frustrating.

Forum discussion by opening your window, sticking your head out, and yelling into the street.

Google is testing a new label in the Discover feed that reads 'Google News Showcase.'

This was spotted on X by Damien:

I think it's a new "Google News Showcase" display on Google Discover with a "see more" link, like X post and AI Overview.

CC @gaganghotra_ @rustybrick #googlediscover pic.twitter.com/xI4oXkTzAR

'" Damien (andell) (@AndellDam) March 18, 2026

You can see the label in the button's left corner of the image, which should make it stick out on the feed more, which in theory would translate into more clicks.

At the same time, this card test also shows a short description of text under the image, with the ability to expand the test to 'see more.' So there go your clicks you thought you just got.

This is very similar (if not the same) as how Discover treats X posts within the feed, as you can see in the example below:

Forum discussion is in the cards.

Google has been trying to leverage the SERP (and beyond) as entry points to AI Mode for a good while. For example, they've added AI Mode to the search bar AI Mode to the search bar on the Google homepage. One of many examples.

This was again made evident as the Search Labs 'beaker' icon was removed from the home tab on mobile (Android devices).

In its place, Google has added an icon to access your AI Mode history to offer easy access to the property.

This is per a report from 9to5 Google on March 15th. Here's how it looks via Glenn Gabe on X:

Bye-bye beaker, hello AI Mode history -> Google app starts rolling out quick access to AI Mode history

"In the Home tab (Discover feed), Google has replaced the Labs beaker with a button for AI Mode history, which recently switched from a circle to this lined version. Tapping'... pic.twitter.com/phvaG1yTyQ

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 16, 2026

Forum discussion in Greg Finn's underused conference room.

Did you know that you can see live sports data in AI Mode? (I warned you, lots of sports examples to come.)

Not sure if this is 'new' or not, because honestly, I had never really thought to use AI Mode for something like this.

I literally searched for a sports entity (i.e., a sports team) as the game was happening, went into AI Mode, and saw this:

I was able to replicate this for any game that was live in the league at that moment.

I did a follow-up the next day, and the same story.

Here's what it looks like on mobile:

I tried to see if it relates to all 'live information.' You can see that AI Mode will tell me today's forecast when I queried 'weather in nyc' but didn't quite get the same entity-based "card" response:

Forum discussion at spring training.

A new study from Smallbiz Edge points to Google showing less call buttons in Local Packs.

The study looked at 172 keywords across 15 locations (a total of 2,580 searches) and found that call buttons in Local Packs only appeared around 20% of the time.

As Joy Hawkins put it on X, that means '4 out 5 searches in the map pack have no call button.'

Google has been removing the call button from local packs dramatically over the past year. This study of 2,580 search results showed that only 510 had a call button.

This means, 4 out of 5 searches in the map pack have no call button ð

This trend is only really noticeable on'... pic.twitter.com/WIRNreDnlJ

'" Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) March 16, 2026

Keep in mind that while we are talking about 2,580 search instances, the scope of keywords is limited to 172. That raises the question as to whether the data set would lean towards instances that would not have a call button repeating across multiple days.

Either way, it's worth taking note of and paying attention to if you are in the local space.

Full study here

For forum discussion, call collect.

Is Bing adding AI-sourced shopping results? This was spotted by Sachin Patel, who apparently is in desperate need of new cushions:

Bing has introduced AI-based recommendations in the Shopping tab. @rustybrick @glenngabe pic.twitter.com/G6dslww3xk

'" Sachin Patel (@SachuPatel53124) March 13, 2026

What this appears to be is Bing looking at various sources from the web that establish the best product variation to buy.

In the example Sachin shares, you can see that the list of products was recommended by three sources from the web. This format is very reminiscent of how search engines source AI results, which I guess is why there is suspicion AI is behind this (what is AI not behind these days, am I right?).

You then have what Bing calls a 'curated selection' that is based on 'expert recommendation options.'

I'm not 100% sure this is AI-produced, but it could simply be pulled from the links shown on the pages that recommended the products.

Am I not seeing something here?

I tried to replicate it, but could not. So either way, it appears this format within Bing Shopping may be a new test (I don't use Bing Shopping enough to know).

Forum discussion wherever cushions are sold.

Google appears to have added a 'Stores' tab to its Google Shopping experience.

This was spotted by Sachin Patel on X:

Is the 'Stores' header in the Shopping tab a new update? @brodieseo @rustybrick @gaganghotra_ pic.twitter.com/poBd8jq8i4

'" Sachin Patel (@SachuPatel53124) March 13, 2026

Brodie Clark confirmed that he also had not seen the tab in the past.

Don't recall coming across that one before

'" Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) March 13, 2026

I was able to replicate this myself:

When I clicked on the 'More places' button at the bottom of the initial results I was moved over to the Places tab within the main search navigation bar.

The Stores tab is not to be confused with the 'Nearby' filter (which is confusing simply because it shows options that are not geographically nearby, such as eBay). The Nearby filter in Google Shopping adds the word 'nearby' to the query automatically and produces a new set of results.

This set of results shows a per-product format with various buying options per product when clicked on (when available).

Forum discussion in your own mind.

Looks like the chatter about Google hitting LLM-focused self-serving (and utterly trash) listicles has heated up a bit recently. I've seen a few cases across social where people are showing a more recent algorithmic hit on sites using this tactic.

Here is an example from Lily Ray, who notes she now has 'a list of about 30 sites that fit this exact criteria.'

Found another site with 200+ "best" listicles - this one is a very expensive exact-match domain owned by an SEO agency, where the #1 best company in each listicle is either that agency or the EMD itself.

It worked really throughout 2025, but the drop also started right on ~Jan'... pic.twitter.com/aOXbkLh5SF

'" Lily Ray ð (@lilyraynyc) March 12, 2026

Gagan Ghorta recently posted that he has seen various enterprise companies scaling content with LLM-focused activities (that resulted in less-than-quality content production) get hit in the Google organic results.

In the example, he takes a pretty hard shot at Webflow, which has been very vocal about its 'AEO' focus.

We're living in probably the most weirdest Enterprise SEO times! So many big brands who scaled search traffic using unnecessary and irrelevant content losing traffic from usual search results nowadays meanwhile senior executives working for those brands posting that their GEO/AEO'... pic.twitter.com/BiVxDrmHlY

'" Gagan Ghotra (@gaganghotra_) March 6, 2026

This is just one example, so I'm curious if people think enterprise companies are pursuing this course of behavior across the board. My personal experience is that enterprise companies are split on this line of thinking.

Regardless, we first saw this back when Barry Schwartz, web technologist and lead reporter at SERountable, covered it on February 4th, 2026. Folks like Lily Ray and Glenn Gabe noted huge drop-offs in organic visibility for sites using these tactics at the time.

I personally don't think it's just listicles; I've seen cases of thin-content targeting LLMs beyond just listicles get hit. Which brings up the question of how to balance LLM visibility performance with organic search performance?

However, as Lily noted, folks are seeing immediate results with these sorts of tactics. It does appear, though, that they eventually hit a wall with Google's organic search algorithms.

Definitely give Lily's original post covering the topic a read.

What are you seeing?

Forum discussion out there in the ether.

Google is testing its AI Mode feature 'Ask about' within the citation boxes.

This was spotted by Sachin Patel over on X. Patel showed that when clicking on the citations within the output, the 'Ask about' feature appeared at the top of the citation box overlay.

Google AI mode has added an 'Ask about this' option above the sources where all URLs are displayed. @brodieseo @rustybrick @gaganghotra_ pic.twitter.com/dXb70kb0Bc

'" Sachin Patel (@SachuPatel53124) March 11, 2026

Clicking on 'Ask about' here automatically pulled a new prompt into the search box.

Previously, Google began inserting the 'Ask about' feature as an overlay when hovering over various elements within AI Mode outputs.

I was not able to replicate this myself. Here is what I see for a similar query:

Forum discussion wherever people still talk to one another.

Back in August, Google announced that personalization would enter the fray for those who opted into the AI Mode experiment in Labs. Google said, ' AI Mode can use your previous conversations, along with places you've searched for or tapped on in Search and Maps to deliver more relevant options, personalized to you. So if AI Mode infers that you have a preference for Italian food, plant-based meals, and places that have outdoor seating, you may get results suggesting options like these.'

I caught this happening for a topic I was researching about a month ago. I had engaged in a cluster of searches, clicks, etc., for a specific brand. When I ran a query related to that brand's vertical, Google's AI Mode indicated 'personalized' results. This basically put the brand I was interacting with at the top of the output. Which is significant.

Note, I did not opt in to have any of my properties, such as Gmail or Google Photos, connected. This level of personalization is based on my user behavior.

For privacy issues, I could not document that case.

That said, I did stumble on a new example of Google looking for personalized info in AI Mode. This time, I was able to document it. I have not seen many examples of this shared across the web, which is why I am sharing this with you now.

When I searched for 'best quarterback ever,' I noticed Google indicated 'Checking for personalized info' while processing its output.

It happened to give me this result, asking for better feedback, which makes sense given the personalization factor. (This feature is not new.)

I ran a follow-up with the query 'best baseball team,' and again I saw the parsing for personalization show up.

This time, I got a typical-looking output that at the bottom indicated 'Try without personalization'.

So I tried without personalization. It was basically the same thing.

The top paragraph was all but the same. I then got a list of 'rankings' of each team, just one in paragraph form and the other in a table. There was some additional context in the personalized result around historical information, but that was about it.

[By the way, between Glenn Gabe writing and me, you're going to get a lot of baseball examples.]

Note, in the example I could not show, AI Mode did place the brand it knew I was interested in at the top of the results, noting my personal history.

Again, this is not 'new' per se - I just haven't seen it documented extensively and thought it was interesting.

Are you seeing this show up in your AI Mode results?

Forum discussion somewhere.