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.

Google announced Search Live has launched globally, for all languages and locations where AI Mode is available. Google said this is possible by its "new audio and voice model, Gemini 3.1 Flash Live, which delivers even more natural and intuitive conversations."

With this expansion, people in more than 200 countries & territories can have real-time conversations with Search in AI Mode, using both voice and camera.

Google also added, "The new model is also inherently multilingual, which means that people around the world can now speak with Search in their preferred language."

To go Live with Search, simply open the Google app on Android or iOS and tap the Live icon under the Search bar. From there, you can ask your question out loud to get a helpful audio response, then continue the conversation with follow-up questions or dive deeper with helpful web links.

Here is Rajan Patel from Google talking about it:

Search Live is going global! ð Starting today, people around the world can have conversations with Search using their voice and camera. And thanks to Gemini 3.1 Flash Live, it's faster, more natural, and fully multilingual.

It's my favorite way to use AI Mode - and a total'... pic.twitter.com/0rbI9IxMGL

— Rajan Patel (@rajanpatel) March 26, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

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 testing changing out some of the links within AI Mode to show as overlay cards, instead of take you directly to the website it is mentioning. This obviously will result in fewer direct clicks to those websites.

This was spotted by Brodie Clark who posted a video of this in action on X and on SERPAlerts. Brodie wrote, "Google is testing out the new bubble link approach with embedded links in AI Mode. Instead of clicking through directly to the website when a brand is mentioned, the bubble link treatment now means the user has to click again if they want to visit the website."

Here is a GIF of it in action:

Here is how it works normally:

Last month, Google did improve the links within AI Mode and AI Overviews and maybe this is a way to make those links more consistent with those? But it also will likely result in these specific links driving less traffic.

Forum discussion at X.

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 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.

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

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.

As you know, Google's Danny Sullivan stepped down from his role as the Search Liaison, and that support channel closed down on August 1, 2025. That isn't stopping Google News support team from advising publishers to follow the Google Search Liaison account for updates.

I assume the Google News support team did not update its support reply template but maybe if I highlight the issue here, the team will update it.

I spotted this response in the comments area over here, where the template still says, "If there is a system-wide Search issue, you can refer to our public channels as these will be the first and only place that engineering posts updates. Please check the Search Liaison social posts for updates or check our support documentation."

Here is a screenshot that was posted by Dimitris Abrazis:

Of course, for someone to need support and click on a broken link - well, that can be upsetting.

Forum discussion at SER comments.

I am not sure how new this is but the What people are saying box within Google Search now also shows the more popular comments and latest comments for Reddit threads.

I assume Google is able to get this data through its licensing deal with Reddit?

This seems fully live for me, so this might be old, but Punit noted this on X, so it might be new.

Here is a screenshot:

Forum discussion at X.

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 a new knowledge panel design for when you search for an Instagram account of a notable person. Google will display the individual's knowledge panel, promoting the Instagram card higher up in that panel.

This was spotted by Radu Oncescu who posted these screenshots on X - I cannot replicate this, but here are his screenshots:

I guess this makes sense from a searcher's perspective?

Forum discussion at X.

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.

Google has offered this feature that shows you your past searches, including being able to see your related activity searches from the Google Search results. Now, it seems, Google added a chart to show that search activity over time.

I am not 100% sure if this is new, but Vijay Chauhan thinks so and he shared examples of it on X - here is the chart added to the top of this feature:

I think the chart part is new, the other aspects are not new.

Forum discussion at X.

Robby Stein, VP, Product at Google Search, was interviewed by Zain Kah on Google AI Search features. While most of the conversation are items we already know, he did say a few interesting things that I want to pull out.

He mentioned how Google has taught its models on how to link out to sources. So based on query fan out, Google will add link cards to the most trusted sources that match those queries.

Here is the video embed:

''Every time you're thinking, what if this thing doesn't go well? You do like a probabilistic swap and you say, what if it does go well?''@rmstein VP, Product at Google Search, breaks down how AI is fundamentally changing the way we search and process information.

Here is'... pic.twitter.com/mxi1uGrmsI

— Zain Kahn (@heykahn) March 5, 2026

Here are my notes on what I felt was worth pulling out of the conversation:

• Not seeing mass replacement of searches people did in the day but more expansionary, new conversational searches
• People who are used to being in search everyday can now ask that more complex question using AI Mode
• Overtime people will use multiple AI services for multiple needs
• But you don't need AI for everything
• Google taught the model on how to link out based on the query fan out
• The Gemini 3 models added the ability to do more thinking and to do more actions (such as code)
• Why Personal Intelligence in Google is so useful
• Google is quickly approaching the point where Google AI can plan everything out for you and then book and buy through AI agents

Forum discussion at X.

Google is testing a larger header image for the Google Discover publisher header images. It looks a lot more magazine-type and style.

This test was spotted by Damien on X and he shared a couple of screenshots of this. He also wrote, "Wow, a new Google profile on Google Discover."

Here are the screenshots:

You can see this directly by going to this URL.

I suspect some publishers were able to upload larger images for Google to use with Google Discover? This seems to jive with the rumors around more publisher controls coming to Google Discover.

Forum discussion at X.

Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger interviewed Google's head of Search, Liz Reid, on Google's progression of AI into Search. It felt like a very candid interview that is worth listening to.

In short, Liz is still not sure if Gemini and Google Search will ever fully converge or not. She does see a lot of opportunity with personalization in Google Search. Slop, not just AI slop, is something Google has been fighting for a while.

Danny Goodwin at Search Engine Land also covered this.

Here is my video:

Here are my notes:

• Search was never really static before AI, i.e. knowledge graph, etc - search has changed a lot over the years.
• Google takes responsibility for the pace of change very seriously. So Google doesn't want to change too much and make it hard but they also see a lot of opportunities with these new features. So labs, opt in, and slow roll out is common.
• People really picked up on AI Overviews very quickly
• AI Agents will do a lot of the work but it won't be exclusive, only agents. People still want to hear from the source directly.
• Google will adapt to AI Agents like Google did for mobile
• Liz spoke about BERT, MUM, Google Lens, and other AI products
• Gemini vs Google Search: They share the underlining models together; and work together to improve the models for users. Gemini is more productivity or creation and search is more information based and connecting with the web.
• Liz doesn't know if Gemini and Search ever converge or not.
• How people are using multiple tools is evolving, people are jumping from ChatGPT to Google to others.
• People are using other tools but still, Google Search is growing. It is not a zero sum game.
• Google Personal Intelligence is one of Google's first step to personalizing responses to the user
• People have created a lot of slop before AI, AI just makes it much more scalable. So Google has a bunch of experience with this and spam.
• AI can create better content, and it also can create slop.
• Google has to fight the AI slop, to make sure to get the great content.
• Plus, publishers need to create great content.
• People are switching to user generated content, listening to more podcasts, etc. People are going to UGC over journalists.
• Google's job is to surface that awesome content.
• Google can understand audio and video content well.
• Paid wall content, if allowed, Google can crawl it.
• Pay walls are also complicated for users, because some won't pay.
• Search is able to find most of the content and new opportunities are being created with this new content.
• Liz mentioned preferred sources, so users can say they like a site and Google will show that site more often
• Google should also surface the publishers that user is paying for, not the others, if they have content that matches because that user have access to that content already.
• There is a real opportunity for personalization, to show content that user trusts

Forum discussion at X.

Google is testing a new widget for the Google Discover feed where you can follow news publishers and/or topics. It is called the "home follow widget."

I personally do not see this feature but Damien spotted it and posted about it on X - he said, "In Google Discover, you can "follow" a team's news directly in the widgets at the top of the Discover feed."

The videocast he posted was in French, but here is a Google Translated image of the button:

Here is the French version:

Google Discover continues to be a more and more important source of traffic for many publishers.

Forum discussion at X.

In English too pic.twitter.com/OwT4UGH4VJ

— Damien (andell) (@AndellDam) March 10, 2026