Google will no longer support FAQ rich results as of May 7, 2026. This means you will no longer see FAQ rich results in the Google Search results going forward.
Plus, Google Search Console will stop reporting on FAQ structured data.
What Google said. Google posted a note at the top of the FAQ structured data developer documentation saying:
FAQ rich results are no longer appearing in Google Search. We will be dropping the FAQ search appearance, rich result report, and support in the Rich results test in June 2026. To allow time for adjusting your API calls, support for the FAQ rich result in the Search Console API will be removed in August 2026.
Remove code. You can remove the FAQ structured data from your code, if you want but you can also leave it. Other search engines may be able to continue to process it and use it for their own purposes.
Why we care. Rich results have helped web pages with click-through rates and get more traffic. FAQ rich results may have helped as well. But that is now no longer supported.
Keep an eye on your pages with FAQ structured data to see if your traffic from Google is impacted or not.
Google is dropping the back button trigger for AdSense vignette ads on June 15, 2026 due to the new Google search penalty for back button hijacking. Google wrote, “Starting June 15, 2026, the browser back button will no longer trigger a vignette ad.”
What is changing. Google explained that the back button trigger will no longer work after June 15th. The “change will apply automatically for all publishers who have opted in to “Allow additional triggers for vignette ads” and will take effect across all supported browsers (including Chrome, Edge, and Opera).” Google added.
A Google spokesperson told me these same updates will apply to Ad Manager as well.
Why the change. Google explained that the Google Search team “recently introduced a new policy against “back button hijacking” — a practice where websites or scripts interfere with a user’s ability to navigate back to their previous page. To ensure our publishers remain compliant with these latest user experience and search quality guidelines, we are removing the trigger that shows a vignette ad when the user navigates backward from the suite of vignette ad triggers.”
This comes after the search community called this out to Google and Google is making the right change here. Of course, some publishers will not be happy because that trigger may have earned them a lot of money.
Why we care. If you currently have the allow additional triggers for vignette ads setting on with AdSense, keep in mind, one of the triggers, the back button trigger, will be disabled on June 15th. It may impact your earnings, but it will ensure that your site does not get penalized by the back button hijacking penalty.
Google announced five changes to how the search engine will show links and citations within its AI Search features – AI Mode and AI Overviews. These changes aim to make it “easy for you to connect with authentic voices and explore useful information across the web,” Google’s Hema Budaraju, VP, Product Management, wrote.
Here are the five changes that are rolling out in AI Mode and AI Overviews:
(1) Suggested angles at the end of the AI responses. Google may show suggestions for where to go next at the end of many AI responses within AI Mode or AI Overviews. This “section links to unique articles or in-depth analyses on different facets of your topic, making it easy to satisfy your curiosity,” Google explained.
Here is what it looks like:
(2) Easier access to your news subscriptions. Google will highlight links from your news subscriptions in AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google said this makes it easier for “you can quickly access the content you trust and get more value from your subscriptions.” Google added in its early testing that searchers were “significantly more likely to click links that were labeled as their subscriptions.”
(3) Social media and online discussions include creator’s name, handle and community name. When Google’s AI features cite social media or online discussions, Google will not just include the name of the website, but also the creator’s name and handle – along with the community name.
This is to make it easier to understand these responses are from firsthand sources. We saw Google testing this earlier.
Here is what it looks like:
(4) More links, next to relevant text. Google also said it will show more links directly within the AI responses, right next to the relevant text it was citing. This should encourage searchers to dig deeper into those websites because those citations and links are right next to the related text.
Here is what it looks like:
(5) Hover over inline links. Google’s AI features will give you a quick preview of a website when you hover your cursor over an inline link in the AI feature, AI Mode or AI Overviews, on desktop. We saw Google testing this in February and I feel this is a better method to encourage searchers to click over.
The information in the overlay includes name of the website or title of the web page and maybe more useful information.
Here is what it looks like:
Why we care. Google wrote, “We’ll keep testing, learning and improving these features based on what works best for you.”
These changes, in my opinion, should increase the chances of searchers clicking from the AI experiences to the cited page. And it also shows Google is making changes to try to improve the overall ecosystem. The big question is, will these changes be enough?
Earlier this year, Google announced Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a protocol to allow AI-agents to buy directly from search. This went live only in Google’s AI Mode interface in February. But now, it seems to be rolling out in the main Google Search results where there are retailers that support UCP.
What it looks like. Brodie Clark posted a screenshot, which I can replicate, of the UCP-powered “Buy” button in the product detail overlay within Google Search, specifically for the retailer Wayfair. Here is his screenshot:
Clicking the Buy button will connect your Google checkout account with Wayfair and make the purchase without having to go to the Wayfair website to checkout.
About UCP. UCP establishes a shared language between AI agents and commerce systems, removing the need for custom integrations across agents or platforms.
UCP works with existing standards (e.g., Agent2Agent, Agent Payments Protocol, and Model Context Protocol).
Google co-developed it with partners including Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, and Target.
More than 20 additional companies across retail and payments have already endorsed it.
Why we care. A lot of people are saying AI-agents are the future of the web, well, here is a clear sign of how agents can help retailers make money. While Wayfair did not get any traffic from Google for this query, and there is no click, 0 click-through rates from Google Search. There was an impression in Google Search that led to a purchase without any clicks to the web site.
This won’t necessarily stop all searchers for wanting to visit the site and learn more about the product before purchasing. Just like it doesn’t stop all buyers from going into a physical store to touch and feel the product before purchasing. But some may just click “Buy” and never visit your site.
Now that it is rolling out in the main search results, it is something to keep a closer eye on.
Google is trying a new method of bot authentication named Web Bot Auth. Google posted a new help document that explains that Web Bot Auth is a “new cryptographic protocol that helps websites to validate that bots are authentic.”
The goal of Web Bot Auth is to help you automate the process of authenticating which AI Agent bots are authentic and which are fraud.
Limited test. Google said the search compan is “testing the protocol with some AI agents hosted on Google infrastructure.” Not all Google user agents are using Web Bot Auth and Google is not yet signing every request of agents using the protocol.
What is Web Bot Auth. Google defined Web Bot Auth as “Web Bot Auth is an experimental cryptographic protocol used to authenticate requests sent by bots. Instead of relying solely on self-reported headers and IP addresses, Web Bot Auth allows agents to cryptographically sign their requests.”
Web Bot Auth can bring the following benefits according to Google:
Future-proofing: Help establish a web where agent providers and websites can build mutual trust and make informed access decisions.
Cryptographic certainty: Move beyond easily spoofed headers to a verified identity and decouple agent identity from IP addresses.
Better observability: Gain clearer insights into how agents interact with your content.
Why we care. As AI Agents become more and more common across the web, managing which Agents can access your site and web pages may become more and more of a challenge. This new method of authentication may help you allow authentic AI Agents and block the inauthentic AI Agents.
Again, this is an “experimental” feature right now, so keep track of its progress.
Google said it has “resolved” an issue with logging data within Google Search Console reporting. The logging issue happened between May 13, 2025 through April 27, 2026, about 50 weeks. The resolution did not fix the past data, but it did fix the issue going forward.
“A logging error prevented Search Console from accurately reporting impressions from May 13, 2025 until April 27, 2026. This issue has been resolved. As a result, you may notice a decrease in impressions in the Search Console Performance report. Only impressions and related metrics – CTR and average position – were affected; clicks were not affected by the error, and this issue affected data logging only.”
What was fixed. Just to be clear, Google has not fixed the data from May 13, 2025 through April 27, 2026 but just fixed the data going forward. So keep this in mind when reviewing the data in that date range.
John Mueller from Google confirmed on Bluesky that this is only fixed going forward and the old data will not be fixed.
Why we care. When reviewing your Search Console data, please note that for about 50 weeks, almost a year, the reports may be off and you may see a decrease in impressions, and thus click-through rate and average position data are also impacted.
Ask.com, formerly Ask Jeeves, which launched 29 years ago on June 3, 1996, before Google launched, shut down on May 1, 2026.
Ask.com now has a turn down page that reads:
Every great search must come to an end. As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com. After 25 years of answering the world’s questions, Ask.com officially closed on May 1, 2026.
“To the millions who asked…” We are deeply grateful to the brilliant engineers, designers, and teams who built and supported Ask over the decades. And to you—the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world—thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust.
Jeeves’ spirit endures.
Ask.com has been known as an answer engine, the Jeeves butler was who you spoke to in the early days. With AI and all these new answer engines, Ask.com could have deployed its own unique taste for its answer engine. But I guess with all the competition and the market being harder, IAC, Ask.com’s parent company, decided to turn it down.
Ask.com will always have a place in the search marketing industry and Ask, including Jeeves, will be missed.
Google’s Preferred Sources now supports all languages, not just the English language. “Preferred Sources is now rolling out globally in all supported languages,” Google wrote on its blog this morning.
“This feature gives you more control over the news you see on Search by letting you choose the outlets and sites you want to appear more often in Top Stories,” Google added.
In December, Google rolled out preferred sources globally but it only supported English. Now it supports all languages globally as well.
Stats. Google added some interesting data including:
“Readers are twice as likely to click through to a site after marking it as a Preferred Source”
“People have already selected over 200,000 unique sites — from niche local blogs to global news desks”
Preferred Sources. Preferred Sources let searchers star publications in the Top Stories section of Google Search, and Google uses that signal to show more stories from those starred outlets. The feature entered beta in June, rolled out in the U.S. and India in August, and is now expanding globally.
How it works. You click the star icon to the right of the Top Stories header in search results. After that, you can choose your preferred sources – assuming the site is publishing fresh content.
Google will then start to show you more of the latest updates from your selected sites in Top Stories “when they have new articles or posts that are relevant to your search,” Google added.
Why we care. Traffic from Google Search is hard and if you can get your readers, loyal readers, to make your site a preferred source, that can help. Google said those users are twice as likely to click, which can help drive more traffic.
So add the preferred source icon to your site and encourage users to sign up. You can make Search Engine Land a preferred source by clicking here.
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