A well-rounded view on search engines and search engine marketing from five segments of the Web population represented by senior members of the major SEO/SEM forums on the Internet.https://www.seroundtable.comen-usBarry SchwartzWed, 20 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400en-usnoSearch Engine Roundtablesearch,search,engines,google,yahoo,ask,com,microsoft,live,com,adcenter,adwords,adsense,ypn,barry,schwartz,search,engine,roundtableThe Pulse with Barry Schwartz and co-hosts Ben Pfeiffer and Chris Boggs covers search topics that receive the most buzz from within the search community. Each Tuesday, The Pulse will recap those important search topics in a roundtable style format, allowing the hosts to debate and argue some of the latest trends and stories in the search industry.Search Pulse from the Search Engine RoundtableBarry Schwartzbarry@rustybrick.comBarry Schwartzhttps://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-20-2026-41356.htmlWed, 20 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-20-2026-41356.htmlHere 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. I covered all the Google Search related news from Google I/O including the new intelligent search box...Search Forum Recapbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-intelligent-search-box-41343.htmlWed, 20 May 2026 07:51:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-intelligent-search-box-41343.htmlGoogle has released the first major update to the search bar, the search box, ever - Google is calling it the intelligent Search box. We saw variations of this being tested over the past year, and now it is officially rolling out - as per Liz Reid, Google's Head of Search, via Google I/O.Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-gemini-3-5-flash-agents-41346.htmlWed, 20 May 2026 07:41:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-gemini-3-5-flash-agents-41346.htmlGoogle Search is now using Gemini 3.5 Flash to power AI Mode globally and also there are several new agentic features in and coming to Google Search. These agentic features include information agents, agentic coding, personal intelligence is expanding and Universal Cart, UCP and AP2.Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-mode-preferred-sources-label-41347.htmlWed, 20 May 2026 07:31:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-mode-preferred-sources-label-41347.htmlGoogle is now testing adding the Preferred Sources label in the AI Mode links and citations. It is unclear if Google is showing this link in this AI Mode response because it is a preferred source or if it is just labeling it, and it would show the source anyway - does that make sense?Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adds-adult-consideration-41355.htmlWed, 20 May 2026 07:21:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adds-adult-consideration-41355.htmlGoogle added the hasAdultConsideration property to the Merchant listing and Product variant documentation, and it is now officially supported and listed as a recommended property for both Merchant listing and Product variant structured data with Google Search.Google Search Engine Optimizationbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/microsoft-advertising-updates-41351.htmlWed, 20 May 2026 07:11:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/microsoft-advertising-updates-41351.htmlMicrosoft Advertising announced its monthly releases, and they include updates to the import center, cross-account portfolio bidding, bidding strategy reports, and custom column conversion metrics (that one we covered earlier).Bing Adsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-19-2026-41345.htmlTue, 19 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-19-2026-41345.htmlHere is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...Search Forum Recapbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adds-markdown-files-to-help-docs-41342.htmlTue, 19 May 2026 07:51:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adds-markdown-files-to-help-docs-41342.htmlGoogle has added markdown files, .md.txt files, to the Google Search help documents. But John Mueller from Google said that these are not being used for Search or generative AI responses in Search.Google Search Engine Optimizationbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-i-o-search-ranking-volatility-41344.htmlTue, 19 May 2026 07:41:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-i-o-search-ranking-volatility-41344.htmlToday is Google I/O, where Google announces many of its new features across its products, including Google Search. It is not uncommon to see Google search ranking volatility spike around Google I/O, and that is exactly what we are seeing today - the morning of Google I/O.Google Updatesbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/openai-chatgpt-web-cache-41312.htmlTue, 19 May 2026 07:31:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/openai-chatgpt-web-cache-41312.htmlOpenAI's ChatGPT web search feature does offer a web cache, an offline, locally stored version of web pages that have been previously crawled. This should not come as a surprise, as all search engines store cached versions of web pages (even if they don't show it to us).Other Search Enginesbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-fonts-links-products-copilot-tests-41341.htmlTue, 19 May 2026 07:21:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-fonts-links-products-copilot-tests-41341.htmlMicrosoft is running a number of tests and experiments for Bing Search and the Copilot answers within Bing Search. These tests include font changes, link updates, product results and more. Bing Searchbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/microsoft-clarity-ai-citations-report-41340.htmlTue, 19 May 2026 07:11:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/microsoft-clarity-ai-citations-report-41340.htmlMicrosoft, not to be outdone by Google, added AI citations to Microsoft Clarity, its web analytics tool. This report shows how your content is referenced in AI-generated answers.Web Analyticsbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-18-2026-41339.htmlMon, 18 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-18-2026-41339.htmlHere is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...Search Forum Recapbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/google-optimize-generative-ai-mythbusting-41335.htmlMon, 18 May 2026 07:51:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/google-optimize-generative-ai-mythbusting-41335.htmlOn Friday, Google published a new help document named Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search. This document covers much of what Googlers have said over the years, including a myth-busting section that will trigger some in the industry.Google Search Engine Optimizationbarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)https://www.seroundtable.com/ai-mode-replace-google-search-poll-41337.htmlMon, 18 May 2026 07:41:00 -0400https://www.seroundtable.com/ai-mode-replace-google-search-poll-41337.htmlI asked the SEO community if they think AI Mode will replace Google Search. With Google I/O coming up this Tuesday, there is a lot of speculation around this. And with over 1,000 poll results in, I wanted to share that most of you think AI Mode will not replace Google Search.Googlebarry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)