This week, Google updated its homepage design with new buttons. We covered this change earlier, and now Google has confirmed the test directly. The new layout pushes users toward AI Mode and other AI features right from the homepage, with buttons for “Create images,” “Ask about files,” and “Brainstorm.” Here is the screenshot of this […]

The post Google confirms new homepage buttons pointing to AI Mode appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

Google appears to be having trouble displaying favicons for websites in search results. We also noticed this issue last week for some sites. Brodie Clark raised this on the SERP Alerts page on X, flagging the favicon issue. Brodie wrote: “Heads-up: Google seems to be struggling to show favicons for a large number of sites […]

The post Is Google struggling to show favicons for sites in search results? appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

Linkedin is an amazing professional networks if you’re looking to expand your reach, find a new job or just learn stuff. I’ve been using it more and more in the last few months, trying to expand my networking reach. But I do understand the shortcomings that it might have, and why many people might be […]

The post 15 best Linkedin alternatives in 2026 appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

It’s time for my second review here at SEW, and I couldn’t be more excited. Today, I’m diving into SERanking and analyzing its features, just as I did in my SerpStat review, which I hope you enjoyed. First off, it’s important to mention that this isn’t a paid review nor have we been compensated to […]

The post SE Ranking review (2026): Powerful, polished and no longer cheap appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

Google’s Generative AI report in Search Console appears to be rolling out globally. This report launched in june, giving property owners visibility into which pages on their site are generating impressions specifically within Google’s generative AI features. As of today, opening Search Console brings up a pop-up pointing directly to this report. It reads: “Get […]

The post Google’s Generative AI report in Search Console now launched globally appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

When tasked with building a highly interactive, tactile web experience, the architecture must serve the art direction. In this article, Alexey Kopytin explains their architectural rationale for building a digital stress-relief squeeze toy game using Lottie animations, DOM events, and distance-based math to maintain absolute control over their designers’ intentional motion.

Gary Illyes clarified how Google handles hreflang and alternate URLs during canonicalization, explaining that these alternate versions aren’t indexed in the traditional sense. This came up in a LinkedIn thread started by Faiez Javaid, who asked: “If Google is choosing by itself one /lang/ as canonical and ignoring others showing in GSC as not indexed, […]

The post Google explains why hreflang alternate URLs show as “not indexed” appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

Bing is testing new “See more” and “Visit site” buttons appearing for sponsored results. We spotted this yesterday, with these buttons showing up for the Forbes website specifically. This looks like a recent test from Bing, though we couldn’t find it appearing for other websites at this time. Clicking the button takes users to the […]

The post Bing tests See more and Visit site buttons for sponsored results appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

Google is now testing a change that displays the websites name directly under sponsored results. Normally, sponsored results just carry the “Sponsored Results” heading, but this test adds a subheading “from website icon and website name.” For example, when searching for ‘SEO,’ three sponsored results appeared, and under the main ‘Sponsored Results’ heading, we saw […]

The post Google tests sponsored results with new subheading appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

Border images are an overlooked feature. One neat fact is that border image slices can run across entire borders on an element, and animating it creates beautiful effects.

---

Animating CSS border-image originally handwritten and published with love on CSS-Tricks. You should really get the newsletter as well.

Smashing Magazine’s in-person conferences are back and returning to the wonderful city of Freiburg next month, September 7–10.

---

SmashingConf Freiburg 2026, September 7-10 originally handwritten and published with love on CSS-Tricks. You should really get the newsletter as well.

Google is testing sitelinks appearing in ads in AI Mode. This is the first time we’ve seen this style of ad the links aren’t clickable, but they appear alongside the ad in a format similar to traditional sitelinks, which is why we’re referring to them as such. Here is a screenshot of how they look. […]

The post AI Mode ads now show non-clickable sitelinks appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

Bing is testing clickable, underlined text within the descriptions of its organic search results. When clicked, this text doesn’t take you to the website’s landing page like you might expect instead, it redirects you to a new search query within Bing’s own results. Here is a screenshot of how it looks. This suggests Bing may […]

The post Bing tests clickable underlined text in organic result descriptions appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

There's a lot of nuance to the <dialog> element, a seemingly little piece of web architecture. I've got some notes from digging into it.

---

Using and Styling the Dialog Element originally handwritten and published with love on CSS-Tricks. You should really get the newsletter as well.

The gap between “you need a library for this” and “the browser does this” keeps closing. A practical guide to auditing your dependencies and finding what the web platform can now handle for you.