Google Search briefly told users that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had died on August 12, 2026, displaying the false date prominently inside his Knowledge Panel: Google has now responded to the backlash and removed the misinformation. In a public response on X, the company said the result was not manually changed by anyone at Google […]

The post Google Search falsely declared Sam Altman dead, but Google says nobody did it manually appeared first on Search Engine Watch - SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.

The warning is correct. And the recommended fixes you've probably seen are wrong. Here's what you can do instead to properly fix the issue.

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Blocked aria-hidden: The Warning is Right, and Every Fix You’ve Found is Wrong originally handwritten and published with love on CSS-Tricks. You should really get the newsletter as well.

Google is testing a new heading for its sponsored store section, swapping “Sponsored” for “Featured Store,” with a new subheading that reads “Shop these top products.” This section itself isn’t new Google was testing it in the SERP last year, but it now appears Google is changing the heading used for it. Here is a […]

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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 […]

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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.

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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.

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

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.

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