{"id":399407,"date":"2026-09-15T21:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/google-ai-home-page-test-local-pack-slop-meta-search-engine\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T21:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:24:07","slug":"google-ai-home-page-test-local-pack-slop-meta-search-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/google-ai-home-page-test-local-pack-slop-meta-search-engine\/","title":{"rendered":"Google AI Home Page Test, Local Pack Slop, and Meta Building a Search Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google tested new AI buttons on its home page, AI Overviews for local results surfaced low-quality listicles, and Meta appears to be crawling the web to build its own search engine. The week also brought Google Ads changes, a Cloudflare misconfiguration warning, and a lawsuit update between Google and SerpApi.<\/p>\n<h2>What moved in Google Search this week<\/h2>\n<p>Search ranking volatility spiked again, this time on August 12-13. Google is testing new buttons on its home page labeled &#8220;Create Images,&#8221; &#8220;Ask About Files,&#8221; and &#8220;Brainstorm,&#8221; which point to deeper AI features for signed-in users. Google Search Console expanded its generative AI performance report to cover more query types. AI Overviews for local results were found pulling from low-quality listicles, and Google is also generating AI images inside AI Overviews in the wild.<\/p>\n<h2>Technical SEO and indexing issues<\/h2>\n<p>Google Search Console showed spammy Google-selected canonical tags, which is a known annoyance for site owners. Googlebot is reporting a California IP address, but the traffic may not actually originate there. A misconfigured Cloudflare account can hurt SEO badly, so site owners are advised to double-check their settings. Some SEOs have been taking over expired X accounts previously used by Google employees, a gray-area practice now drawing attention.<\/p>\n<h2>Local and Business Profile updates<\/h2>\n<p>Google Business Profiles now disallows repeated bilingual names and transliterated scripts. Users can now report owner responses to reviews, a small but useful tool for keeping local listings clean.<\/p>\n<h2>Google Ads changes<\/h2>\n<p>Google is still poaching advertiser accounts from agencies. The manual language targeting setting in Google Ads will be dropped in September. Sponsored results are being tested with advertiser names and favicons at the top. Both Google Ads and Google Analytics gained new AI features. Google Merchant Center performance reporting updates are scheduled for August 24th.<\/p>\n<h2>Microsoft, ChatGPT, and the wider search landscape<\/h2>\n<p>Microsoft Advertising added a bulk edit tool and an appeal process for disapproved assets. ChatGPT Ads is testing AI-generated descriptive headlines. OpenAI is also making it harder to find sources inside the ChatGPT interface, which makes verification harder for users. Google amended its lawsuit against SerpApi, citing licensed content. Meta and Facebook have been observed crawling the web at scale, suggesting the company may be building an AI-powered search engine.<\/p>\n<h2>FAQ<\/h2>\n<h3>What new AI buttons is Google testing on its home page?<\/h3>\n<p>Google tested buttons labeled &#8220;Create Images,&#8221; &#8220;Ask About Files,&#8221; and &#8220;Brainstorm&#8221; on its home page, aimed at signed-in users exploring AI features.<\/p>\n<h3>Why are AI Overviews for local results showing low-quality content?<\/h3>\n<p>AI Overviews for local queries were observed pulling from low-quality listicles, producing answers that read like AI slop rather than useful local information.<\/p>\n<h3>Is Meta building a search engine?<\/h3>\n<p>Meta and Facebook have been seen crawling the web extensively, which points to the company working on its own AI-powered search product.<\/p>\n<h2>Related coverage<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/google-business-profiles-local-seo-success-data\/\">What 1.8 million Google Business Profiles Reveal About Local SEO Success<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What new AI buttons is Google testing on its home page?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Google tested buttons labeled \\\"Create Images,\\\" \\\"Ask About Files,\\\" and \\\"Brainstorm\\\" on its home page, aimed at signed-in users exploring AI features.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why are AI Overviews for local results showing low-quality content?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"AI Overviews for local queries were observed pulling from low-quality listicles, producing answers that read like AI slop rather than useful local information.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Is Meta building a search engine?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Meta and Facebook have been seen crawling the web extensively, which points to the company working on its own AI-powered search product.\"}}]}]}<\/script><\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin:2.5em 0 1em;opacity:.35\" \/>\n<p style=\"font-size:.85em;opacity:.7\">This article summarizes reporting from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/video-08-14-2026-41871.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">seroundtable.com<\/a>. See our <a href=\"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/disclaimer\/\">editorial disclaimer<\/a> for how our articles are produced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weekly search recap: Google tests AI buttons on its home page, AI Overviews pull low-quality local content, and Meta appears to be crawling the web.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":399409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_title":"Google AI Home Page, Local Slop, Meta Search","rank_math_description":"Google tests AI home page buttons, AI Overviews surface low-quality local results, and Meta crawls the web for a possible search engine.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"google ai home page","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-news"],"elementor_data":null,"elementor_edit_mode":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399408,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399407\/revisions\/399408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}