Google

2026-08-18

Google rolls out the August 2026 spam update

Google released the August 2026 spam update on August 18, 2026 and confirmed on August 21 that it had finished rolling out, a total run of 2 days and 16 hours. Google's Search Status Dashboard records the update as applying globally and to all languages. Google posted it to the status dashboard rather than announcing it through a Search Central blog post.

2026-08-13

Google launches Gemini 3.7 Flash three weeks after 3.6

Google released Gemini 3.7 Flash on August 13, 2026, just three weeks after 3.6 Flash, at an introductory $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output — half the previous generation's rate, rising to $1.50/$7.50 after December 31, 2026. It posts large coding gains over 3.6 Flash: FrontierCode 1.1 at 43.6% versus 34.4%, DeepSWE v1.1 at 65.3% versus 49.0%, and AutomationBench at 30.4% versus 17.0%.

2026-07-21

Google launches Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber

Google released three new Gemini models: 3.6 Flash (the new workhorse model, cutting output token usage by 17% versus 3.5 Flash), 3.5 Flash-Lite for high-volume cost-sensitive workloads, and 3.5 Flash Cyber, a security-focused model for vulnerability detection restricted to governments and trusted partners.

2026-07-07

Google Search Console adds platform properties for Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube

Google Search Console introduced "platform properties," a new property type that tracks how Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube posts perform in Google Search and Discover — the first Search Console property type that works without owning a website.