Google is testing placing a second link directly under the main ad headline link, some call the title link, that pull from your Google Ads assets or extensions. It is unusual to see these links right next to each other, sometimes you'd see them as sitelinks under the ad description but not directly under the main headline link.

This was spotted by both Anthony Higman who posted it on LinkedIn and X - here are his screenshots:

And this desktop variation by Jonathan Cottrell on LinkedIn:

This seems weird but it can probably have a huge impact on an ads click through rate, but again, it is just a test right now.

Forum discussion at X and LinkedIn.

Google is showing both seller ratings and product ratings on a single Google Shopping Ad unit. It is a bit weird to see both ratings, and it can potentially be confusing to see different ratings for the same retailer but one is for the rating of the specific product and one is for the rating of the company selling that product, i.e the seller.

This was spotted by Hana Kobzová who posted about it on her PPC News site who wrote, "Google started showing both seller ratings and product ratings can appear together in Shopping ads. This help retailers to be more trustworthy, visible, and competitive."

Here is what it looks like:

There is a lot more detail on this over here but again, I am not sure I like this.

Forum discussion at X.

Google Search has been rolling out this new expandable section in the search results titled "current sales." I guess Google is able to figure out what is a sale and what is not, maybe from structured data or Merchant Center and then have a section in the search results for that...

This was first spotted by Khushal Bherwani on X and then by Sachin Patel on X - here are some screenshots:

Then when you toggle it open it looks like this:

Here are more screenshots:

More finds , noticing this in wild on serp pic.twitter.com/ckiNaxS1Wg

— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) November 10, 2024

@rustybrick Google SERP has a current sales section. pic.twitter.com/AkFiIBvIia

— Sachin Patel (@SachuPatel53124) November 7, 2024

Forum discussion at X.

A couple of weeks ago, Google announced the new features for travel search ads through integration with travel feeds. These may now be out in the wild, as we are seeing pricing and other rich markup showing up for hotel ads in Google Search.

Lluc B. Penycate posted some examples and screenshots on X of these out in the wild. He wrote, "I think we are seeing the new Google Hotel Ads format announced last week(s) which integrates rooms, prices and availability."

Here are those screenshots:

Google wrote a couple of weeks ago, "all hotel advertisers can now showcase feed data, such as hotels, prices, dates, ratings and images, in this ad format" and then shared some mock examples of those ads. But these look like them in real life.

Forum discussion at X.

Google's John Mueller posted some SEO advice on how to handle version history pages, for product releases, specifications, APIs and other version history. This advice is pretty similar to how to handle recurring event pages, like conferences and events. In short, the main page should keep the same URL and then archive the older version history details on an archive page URL.

John wrote on LinkedIn, "If you work on a website with versions (APIs? Specs?) or yearly editions, here's the top SEO improvement you can do: Use a stable URL for the current version."

I mean, if you like at Google Ads API, they use developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/release-notes and show the current version details there and then archive the older API versions on different URLs, like version 17 for example.

John wrote:

Add versioned directories if you like. This makes the current version much more visible in search, reducing guesswork by readers, and making it easier to link to. EASIER TO LINK TO.

Even better? keep the versioned URL for the current version, and use link-rel-canonical to refer to the stable URL. This lets people go directly to the versioned URL if they know it, while focusing search on the stable URL.

John added to explain, for API docs, technical specs, yearly events, etc, go with this format:

• .../spec/live/page < do this for SEO
• .../spec/2.1/page - rel=canonical to /spec/live/page
• .../spec/2.0/page - keep these

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google has begun rolling out the third core update for the year, the November 2024 core update. This update started to roll out on November 11, 2024 at around 3:30 pm and will take about two weeks to complete rolling out. This seems like a typical core update, without any new specifics about what changed or what improved.

We knew this update was coming - and it finally arrived yesterday afternoon. Google also told us not to expect HCU victim sites to recover with this update.

So far, we are seeing some folks suggest their rankings went down even more. But the vast majority of people are saying they are not seeing movement as of yet, as of the time I published this story. Of course, I will keep track of the chatter and let you know what people are seeing over the coming days. In addition, the volatility tracking tools are mostly all showing normal volatility - so maybe this has not kicked in as of yet.

And yes, it was released on the Veterans Day US holiday, but it seems like it was released well before the big holiday shopping season, post-Thanksgiving holiday.

Google posted this update on LinkedIn and X and wrote:

Today we released the November 2024 core update to Google Search.

This update is designed to continue our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.

We'll update our ranking release history page in the near future, and update it when the rollout is complete. For more information about core updates, please see here.

The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete.

Google November 2024 Core Update Quick Facts:

Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:

• Name: Google November 2024 Broad Core Update
• Launched: November 11, 2024 at around 3:30 pm ET
• Rollout: Will take about two weeks to roll out
• Targets: It looks at all types of content
• Penalty: It is not a penalty, it promotes or rewards great web pages
• Global: This is a global update impacting all regions, in all languages.
• Impact: The normal core update stuff around helpful content.
• Discover: Core updates impact Google Discover and other features, also feature snippets and more.
• Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google's core update advice.
• Refreshes: Google will do periodic refreshes to this algorithm but may not communicate those updates in the future. Maybe this is what we saw the past couple of weeks or all those unconfirmed Google updates.

Google November 2024 Core Update Details

Google didn't say much specific about this November 2024 core update. Google did say, "This update is designed to continue our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search."

So it seems like it is more of the same:

• Show more content that people find genuinely useful.
• Show less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.

Yes, a lot of joking in the SEO community about these statements. Yep, it sounds a lot like the helpful content update statements... Yes, the helpful content update is no more, it's part of core updates now, in some sense...

Previous Broad Core Updates

Here is a list of the most recent core updates we've seen since Google started to confirm them. Previously we nicknamed them Phantom updates or unconfirmed updates.

• November 2024 Core update: November 11, 2024 and will take about two weeks to roll out.
• August 2024 Core Update : August 15, 2024 through September 3, 2024
• March 2024 Core Update : March 5, 2024 through April 19, 2024
• November 2023 Core Update : November 2, 2023 through November 28, 2023
• October 2023 Core Update: October 5, 2023 through October 19, 2023
• August 2023 Core Update: August 22, 2023 through September 7, 2023
• March 2023 Core Update: March 15, 2023 through March 28, 2023
• September 2022 Core Update: September 12, 2022 through September 26, 2022
• May 2022 Core Update: May 25, 2022 through June 9, 2022
• November 2021 Core Update: November 17, 2021 through November 30, 2021
• July 2021 Core Update: July 1, 2021 through July 12, 2021
• June 2021 Core Update: June 2, 2021 through June 12, 2021
• December 2020 Core Update: December 3, 2020 through December 16, 2020
• May 2020 Core Update: May 4, 2020 through May 18, 2020
• January 2020 Core Update: January 13, 2020 through mostly January 17, 2020
• September 2019 Core Update: September 24, 2019
• Google June 2019 Core Update: June 3, 2019 through June 8, 2019

Previous Helpful Content Update Impact

Here is the list of the previous Google helpful content updates:

• Septemebr 14, 2023 - September 2023 Google helpful content update - completing on Septmeber 28, 2023
• December 5, 2022 - December 2022 Google helpful content update, completing on January 12, 2023
• August 25, 2022 - August 2022 (original) Google helpful content update, completing on September 9, 2022

Previous Unconfirmed Updates

We had a ton of unconfirmed updates between the August 2024 and November 2024 core update. I won't list them all, but you can scan them over here.

As a reminder, Google did tell us that an search update is coming soon. The last time we reported on an update was when I named it the Google Election 2024 unconfirmed update and before that was the Google Halloween 2024 Google search update and then before that on October 23, 24 and 26 and 27th and before that, October 19th and 20th volatility and then on October 15th, October 10th and then before that on October 2nd which lasted a couple of days. The Google August 2024 core update started on August 15th and officially completed on September 3rd. But it was still super volatile the day after it completed and also weeks after it completed and it has not cooled.

We saw big signals on and around September 6th, September 10th or so and maybe around September 14th. We also saw movement around September 18th, last weekend and Septmeber 25th and September 28th or so.

Google Tracking Tools On November 2024 Core Update (So Far)

Here is what these Google Search volatility tools are showing so far; keep in mind that this update can take about two weeks to fully roll out. And so far, the tools are mostly showing normal volatility but that might change in the coming days.

Semrush:

SimilarWeb:

Sistrix:

Wincher:

Cognitive SEO:

Accuranker:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Mozcast:

Mangools:

Algoroo:

SERPstat:

Data For SEO:

SEO Chatter

It just started rolling out last night, so the chatter is early, just like the tools:

Just the reminder I needed to "focus on quality content"'"again. Thanks, Google, I'd almost forgotten!

So by quality, do you mean similar to what previous core updates focused on or is there a specific change to look out for?

In search of "quality" and "usefulness" in the age of generative-AI-driven SERPs.

It will take 2 weeks to complete and 2 years to recover?

Asking for friends.

Fasten your seatbelts, Google has launched the November 2024 core update.

This update is designed to continue our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search

Good luck to the people still fighting.

Traffic on the very low tide since a week (billable visits), impression seem stable according search console, CTR dropping.

Luckily I'm busy with something not Google related !

Traffic Down :)

Swings on my personal results have been wild over last few days actually. Like normal, but on steroids!

Searched 150+ queries since morning unrelated to my niche...each of these queries were answered by AIO in a very organized form. So...worth not keeping hopes after this

It's been very quiet over the last few days. One article of mine gained a small bit of traction, but a couple of others barely saw any traffic at all. Not sure if it's the same for others.

Recently the fluctuations were too great. Either business as usual or downward. I am seeing more PAA boxes. More YouTube at the top. Other than that I do not see much.

Just more downward movement ಠ' ï'µ' à² 

Yes, lots of keywords back on page one, including some near the top, but I doubt it will result in a traffic increase because there are AIOs everywhere.

It's just a mess. shuffling, even more AI overviews for shopping comparison articles.

Also some local SEO chatter, and core updates do impact local rankings:

Seeing movements this early for local organic ranking for the following sectors (mostly Canada): Landscaping, HVAC, Psychologist, local furniture maker, renovation contractors.

Here we go! The November 2024 broad core update is rolling out. There's been a ton of volatility since the August core update completed. Let's see what Google has in store for us. Stay tuned. I'll probably share my "Core Update Notes" each day based on what I'm seeing in the'... https://t.co/T9rks7tAMP

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 11, 2024

OK here we go. A new Google core update just launched.

If you were impacted by a previous core update (i.e. August, March, November, October) then often it takes another core update, or sometimes a few, before a site sees recovery.
ð¤ https://t.co/7XHVWBRbbo

'" Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) November 11, 2024

These announcements are as much as uninteresting as uninformative.

'Hey, look! We did something' https://t.co/BcK4rzTuN6

'" Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) November 11, 2024

Golly, I hope Reddit will be ok

'" Harad (@harad) November 11, 2024

Good luck, folks!

Not expecting anything this end, mostly because I only fully finished my site move around seven minutes ago. ð' https://t.co/MGfUyA9GOP

'" Wesley Copeland (@Wesley_Copeland) November 11, 2024

Sad state when my first thought is: "wonder what they've screwed up this time". https://t.co/jtYZvXPZgM

'" Martin MacDonald (@searchmartin) November 11, 2024

Also later last night I asked if anyone is seeing movement:

Anyone seeing any movement yet? https://t.co/qttLlYNeU1

'" Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) November 12, 2024

While most say it is too early to tell, which I 100% agree with, here are the ones that say they are seeing movement:

I see some movement, but it's hard to attribute it to the typical movements we see or this core update. Will check more sites/data tomorrow morning to confirm.

'" Vlad Rappoport (@vladrpt) November 12, 2024

It affected my website from yesterday, today zero click, that means this update will harm more than the previous updates. We expecting more damage.
I'm afraid to say that, but don't be happy with any update again. Get a new job or go to Pinterest or the new ChatGPT search.

'" Ameer Belal (@NFT_Domains) November 12, 2024

Slightly up

'" Lizzy's Small World (@AVerySmallWorld) November 12, 2024

Yes, ranking down

'" बबलà¥' à¤à¥à¤®à¤¾à¤° ð®ð³' (@seobabloo) November 12, 2024

I saw a 15% spike yesterday evening and night. So far this morning it seems the spike didn't last.

'" Brian Spears (@BrianHTX20) November 12, 2024

It is probably too early to tell right now but we will keep you posted on what the SEO community is seeing over the coming days.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Black Hat World, Local Search Forum, X and LinkedIn.

Full Article

Google has added a new promotion type to Google Merchant Center named "Sale events." Sale events are a type data that you can submit on Google and are shown on non-product-centric surfaces. This seems to be available in the US for free Merchant Center listings right now.

This was spotted by Dario Zannoni who posted about it on LinkedIn and wrote, "A new "Sale Event" promotion type has been released in Google Merchant Center."

The help document says:

Sale events highlight a general sale happening in your store on different Google surfaces. Events don't show up on product listings, both organic and ads.

Unlike promotions, events aren't mapped to offers. Since events aren't directly mapped to offers, you can use ranges for discounts, such as 'Up to 40% off,' which isn't allowed with promotions.

Dario Zannoni shared this screenshot:

He wrote, "Standard promotions in Merchant Center require linking to specific products, which can make them challenging to implement. Now, Google has introduced a new promotion type called "Sale Event," which is not tied to individual products. Instead, it can be used to advertise general sales, like "All items discounted up to 70% off" or "Special discount: 10% off on golf bags.""

For more details, check out this help page.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

A couple of months ago, we reported how Google Search will label if an image was AI-generated, edited by photo editing software or taken with a camera by working with Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) as a technical standard. Well, now Google officially supports C2PA metadata in the about this image feature.

Google wrote this morning, Google Search now supports this [C2PA] metadata in the "About this image" feature."

Google updated its image meta data documentation to add a new section for "How C2PA metadata can appear in Google Search results."

The new section reads:

If an image contains C2PA metadata, Google can extract those details and may show information in the "About this image" feature, such as how the image was created or if it was edited with AI tools. This metadata comes from a signer, which is usually an app, device, or service (for example, photo editing software, the camera itself, or other services that modify or create images) that meets the following conditions:

• The app, device, or service has adopted C2PA version 2.1 or later.
• The image's manifest must be signed by a certificate from a Certification Authority on the C2PA Trust List.

It does seem like Adobe products, like Photoshop, Illustrated, and others, do support this metadata.

I just wonder how it handles the image above, which I generate using Midjourney AI and then edit later in Photoshop.

Forum discussion at X.

Google will be changing how it handles the first-party cookie controls on AdSense sites. Google said, "We're making some changes to how first-party cookies are managed in your AdSense account to simplify controls and improve your access to third-party demand."

Google has combined the controls for enabling "first-party cookies" and "first-party cookies for personalization" into a single control.

Turning on the new control will enable first-party cookies for the publisher, share it with demand sources, and enable all usages including personalization, Google explained.

The new control will be set to your existing personalization setting to aid the transition, Google added.

Google added:

Currently, first-party cookies are shared with Google demand sources (Google Ads, Display & Video 360). Starting no earlier than December 4th, 2024, your first-party cookies will also be shared with Authorized Buyers. However, for the time being, this sharing will not include users in the EEA, Switzerland, UK, California, and some US states.

If you're already using first-party cookies for personalization, sharing with Authorized Buyers will be turned on by default. If you're only using first-party cookies without personalization, sharing will remain off.

Choose whether or not you want to allow first-party cookies from Google on your site, and allow sharing of first-party cookies for personalization with eligible advertising platforms (Google Ads, Display & Video 360, and Authorized Buyers). Allowing first-party cookies from Google may increase your revenue because it enables features like frequency capping on ads and allows ads with a frequency cap to serve on your site. First party cookies for personalization help to show personalized ads to your users when third-party cookies aren't available, which may also increase your revenue.

Cookies are small text files downloaded to a user's browser that can be used to store user information and preferences. Cookies are either first-party (associated with the domain the user is visiting) or third party (associated with a domain that's different from the domain the user is visiting). Google may use first-party cookies when third-party cookies are not available.

Forum discussion at X.

This week, Google sent an email to some Google Ads advertisers warning that they may lose access to use Customer Match with their ads cause harm to users or create a poor user experience. Google said they are updating their customer match policy effective January 13, 2025, to enforce this. Google also posted this over here.

Navah Hopkins posted about this notice on LinkedIn after she received an email from Google about this update. The email says:

On January 13, 2025, Google will update its Customer Match policy to state that customers may lose Customer Match access if their ads have the potential to cause harm to users or create a poor user experience. We may take the following considerations, among others, into account when making this determination.

What are those considerations? Google wrote:

• User feedback
• Prevalence or severity of abuse
• Repeated violations of the Customer Match policy

Google added that "violations of this policy will not lead to immediate account suspension without prior warning. A warning will be issued, at least seven days, prior to any suspension of your account."

Here is the email:

Navah Hopkins added, "Google customer match allows advertisers to take customer lists and apply them for targeting and seed purposes in Google Ads. This is a great way to ensure folks get exactly the right messaging as well as giving us an option to exclude our existing customers from prospecting campaigns."

She explained what harm might be:

The first and most important consideration is using someone's email without their consent. I would take this signal from Google that gambling with privacy rules is getting harder.

Second, ad creative needs to pass the "not a creep" check. This means:
1. You're not targeting kids.
2. You're not making it seem like the ad is for any one specific user.
3. You're not including people in a target list who outright told you they didn't want to see your ads.

Third, and most importantly, violating customer match rules will get your account suspended. Don't mess around with it.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google's John Mueller said that some SEOs over focus on URL structure and that if your context from your pages aren't clear, then no URL structure can fix that.

John wrote on LinkedIn:

Often SEOs over-focus on URL structure (imo) -- if the context of your pages isn't clear from the ... text on the page, then the URL structure isn't really going to fix that.

What advice did he give for URL structure for SEO?

• Avoid making unnecessary URL structure changes (because changes will affect SEO at least temporarily, it takes time for search engines to recrawl & reprocess all affected pages), pick something that can last for a long time
• Primarily think about users & about how you want to track performance (URL structures are great for grouping URLs for analytics, conversion rates, etc. -- not directly SEO, but for monitoring how well SEO is working for you).

John added, "Anyway, Google generally (*) wouldn't care. Make a useful structure. Make it easy for you to monitor. Make it helpful for users, if you want (do people even look at URLs? I assume most users don't nowadays.)"

When does structure of your URLs matter? When you have adult content on portions of your site (we covered this before). John said on LinkedIn, "(*) the "generally" ... an exception that I can think of is if an affected part of the site is treated significantly different than the rest of the site. For example, if that folder is where all of the safe-search filtered content is located, then moving it around can make it harder for the safe-search system to understand your new site structure. I don't think that's something most sites need to consider, but it's helpful if you're looking for an "it depends"."

Google has often recommended not to change URLs for SEO purposes, here is our past coverage:

• Google Really Wants You To Avoid Changing URLs Just For SEO Reasons
• Google: Avoid Change URLs Unless You Really Have To
• Google: Don't Change Your URLs For SEO Purposes
• Google: Don't Change URLs When Replacing Old Content With New Content

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Dr Gordon Moore, one of the three co-founders of Intel Corporation has passed away in Hawaii at the age of 94.  I had the privilege of interviewing him in London in March 1997, and he came across as a genuinely humble man, typical of the genuine ‘boffin’ type of the time. The thing I remember mostly from the interview was his professed love for antiques. Apparently he and his wife, Betty, spent a lot of their free time browsing for...

The post Gordon Moore RIP – Goodbye Mr Chips appeared first on The Red Ferret Journal.

Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered an ingenious new way to recycle Lithium Ion batteries, and it’s so simple that even your mum could do it. Maybe. The problem with battery recycling has always been that it’s rather cumbersome. Traditional methods involve breaking down batteries into their constituent parts, then extracting the valuable materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. The process works, but it’s not exactly what you’d call efficient, and it can be quite costly....

The post Quick-Release Binder – Recycling Lithium Ion Batteries Just Got Super Easy appeared first on The Red Ferret Journal.

Google has just announced a new virtual shopping experience for search which lets you try on apparel virtually using some AI cleverness. Users in the US (only, at first) will be able to try out an item of clothing from a catalog if it has a ‘Try On’ badge on it in search. The service is starting with a limited number of brands including Anthropologie, Everlane, H&M and LOFT, and a limited repertoire of AI generated lady’s tops.  Virtual shopping...

The post Google Introduces AI Based Virtual Try-On Apparel appeared first on The Red Ferret Journal.

As we cruise into the future of electric vehicles (EVs), the buzz around solid-state battery technology is getting louder and more electrifying. Imagine a world where EVs charge faster than your smartphone, drive huge distances, and are safer than your gran on a Friday night. That’s the promise of solid-state batteries, a technology that’s poised to supercharge the EV revolution. Solid-state batteries are like the cool new kids on the block, set to replace the lithium-ion batteries we’ve come to...

The post The Solid State Battery Race: Who’s Going To Win? appeared first on The Red Ferret Journal.

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! This week Jared and guest host Morgan Overholt take on the latest SEO news and break it down for listeners. They also share the side hustles they've been working…

The post Google Offers New Insights in Lengthy Interview? appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

This week, SEO expert Brie Moreau doesn’t share his business results but, rather, the results of an incredibly in-depth study he did analyzing 260k search results to find an answer to a major question: what does Google want exactly? Using…

The post How Brie Moreau Studied 260k Search Results to Understand How Google Views Content appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

Welcome back, everyone, to a new episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! Like every week, we’re here to talk about the latest SEO news for publishers, inspire you with some stories about our side hustles, and shock you with…

The post Runaway Parasite SEO! Google Penalizes Forbes! appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

Spencer is back with Jared to host this week’s episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.  Like they always do, they discuss the major happenings related to SEO, small publishers, Google, and beyond, and it has been a very eventful…

The post DOJ Tries to Break Up Google Chrome, Android, and Search Monopoly appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

Jared and guest host Morgan Overholt are back together this week to cover the latest news in SEO and beyond, to talk about progress with their respective side hustles, and to share some weird niche sites and discuss their strategies.…

The post Semrush Buys Search Engine Land! Google Search Falls Apart? appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

Jared and guest host Thomas Smith are here this week to offer an overview of the main news affecting Google, small publishers, and SEOs. They also share some interesting side hustles and a few very weird niche sites. They kick…

The post Fixing Google Search? Site Reputation Abuse Crackdown! appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

Taegan Goddard’s been in the blogging game for a long time, launching his first website before WordPress even existed.  He went on to create his current website, Political Wire , which has been not only running but growing consistently for…

The post How Taegan Goddard’s Political Blog Gets Up To 10 Million Visitors/Month appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

Welcome back, everyone, to the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where we bring you the biggest headlines in the industry over the last week and a good dose of inspiration for your personal projects. Jared and guest…

The post Married Couple Wins €2 Billion from Google for Deranking Their Website appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

This week Jared Bauman sits down with Jake Cain, a long-time blogger with a portfolio of sites, a former Niche Pursuits employee, and an attendee at Google’s recent Creator Summit. In this interview, Jake shares his experience at the event,…

The post Jake Cain Was Inside Google’s “Secret” Meeting with 20 HCU Crushed Bloggers. Here’s What Happened appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

Data-driven attribution is the default attribution model in Google Ads. Understand how and why to use it in your Google Ads campaign.

The post Using Google Ads’ Data-Driven Attribution Model appeared first on Portent.

San Diego State University's national semifinal victory in the Final Four made for an electrifying weekend for both the students and residents of San Diego. Get a sneak peek at the weekend viewership for SDSU’s Final Four game below.

Fr. Stephen explores the importance of holy places both in the temple and in the heart.

Fr. Stephen looks at the problems presented by cynicism for belief in God. Worldly wisdom and the wisdom of God are very different things.

Fr. Stephen turns our thoughts during this week of the Nativity to the "smallness" of God. God has come to save us through His "weakness" as St. Paul says and invites us to share in that humility.

Fr. Stephen looks at the deep importance that Christ as the "image of God" carries for our faith and how that image teaches us about the nature of all images.

The Orthodox faith is grounded in the experience of knowing God. Fr. Stephen looks at the boundaries of such knowledge and simple path to such knowledge given to us in the Tradition of the Church.

In these brief remarks on this Thanksgiving weekend, Fr. Stephen looks at the essential Christian confession of thanks, "God is good."

The simplest and sometimes most difficult task of the Christian life is to remember God: always, everywhere and at all times. Fr. Stephen looks at this simple practice that lies at the heart of the Orthodox faith.

Fr. Stephen offers a reflection on what it means to say that "God exists."

What does it mean to be good? Fr. Stephen speaks about the mystery of goodness and how it is only known in Christ.

Fr. Stephen looks at the teaching of Christ on love for enemies and sets it in its proper spiritual context.

Fr. Stephen considers what it means to be a "convert" to the Orthodox faith within the context of modern American culture.

Fr. Stephen focuses on what we mean when we say, "I know God," and what we do not mean. We must know God - it is our salvation - but what does it mean?

Fr. Stephen looks at what it means to live in a relationship of love and freedom, and the problems it creates for our ideas of what is and is not necessary.

St. Gregory of Nyssa speaks of man both as singer and song. Fr. Stephen explores how we are the "song of God."

In his recent series on the true and false self, Fr. Stephen looks at evangelism of the heart.

When the Church's hymns describe us as "rational sheep," what does it mean? Fr. Stephen offers this meditation on language and humanity. Language is part of our deepest nature - and it is a reflection of God.

St. Paul describes the mystery of the faith as: Christ within us, the hope of glory. Fr. Stephen looks at the meaning of God in us and the life of grace.

Does God have feelings? Can we influence how he feels? Fr. Stephen looks carefully at the theology of grace and the idea of the psychology of God.

Fr. Stephen offers thoughts on the providence of God—His will working good for us all despite what we may see or think.

Fr. Stephen Freeman describes the "conciliar" nature of God's actions and our response to Him in our lives. God delights in sharing His work with us.

Fr. Stephen Freeman tells us that the culture we live in teaches us to want "good service," to expect things to suit our desires. To serve God, however, requires something very different. Acceptance and thanksgiving are key components of the spiritual life.

The truth of words is much deeper than the "facts" they may represent. A true word is found in the heart of God, and in our hearts when we dwell in God.