# Pulse ยท August 3, 2026 > Google recommends 304 caching for crawl budget, Bing retires legacy SOAP/POX APIs, and the EU's Article 50 guidance spells out four transparency exemptions. Canonical: https://brandonlazovic.dev/pulse/2026-08-03/ Author: Brandon Lazovic Published: 2026-08-03 ## Google updates its crawl budget guidance to recommend 304 status codes Status: Confirmed | Topics: crawling-indexing-rendering Google's crawl budget documentation, updated July 22, now explicitly recommends supporting HTTP 304 (Not Modified) responses: when a page hasn't changed since the last crawl, returning 304 lets Googlebot reuse its cached copy instead of retransmitting the page, freeing crawl capacity for other URLs. The guidance targets sites with 1 million or more pages updated weekly, 10,000 or more pages that change daily, or a large share of pages stuck in a discovered-but-not-indexed state. In plain terms: A 304 response is the server's way of saying 'nothing changed, use what you already have,' which saves it from resending a whole page just to have Google notice it's identical. Why it matters: For large or fast-changing sites, 304 support is a direct lever on how much of the catalog gets crawled and indexed at all. Our take: Google formalizing a years-old capability in its crawl-budget doc signals crawl capacity is tight enough that they're pointing webmasters at cheap server-side fixes before anything more drastic. Worth auditing whether your CDN or CMS actually returns 304s correctly, since a surprising number silently return 200 with identical bodies. - [Google Search Central: Large site owner's guide to managing crawl budget](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/large-site-managing-crawl-budget) - [Search Engine Journal: Google Recommends Using 304 Status Code To Conserve Crawl Budget](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-recommends-using-304-status-code-to-conserve-crawl-budget/584543/) ## Bing Webmaster Tools retires its SOAP and POX APIs on August 31, 2026 Status: Confirmed | Topics: measurement-analytics, ai-data-stack Microsoft confirmed via its own Bing Webmaster Tools help page that the legacy SOAP and POX/HTTP API endpoints retire August 31, 2026. After that date, requests to those endpoints stop being served. Every API method remains available on the JSON/HTTP (REST) protocol with identical functionality, the same API key, and unchanged quotas and rate limits. Only integrations calling the ssl.bing.com/webmaster/api.svc/pox or /soap endpoints are affected. In plain terms: SOAP and POX are older, more verbose ways for software to talk to a service. REST/JSON is the newer, leaner version most modern tools already use, so this is a same-data, tidier-delivery swap, not a data loss. Why it matters: Any search-data pipeline still pulling Bing Webmaster data over SOAP/POX needs a REST migration before August 31 or it loses that feed entirely. Our take: A one-month runway from an August 3 reminder to an August 31 cutoff is tight if anyone actually built against the old endpoints. Check any BigQuery or ETL job pulling Bing data now, since a silent failure on September 1 is the likely alternative to migrating. - [Bing Webmaster Tools Help: SOAP/POX API Deprecation](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/soap-pox-api-deprecation-s0appox01) - [Search Engine Roundtable: Bing Webmaster Tools SOAP/POX APIs To Be Retired On August 31, 2026](https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-webmaster-tools-soap-pox-apis-retire-41805.html) ## The EU Commission lists four exemptions to Article 50's AI transparency duties Status: Confirmed | Topics: llm-models-agents The EU AI Act Service Desk's Article 50 guidance names four core exemptions: deepfakes or AI text that is evidently artistic, satirical, or fictional, which still requires disclosing that fact even though it doesn't block display; content under human editorial review with named editorial responsibility; AI editing tools that don't substantially alter input data or meaning; and interactive AI systems where it is already obvious to a reasonably informed user that they're talking to AI. Terms such as substantially and evidently remain undefined, leaving compliance interpretation open. In plain terms: An exemption here doesn't mean 'no rules apply,' it means a specific narrow carve-out applies, and it's still on the publisher to prove they qualify for it. Why it matters: The undefined terms mean a brand can't self-certify an exemption with confidence, so the safer posture is still documenting the editorial-review path Article 50(4) actually requires. Our take: I flagged the editorial-responsibility exemption under 50(4) and the artistic-satirical carve-out for deepfakes in my Article 50 piece. This EU guidance confirms both and adds two exemptions I hadn't detailed: the assistive-editing carve-out and the obviousness exemption for interactive AI systems. - [European Commission AI Act Service Desk: Article 50](https://ai-act-service-desk.ec.europa.eu/en/ai-act/article-50) - [Search Engine Journal: EU Commission Article 50 AI Transparency Law Has Four Exemptions](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/eu-commission-article-50-ai-transparency-law-has-four-exemptions/584528/) ## Google Trends now lets you compare 220% more search terms Status: Confirmed | Topics: measurement-analytics Google quietly updated its Trends help documentation to raise the comparison limit from 5 groups of 25 terms, 125 total, to 8 groups of 50 terms, 400 total, a 220% increase. The expanded limit applies to the current Explore interface. Classic Explore still caps at the old 5-group, 25-term limit. Google made no separate announcement. The change surfaced only through the help-doc diff. In plain terms: Google Trends is the free tool that charts how often people search different terms over time. This is like a spreadsheet raising its column limit: the same tool, just a higher ceiling before you bump into it and have to start a second chart. Why it matters: Larger comparison sets mean keyword and demand-trend research can cover a full category or client portfolio in one Trends pull instead of stitching together multiple exports. Our take: An unannounced help-doc change is Google's usual way of shipping quiet product expansions. Worth checking your own Trends workflows for artificial 25-term batching that's no longer necessary. - [Google Trends Help: Compare search terms](https://support.google.com/trends/answer/4359550?hl=en) - [Search Engine Roundtable: Google Trends Lets You Compare 220% More Search Terms](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-trends-more-search-terms-41788.html) ## Google updates its Business Profile guidance on fraudulent calls and texts Status: Confirmed | Topics: platform-ecommerce Google refreshed its Business Profile help page on fraudulent calls and texts, adding guidance on identifying legitimate outreach over WhatsApp and RCS. Google's own verified WhatsApp accounts show a blue checkmark with the account name Google Maps or Google Maps followed by the country name. Verified RCS messages carry the same blue-checkmark treatment next to the sender's name. The page also refreshed its examples of common fraud call and message patterns. In plain terms: If a message claiming to be from Google doesn't show that blue checkmark next to the Google Maps name, it isn't actually Google, whatever it claims. Why it matters: Local and multi-location businesses are the direct target of these impersonation scams, so the verification signals in this update are what a business's own staff need to recognize before acting on a fraudulent Google contact. Our take: Worth forwarding straight to any client's front-line staff who handle Business Profile calls, since impersonation scams targeting local businesses trend seasonally and this update reads like Google responding to an active wave. - [Google Business Profile Help: Help protect against fraudulent calls and texts](https://support.google.com/business/answer/6212928?hl=en) - [Search Engine Roundtable: Google Business Profiles Protect From Fraudulent Calls and Texts Updated](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profiles-fraud-calls-texts-41806.html)