About this change history
Google, Microsoft and OpenAI change their advertising products constantly, and the notes are scattered across help centers, blogs, release notes, policy logs, and practitioners' social feeds. This site pulls them into one place that works like the Change history screen inside a Google Ads account, so anyone who runs campaigns can filter by date and category, see how many changes of each kind happened in a period, and click through to the original source.
Coverage runs from Oct 23, 2000 to Oct 16, 2026 and includes 2,666 entries across Google Ads (1,664), Merchant Center (200), Google Analytics (243), Google Ads API & Scripts (185), Google Tag & Tag Manager (64), Microsoft Ads (194), ChatGPT Ads (53), Search Console (63). Coverage before 2025 is a curated history of the changes that mattered most; from January 2025 onward it aims to be complete.
Categories
| Category | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Policy | Advertising policies, enforcement, certifications, verification, and regulatory changes. |
| Launch | New campaign types, features, betas, and rollouts. |
| Bidding & Budget | Smart Bidding, targets, budgets, and pacing tools. |
| Targeting & Audiences | Audience types, Customer Match, location, demographic, and placement controls. |
| Measurement | Conversion tracking, attribution, consent, enhanced conversions, and Analytics reporting. |
| Creative & Assets | Ad formats, assets, image and video tools, and generated creative. |
| Reporting & UI | Interface changes, new columns and reports, and navigation updates. |
| Deprecation | Sunsets, removals, forced migrations, and version retirements. |
| API & Tools | Google Ads API versions, Scripts, Editor, Merchant API, and Tag Manager tooling. |
Fields
- Date is the announcement date for official changes, or the first credible public report for community-spotted changes. When Google stated a separate date the change takes effect, the change appears a second time on that date, labeled Took effect or Takes effect, so a rollout shows up in the period it actually landed. The Effective dates chip shows only those rows.
- Status is Announced, Beta, Rolling out, Live, or Retired as of the entry date.
- Impact is an editorial judgment. High changes how most advertisers must operate or removes something. Medium is a notable feature or policy update. Low is minor.
- Source type is Official when Google published the change and Reported when it was documented by the community or trade press first.
Thanks
The history before 2022 was built on the shoulders of Screaming Frog's Google Ads (AdWords) History timeline, a remarkable public record of AdWords from its launch in October 2000 onward. Their timeline provided the dates, events and original source links; each of those entries here was rewritten in our own words from the original announcement and credits their timeline as a source. Thank you to the Screaming Frog team.
Sources
Entries are compiled from Google's announcement pages and help centers for Google Ads, Merchant Center, Google Analytics, and Tag Manager, the Google Ads & Commerce blog, the Google Ads Developers blog and API release notes, the Google Ads policy change log, and trade coverage from Search Engine Land, PPC Land, Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Journal, and practitioners who document changes as they appear. Each entry links to its sources.
Use the data
The full dataset is available at /changes.json and as an RSS feed. The Download button on the change history exports the current filtered view as CSV. Every entry has a permanent link at /changes/<id>/. Filters and date ranges are stored in the URL, so any view can be bookmarked or shared.
Corrections and submissions
Use the Feedback button or the Submit button in the left rail to report a change that is missing or an entry that is wrong. Submissions are reviewed before they are published.
Disclaimer
This site is an independent project by Brandon Mangan. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation, or OpenAI. Google, Google Ads, Google Merchant Center, Google Analytics, Search Console, Microsoft Advertising, ChatGPT, and related marks are trademarks of their respective owners. The interface is styled after the Google Ads Change history screen for familiarity only, and no Google code, logos, or proprietary assets are used.