Google Bug Causing Issues With Images in Top Stories

Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, reports that a bug in search results is causing images in Top Stories not to render properly.

“We are working to fix a bug that is causing some images in Top Stories on Google Search results not to render properly. Our apologies — we hope to have this cleared up quickly!”

Here’s an example of what the bug looks like in action. Instead of displaying an image the thumbnail is either solid color or simply blank.

It’s very easy to replicate this by searching for any newsworthy topics. This appears to be affecting a significant amount of news stories.

SEOs on Twitter have been reported seeing this this issue since early this morning:

Hmm. Not sure what’s going on here. Across various SERP features on Google (top stories and tweet carousels in particular) I’m seeing image previews missing. Either blank or blurred out like pictured. Likely a bug but is quite strange… pic.twitter.com/zvayPrzoq3

— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) August 18, 2021

There’s no official estimation regarding how many pages are affected, or when the issue will be fixed.

Google always aims to have things fixed “quickly,” which could mean it will be resolved within hours, but other times it could take days to fix search bugs.

Until then, don’t be alarmed if your images aren’t appearing in the Top Stories carousel. The problem is likely not on your end.

Expect another update from Sullivan as soon as the issue is resolved.

Source: @searchliaison on Twitter