Google Search Console has been under continuous renovation since 2022. Reports disappeared, new UI elements arrived, and impression counts started behaving in ways that broke year-over-year comparisons. This pillar is a sourced, chronological map of what changed, when, and what to do about it — written for practitioners who already use the tool daily and want the synthesis that Google's own changelog does not provide.

The through-line is simultaneous contraction and expansion. Google removed the URL Parameters tool (April 2022), the International Targeting report (September 2022), the Mobile Usability report (December 2023), the Sitelinks Search Box report and Page Experience report (November 2024), and six niche structured-data rich-result types (September 2025). In the same window it added the HTTPS report, the Recommendations feature, the 24-hour Performance view, an integrated Search Console Insights section, and an AI-powered configuration tool for the Performance report. The pattern is deliberate: retire tools where automated signals made user overrides obsolete, and invest in the reporting and AI-configuration layer.

The forward-looking question sits underneath all of it. As of mid-2025, both AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic count toward Performance report totals — with no filter to isolate them. For an agency strategist deciding whether GSC data still functions as a clean performance signal, that blending is the most consequential limitation in the tool today. This page treats it honestly, separating what Google has confirmed from what remains speculative. For a grounded overview of the tool itself, see what is Google Search Console, and for broader context the SEO glossary.

Key takeaways

The short version of four years of Search Console change: a leaner toolset, faster data, and one large open measurement problem created by AI surfaces. The points below summarise what a daily user needs to internalise before reading the full changelog.

• The International Targeting report is gone. It was removed on September 22, 2022. Country targeting via GSC no longer exists; hreflang errors now surface in the Enhancements report.
• AI Mode and AI Overviews are inside your data with no filter. Since June 17, 2025, AI Mode clicks, impressions, and position merged into the Web search type. No disaggregation exists.
• Impressions were inflated for roughly 50 weeks. A logging bug over-reported impressions from May 13, 2025 through about April 27, 2026. Clicks were unaffected.
• The 24-hour view is the most useful addition for content sites. Launched December 12, 2024, it shows hourly data with only a few hours' delay.
• GSC is gaining AI-layer features. Recommendations (August 2024) and AI-powered Performance configuration (December 2025) point toward proactive, conversational interfaces.

What GSC measures vs. what GA4 measures

A recurring source of confusion is treating Search Console and Google Analytics 4 as interchangeable. They measure different things. GSC reports how a site appears and performs inside Google Search before the click; GA4 reports what happens on the site after the click, across every channel.

The third misconception this pillar corrects sits here: GSC does not show everything Google knows about a site. Its data is sampled, filtered for privacy, and capped at a 16-month rolling window. For the post-click picture, pair it with the GA4 glossary; for tag deployment that feeds both, see the Google Tag Manager glossary. The two tools are complementary, not duplicative.

The GSC changelog, 2022-2026

Every row below is dated from a primary Google Search Central Blog announcement or the canonical deprecation help page, with contemporaneous trade coverage where useful. This is the editorial synthesis Google's scattered changelog does not assemble in one place.

The September 9, 2025 removal covered Course Info, Claim Review, Estimated Salary, Learning Video, Special Announcement, and Vehicle Listing reporting, as Search Engine Journal documented. These rich-result types are no longer served, so the reporting was retired with no replacement. Rankings were unaffected, and the Search Console API continued to support the types through December 2025 before bulk-export fields began reporting NULL from October 1, 2025.

Read together, the changelog tells a consistent story. Google retires tools where automated signals have made user-configurable overrides obsolete — parameter handling, country targeting, mobile-usability flags — and reinvests in data freshness and the AI-configuration layer. The HTTPS report, launched September 14, 2022, was the first sign of this rebalancing toward focused, automatically populated reporting rather than manual controls.

What replaced what: where to go now

For the practitioner asking "I used to use X, what do I use now?", this reference table maps each retired feature to its current alternative. Some removals had clear replacements; several did not, and inventing one would mislead.

Two replacements lead practitioners back to sibling pillars. Mobile readiness now runs through the Core Web Vitals and Page Experience report, and hreflang validation lives in the Enhancements report. Search Engine Roundtable covered the Page Experience removal as clutter reduction rather than a data loss.

Methodology

Every dated fact — report removals, feature launches, and the impressions-bug window — is sourced from primary Google Search Central Blog announcements, the Google Search Console Help Center deprecation pages, or contemporaneous reporting in Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, and Search Engine Roundtable. The 58% AI Overviews CTR figure is from Ahrefs' February 2026 study of 300,000 keywords. Keyword volumes are Ahrefs data pulled June 1, 2026 (US). Forward-looking claims about AI-surface disaggregation are framed explicitly as unconfirmed. MB Adv Agency's perspective is qualitative throughout; no client benchmark figures are used. Last updated June 2026. Reviewed by MB Adv Agency, June 2026.