02/25/2026
Google is testing something interesting in Discover: hiding the publish dates on articles.
Pros: It could reduce “recency bias” and let genuinely helpful evergreen content get a fair shot. If the article solves the problem, the date shouldn’t be the only thing people judge.
Cons: Dates are a trust signal. For anything that changes fast (health, finance, SEO, legal), not seeing a date makes it harder to know if the info is still accurate.
If this rolls out widely, the play doesn’t change: keep your key pages updated, add “last updated” where it matters, and make sure your content is clearly maintained.
Here’s the test being spotted: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-discover-no-dates-articles-40975.html
Would you rather see dates in Discover, or do you think it’s noise?
Google is testing removing the dates from the articles shown in the Google Discover feed. This is a limited test, Google confirmed, to see the impact of removing the date value.