OpenAI sent out emails to advertisers, including me, telling me they have automatically enabled creative enhancements for my ChatGPT Ads. The email says this is starting on October 30, 2026 and I can opt out of creative enhancements or change your settings at any time in Ads Manager.

OpenAI explains that creative enhancements are designed to make your ads more relevant to the conversation and user interests, helping to improve performance while reducing work to create multiple versions. OpenAI will use your existing ad and landing-page content to adapt your message. Enhancements can include new or updated headlines and descriptions, image resizing, destination-URL optimization, and translation into other languages.

The email says:

Starting Friday, October 30, 2026, we'll enable creative enhancements for your new and existing self-serve campaigns.

Creative enhancements make your ads more relevant to the conversation and/or user interests, helping improve performance, while reducing the work of creating multiple versions.

We use your existing ad and landing-page content to adapt the way your message is expressed. Enhancements can include new or updated headlines and descriptions, image resizing, destination-URL optimization, and translation into other languages.

When enabled, these ads can run automatically without requiring you to review or approve each version. You can opt out of creative enhancements before October 30, 2026 or change your settings at any time in Ads Manager. We'll preserve your existing account and campaign-level opt-outs, and campaign-specific settings will take priority over account defaults.

Here is the setting that you can access in your ad accounts setting section, you can see it is toggled on for me:

Here is a screenshot of the email:

Creative enhancements can take into consideration the context of the conversation or user interests, your existing ad and content from the ad's landing page. OpenAI may adjust your headlines and descriptions, resize images, optimize destination URLs, or translate ad text to make your ads more relevant. Variations may be prepared in advance or created in real time based on the conversation. When enabled, these ads can run automatically without requiring you to review or approve each version.

Here is what can change:

• Headlines and descriptions: OpenAI may create new or updated text to connect your offering to the conversation or user interests.
• Language: OpenAI may translate your ad text into another language.
• Images: Images may be resized to fit the ad format.
• Destination URLs: The destination URL may be optimized to direct people to a relevant page on your website.

For more details, see this hep document.

Here is some feedback from PPCers:

@AnthonyHigman Yikes. We ended up pausing our ChatGPT ads test due to poor lead quality and now I'm glad we did. Not cool

— Melissa Mackey (@Mel66) October 20, 2026

I Want To Re-Iterate, If An Ad Platform Is Framing Something As "Less Work For You" You Can Pretty Much GUARANTEE What They Really Mean Is : We Are Scamming You By Serving More Of Your Ads On Things You Dont Want To Show Up For.

TRUST ME WHEN I SAY That Open Ai Does Not Give A Single F**K About Saving You Time Or Work. Not ONE F**K.

— Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) October 20, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Google has announced it is expanding its Google Ads Financial Services Verification requirements to the United States and Canada. Google is working with the American Bankers Association and Canadian Bankers Association for this.

Google first started financial services verification in 2022 and then expanded it to Europe earlier this year. Now, Google is expanding this requirement in the United States and Canada.

Google wrote, "Building on safeguards that already cover 2 billion internet users globally, we're bringing our Financial Services Verification program to the U.S. and Canada in early 2027."

Google added that it is working in the U.S. with the American Bankers Association to use their dedicated registry to verify authorized banks before ads can run. In Canada, Google is "engaging closely with the Canadian Bankers Association as we prepare for our rollout."

Google added, "Because regulations differ across borders, we're adapting our approach for each country through a phased implementation, protecting consumers while ensuring legitimate institutions can reach the people they serve. This work complements broader efforts like the Global Signal Exchange, where we share information across tech, finance, and law enforcement to stop fraud."

Google said before its planned rollout in early 2027, Google will provide country-specific information for advertisers, including accepted registries, required credentials and onboarding instructions. Once verification opens, advertisers will be notified if and when they need to complete the process, ensuring businesses have the guidance they need to comply before policy enforcement begins. And yes, we will keep track of the Google Ads policy documents to let you know when they are live.

Here is the full list of regions that require Financial Services Verification in Google Ads.

Forum discussion at X.

Google seems to not show AI Overview labels for all AI Overviews in Search. Google may have had issues handling URLs with brackets in them. Google Business Profiles testing verification with government IDs. Google Business Profiles has a delay with review appeals. The Google Ads team posted a new help document that talks about the length of booking bid adjustment in legacy Hotel campaigns versus Search campaigns for travel. Google is testing removing the HR, thematic line break or horizontal rule line, that is found under the search tabs under the search box in the search results page. Microsoft seems to be testing not showing sitelinks under the main Bing search result snippets.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Removes AI Overviews Labels On Some AI Overviews
  Google seems to be removing the AI Overviews label from some of the search results that are AI Overviews. The desktop version is missing the AI Overview label, while the mobile version has the AI Overview label.
• Google Business Profiles Verification With Government ID
  Google is testing a new way to verify your Google Business Profiles, the method is by uploading a photo of your government ID. This is in addition ot the phone/text, email, live video call or snail mail verification methods.
• Google Hotel Ads Legacy Length Of Booking Bid Adjustment Doc
  The Google Ads team posted a new help document that talks about the length of booking bid adjustment in legacy Hotel campaigns versus Search campaigns for travel. Hotel campaigns multiply your base bid by the traveler's itinerary length of stay (LoS) but Search campaigns for travel (SCT) don't.
• Google Search Internal Issues With Square Brackets [] Punctuations In URLs
  Google Search had some issues handling square brackets punctuation marks (i.e. [ ]) within URLs. John Mueller from Google responded to former Googler, Vanessa Fox, saying that he is "seeing some of the issues internally that came up with these kinds of characters in the URL."
• Bing Tests Not Showing Sitelinks
  Microsoft seems to be testing not showing sitelinks under the main Bing search result snippets. I am honestly not sure if this is new but I was able to replicate Bing showing sitelinks for the first search result snippet in one browser and for the same query, it not showing the sitelinks.
• Google Business Profiles Review Appeals Are Delayed Again
  Google Business Profiles review appeals are delayed again. Dan Boguslavsky from the Google team posted about the delay last Friday saying, "Due to high volume of review related appeals, processing times are currently extended."
• Google Search Tests Removing Horizontal Rule Line Under Tabs
  Google is testing removing the HR, thematic line break or horizontal rule line, that is found under the search tabs under the search box in the search results page.
• Latin Heritage Month at Google with Bachata Training
  Here is a photo from the GooglePlex, the main Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, of a celebration of Latin Heritage Month at Google. You can see, they even have Bachata training.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Major Google Cloud outage in Europe right now, Barry Schwartz on X
• ChatGPT's app downloads and monthly active users (MAUs) both grew in Q3 compared to Q2 2026., Similarweb on X
• Well, TIL. I would have assumed they're equivalent, but they're NOT. This was a fun side-track. "?filter[]=123" ≠ "?filter%5B%5D=123" because in RFC 3986, Section 2.2 the characters brackets ([, ]) and plus signs (+) are defined as part of the reserved set., John Mueller on Bluesky

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Search Engine Land Awards 2026: Complete finalists list
• Google Ads AI Max spotted automatically enabled in some Ad Grants accounts
• Google Local Services Ads removes featured professionals
• Content pruning case study: Cutting 33% of pages that drove just 3% of clicks
• How to measure Google Demand Gen against the right goals
• Why the For You Page deserves SEO attention
• AI and local search: The new rules of visibility in 2027

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• 4 tips for styling outfits with Gemini, Google Blog
• Data: How AI Assistants Are Spending Real Money, Upstarts Media
• Four Gemini 4 Argon agents beat Minecraft without any human help, The Decoder
• Google support pages are now AI summaries and chatbots, 9To5Google
• Microsoft unveils tools to monitor and corral rogue AI agents, GeekWire
• New Feature: Grounding Snippet Ablation, DEJAN
• The Gender Gap in AI, Pew Research Center
• AI in the newsroom at Reuters, Reach, Independent and Metropolis, Press Gazette
• Advancing coding in low''resource programming languages, OpenAI

Analytics

• Talking to your data: Introducing Conversational Analytics, Hallam

Industry & Business

• Anthropic Readies Model That Reads Users' Intentions Better, The Information
• How AI data centers are reshaping America's aging grid, CNBC
• OpenAI seeks to accelerate fundraising ahead of Anthropic IPO, sources say, Reuters
• Supreme Court rejects Google challenge to US patent agency review policy, Reuters
• West Memphis Energy Impact Fund awards $1.25M in grants, Google Blog
• What to Know About the Obscure Trust Looming Over Anthropic’s IPO, Wall Street Journal
• Anthropic IPO to Deliver Massive Windfall for Google's Eric Schmidt, Bloomberg
• Elon Musk says he'll give a SpaceX share to every child in U.S., CNBC
• Google executive dismisses European fears over US dominance of AI, Financial Times (Sub)
• Ad Tech Briefing: Can flipping the ad auction wrest control of ad tech from Google?, Digiday
• Forbes looks to Google AI pilot for insights, Digiday

Links & Content Marketing

• Influencer Content: Pros, Cons, Examples and Best Practices, TopRank Marketing

Local & Maps

• Local vs Brand-Level AI Visibility for MULOs, Street Fight
• Google Maps Bookings Have an Attribution Problem. Can Your Data Pipeline Explain Why?, HackerNoon

Other Search

• Google Home Speakers downloading massive amounts of data, 9To5Google
• Wirecutter moves beyond affiliate revenue amid AI search shifts, Digiday
• The Verge restructures audience team to prepare for Google Zero, Digiday

PPC

• AI Max Launch Guide, Brainlabs
• Demand Gen Creative Best Practices, Google
• Microsoft promised fewer Windows 11 ads, but its wallpaper app acts like adware, opening Bing when you click your desktop, Windows Latest
• PPC Agency vs Freelancer vs In-House: Which Is Best?, Hop Skip Media
• Updates to Cryptocurrencies and related products policy (October 2026) United Arab Emirates, Google Advertising Policies Help
• Why I Think Platform Audits are Bad for Advertisers, Group Twenty Seven
• 9 Overlooked Marketing Budget Leaks (+How to Plug Them), WordStream
• "Partners" Setting for Performance Max, PPC News Feed

Search Features

• ChatGPT tests large product carousel with Shop now buttons, Search Engine Watch
• YouTube tests AI replies in searches, Social Media Today

SEO

• Who AI Overviews Cite for Marketing Searches, Barlo Digital
• 1: APIs for SEOs – What an API Actually Is and Why You Should Care, Search Engine World
• 3 Prompt Tracking Frameworks for AI Search [Free Skill], Orit Mutznik
• 434 Days Later - Are AI Search Platforms Like ChatGPT and Claude Still Unable To Render JavaScript In October 2026?, GSQI
• 7 AEO Testing Ideas to Boost Your Brand’s AI Search Visibility, seoClarity
• Beware of AI Content for SEO, Practical Ecommerce
• How AccuRanker Handles Poisoned SERPs, AccuRanker
• How to Build a Prompt Set Worth Tracking, Momentic
• SEO Beyond Traffic: Influence, Trust, and Business Results, Advanced Web Ranking
• I tested DeepSeek’s new search API. Here’s how it ranks and scores websites, Suganthan Mohanadasan
• What SEOs can learn from social discovery platforms, Oncrawl
• Google Search Traffic to Publishers Fell 40%: The Data, Technology
• A Cautionary Tale: One Site’s AI-Assisted SEO Crash, JumpFly

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News, add as a preferred source on Google and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or just contact us the old fashion way.

Google seems to be removing the AI Overviews label from some of the search results that are AI Overviews. The desktop version is missing the AI Overview label, while the mobile version has the AI Overview label.

Again, this is for some AI Overviews that show up at the top of the search results page. These are like for knowledge panels like AI Overviews.

This was spotted by Glenn Gabe who posted about this on X, he said:

No AIO label? -> Very interesting to see AIOs for shows or movies and Google not provide the AIO label. Noticed that this morning. I wonder if we will see more AIOs without labeling. Stay tuned.

Here is what it looks like on desktop:

But on mobile for the same exact feature, the AI Overview label is there at the top:

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of AI Overviews being labeled as such:

I suspect this is a bug but I can be wrong - I reached out to Google.

No AIO label? -> Very interesting to see AIOs for shows or movies and Google not provide the AIO label. Noticed that this morning. I wonder if we will see more AIOs without labeling. Stay tuned. https://t.co/Xx7r99q5e8

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 20, 2026

This may be why Semrush is showing a drop in AI Overviews showing in Google Search, by the way:

@semrush reporting a drop in how often AI Overviews show up, this has to be a bug in Semrush tracking - I see AIOs everywhere https://t.co/KdmFPHbpqs

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) October 20, 2026

I should note, Google had missing AI labels before and it was a bug.

Forum discussion at X.

Google is testing a new way to verify your Google Business Profiles, the method is by uploading a photo of your government ID. This is in addition ot the phone/text, email, live video call or snail mail verification methods.

This was spotted by Digital Jedi who posted this on the Local Search Forum he wrote, "I came across it 2 weeks ago. While I've seen some rando verification options, this was a first... How does Google know the Government ID is associated with the business?"

Here is his screenshot:

Yes, it says:

Submit an Identity Verification

Upload a photo of your government ID

Your ID is only used for verification and won't be shown publicly

This is not currently listed in Google's help document, which currently only include:

• Phone or text
• Email
• Live video call
• Mail

I think this is an option for Google Local Service Ads for certification of some professions.

Forum discussion at Local Search Forum.

The Google Ads team posted a new help document that talks about the length of booking bid adjustment in legacy Hotel campaigns versus Search campaigns for travel. Hotel campaigns multiply your base bid by the traveler's itinerary length of stay (LoS) but Search campaigns for travel (SCT) don't.

The help document says:

Hotel campaigns multiply your base bid by the traveler's itinerary length of stay (LoS). Search campaigns for travel (SCT) don't support this automatic multiplication logic.

To keep your effective bids equivalent for longer stays in SCT, use length of booking bid adjustments (formerly known as length of stay in Hotel campaigns) based on this formula:

Search campaigns for travel bid adjustment % = [User selected itinerary length of stay Ã- (1+ Original bid adjustment %)] '' 1

Google explained two scenarios how to set your Search campaigns for travel bid adjustments to replicate your hotel campaign bids:

Scenario A: With an existing Hotel campaign length of stay bid adjustment

• Hotel campaign bid: $2.00 Ã- 1.05 Ã- 2 = $4.20 USD

To recreate this $4.20 USD bid adjustment for Search campaigns for travel, apply a +110% length of booking bid adjustment.

• Search campaigns for travel bid adjustment will be: [2 Ã- (1 + 0.05)] '' 1 = 1.10 (or 110%)
• New Search campaigns for travel bid will evaluate to the following when the travel bid adjustment above is entered: $2.00 Ã- (1 + 1.10) = $4.20 USD (which matches the legacy Hotel campaign bid)

Scenario B: Without an existing length of stay bid adjustment in Hotel campaigns

If you had no previous adjustment (0%) with a $2.00 USD base bid, use these bid adjustments to maintain equivalent bidding:

• 2 nights: SCT length of booking bid adjustment: +100%; Hotel campaign bid: $4.00 USD; New SCT effective bid: $4.00 USD.
• 3 nights: SCT length of booking bid adjustment: +200%; Hotel campaign bid: $6.00 USD; New SCT effective bid: $6.00 USD.
• 5 nights: SCT length of booking bid adjustment: +400%; Hotel campaign bid: $10.00 USD; New SCT effective bid: $10.00 USD.
• 10 nights: SCT length of booking bid adjustment: +900%; Hotel campaign bid: $20.00 USD; New SCT effective bid: $20.00 USD.

Here is a screenshot of this new document:

Forum discussion at X

Google Search had some issues handling square brackets punctuation marks (i.e. [ ]) within URLs. John Mueller from Google responded to former Googler, Vanessa Fox, saying that he is "seeing some of the issues internally that came up with these kinds of characters in the URL."

He then added in round brackets saying, "(though they're 10+ years ago)." He also said, "it might be that other crawlers / indexers / fetchers aren't as exact in this logic, so it might be worth double-checking those you care about."

Vanessa Fox's original question was on Bluesky, she wrote:

I posted this question in the YT video comments: For URLs with characters that can be encoded (brackets, plus signs, spaces), does Google treat the encoded version as a distinct URL? (example.com/category?filter[]=123 vs. example.com/category?filter%5B%5D=123 used in links vs. canonical values).

John Mueller from Google had this long reply:

Well, TIL. I would have assumed they're equivalent, but they're NOT. This was a fun side-track. "?filter[]=123" '  "?filter%5B%5D=123" because in RFC 3986, Section 2.2 the characters brackets ([, ]) and plus signs (+) are defined as part of the reserved set.

"URIs that differ in the replacement of a reserved character with its corresponding percent-encoded octet are not equivalent. Percent-encoding a reserved character, or decoding a percent-encoded octet that corresponds to a reserved character, will change how the URI is interpreted by most applications. Thus, characters in the reserved set are protected from normalization..." '" IETF STD 66 / RFC 3986, Section 2.2

JavaScript can even check for this: new URL('https://example.com/category?filter[]=123').href === new URL('https://example.com/category?filter%5B%5D=123').href // Output: false

That said, *maybe* your server makes them "soft-equivalent" by serving the same content. We'd crawl both versions, if we see the same content (maybe even checksum level), we'd de-dupe them and pick one.

So in short, pick one, and use it consistently (links, canonical, sitemaps, structured data). The same is with " " (space), + (plus), and "%20", but with the bonus of this being different depending on which URL element it's in (path vs query string).

I knew about the spaces part, but the brackets was unexpected, and I probably gave people the wrong answer on this in the past. Woops. BTW for hex-encoding, the case doesn't matter, so "%5B" === "%5b".

As if that wasn't enough; brackets: not only are they not equivalent, the URL with ?filter[]=123 is technically invalid (according to RFC 3986) since [ ] may only appear in the hostname to wrap raw IPv6 addresses ð¤¯. Browsers generally hex-encode them when you enter them, and servers are like cats.

Vanessa Fox then followed up and wrote:

Ack - I saw that! But this particular site is using the invalid form of [] throughout and it seems to be indexing fine, and it would be a ton of work to change it so they are leaving it for now... fingers crossed?

John Mueller replied:

I'd expect it to continue to work - the web is messy and not all of it is "technically correct" - but I wouldn't set up a new site like this, and I'd pay extra attention to all the internal linking (including metadata like rel=canonical, structured data, etc) to make it consistent.

Also, seeing some of the issues internally that came up with these kinds of characters in the URL (though they're 10+ years ago), it might be that other crawlers / indexers / fetchers aren't as exact in this logic, so it might be worth double-checking those you care about.

So Google probably can handle it now, but it's better to be safe?

Forum discussion at Bluesky.

Update: John added, "No issues - the internet standards for URLs are just very specific."

Microsoft seems to be testing not showing sitelinks under the main Bing search result snippets. I am honestly not sure if this is new but I was able to replicate Bing showing sitelinks for the first search result snippet in one browser and for the same query, it not showing the sitelinks.

This was spotted first by Khushal Bherwani who posted a screenshot on X - he said, "Bing is not showing sitelinks in this test, while they appear in the SERP without the test."

I can replicate, here are my screenshots:

Here are Khushal Bherwani's screenshots:

ð Bing is not showing sitelinks in this test, while they appear in the SERP without the test.

'-ï' Sharing screenshots of both versions for comparison. https://t.co/vcuTyTz0WQ

— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) October 19, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Google Business Profiles review appeals are delayed again. Dan Boguslavsky from the Google team posted about the delay last Friday saying, "Due to high volume of review related appeals, processing times are currently extended."

He posted this within this Google Business Profiles Help thread and wrote that they "are working diligently to process all cases."

There is no estimated time for when Google will be able to process these appeals. "As of this time, we cannot provide a specific response timeframe for pending cases," he added.

Google also has review appeal delays last December and March 2025 - so this is not all that uncommon.

Here is his full post:

Due to high volume of review related appeals, processing times are currently extended. We are working diligently to process all cases. As of this time, we cannot provide a specific response timeframe for pending cases.

Please note: Do not create a duplicate appeal. Once your appeal has been submitted, you do not need to do anything further. Learn more about missing and delayed reviews or how to report inappropriate reviews on your Business Profile. You can also check the status of your review removal appeal. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this period.

Forum discussion at Google Business Profiles Help.

Google is testing removing the HR, thematic line break or horizontal rule line, that is found under the search tabs under the search box in the search results page.

This was first spotted by Sachin Patel who posted about this on SEW and on X and said, "Google appears to be testing the removal of the line below the header in its search results."

I am able to replicate this both with the HR line and without the HR line.

Here it is without the line:

And with the line:

The hr tag in HTML represents a thematic break or change of topic between paragraph-level content, traditionally rendered as a horizontal line or rule. This is what Google seems to have removed.

This is obviously a small change for most, but it is a change.

Forum discussion at X.

Google is testing moving the Google Posts section higher up on the local panel. Google confirmed it will now show ads in AI Mode results with Personal Intelligence enabled. Google is testing letting users view and modify their preferred sources list directly from within the AI Mode citations sidebar. Google Ads posted a message to Local Service Ads advertisers saying that featured professionals will no longer show on your ads, and headshots will be optional and won't impact ad serving. OpenAI announced a number of product updates to ChatGPT Ads late Friday. And I posted a new feature on Search Engine Roundtable, Is it new AI scan tool.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Is It New? AI Scan Tool
  Here is something new for you - the Is it new? AI scan tool. It is a feature I thought would be neat to build, where instead of you reaching out to me to see if this or that is a new Google, Bing, etc search feature, you can upload a screenshot, add some descriptive text and then have the AI figure out if it is new.
• Google Moves Google Posts Higher Up On Local Panel
  Google seems to have moved the Google Posts section of a local knowledge panel higher up on the page. In 2018, Google moved the Google Posts section to the bottom of the local panel. Now it seems Google is moving it back up.
• Google Ads Now In AI Mode With Personal Intelligence
  Google confirmed it will now show ads in AI Mode results with Personal Intelligence enabled. Back in March, Google said AI Mode with Personal Intelligence turned on would be ad-free, but that is now changing.
• Google AI Mode Citations With Preferred Source Preferences
  Google is testing letting users view and modify their preferred sources list directly from within the AI Mode citations sidebar. There is a new button named "Source preferences" and when you click on it, it opens up your preferred sources list where you can add or remove preferred sources.
• ChatGPT Ads New Ad Formats, Updated Conversion Page, Performance Emails...
  OpenAI announced a number of product updates to ChatGPT Ads late Friday. These updates include new visual ad formats, a redesigned conversions page, performance emails, new measurement partners and a bug reporting / product feedback system.
• Google Ads To No Longer Show Featured Professionals, Headshots Are Optional
  Google Ads posted a message to Local Service Ads advertisers saying that featured professionals will no longer show on your ads, and headshots will be optional and won't impact ad serving.
• Google Pier 57 Rooftop Movie Night
  Here is a photo from the Google Pier 57 office rooftop where some folks were doing an outdoor rooftop movie night.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Bing with magnifying glass at top menu., Khushal Bherwani on X
• this is fishy.. how is this allowed? visible domain is https://t.co/NlweFQKARS click the ad and the URL is "goole" dot com, Jordan Fry on X
• Absolutely, a basket with $100 of high margin products has a very different business value than a $100 basket filled with low margin clearance items, for example. You might check out conversions with cart data if you're not alreadyusing it to get more detailed sales and profit, AdsLiaison on X
• Google structured data gallery added a "filter by..." option - not writing a story on this but thought it was worth posting here, Barry Schwartz on X
• In late September and early October, tests were conducted on search profiles in Google Discover. - Google tested a UI/UX improvement to the social media buttons and follow buttons (https://t.co/RotRUBRwE5) - Removal of the "Profile generated by Google" tag from, Damien Andell on X
• Luckily getting crawled and indexed happens through normal websearch regardless! I forgot who said it ;-), but I like the angle of not over-focusing on technical tweaks (like the forcing of indexing that many attempt when they turn to over-promising SEO plugins or shady services), and instead building something so valuable that Google looks stupid for not ranking it., John Mueller on LinkedIn
• For 11 days in September, Gemini tagged its outbound links with utm_source=gemini. That gave us a rare look at how much Gemini traffic analytics normally misses., Cedric Huesler on LinkedIn
• PSA for anyone using @SERanking - We've updated our status page to reflect the great work the team has done in addressing some changes to how results are served. In a nutshell, we've corrected historical gaps in ranking data and implemented fixes for "unreliable" results being, Mordy Oberstein on X
• They say "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" - this new site just copied my design, my features and some of my content from, Barry Schwartz on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• The latest jobs in search marketing
• Google Merchant Center adds warranty attribute for product listings
• Google Ads extends Demand Gen cost adjustments from 3 weeks to 60 days
• ChatGPT Ads introduces new measurement tools and visual ad formats
• Google begins testing ads in AI Mode for users with Personal Intelligence enabled
• Google Ask Maps: How to make your business easier to recommend
• Canonicalization and SEO: A guide for 2027
• Human experience is your content’s biggest differentiator

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• Meta’s new commercial terms will allow the scraping of news sites, legal experts say, Nieman Journalism Lab
• How to Make Your Products Visible to AI Shopping Agents, seoClarity
• The AI expectations gap, Anthropic
• How employment is changing at Anthropic, Anthropic
• How Gemini searches and chooses its citations, RESONEO
• Websites are closing their doors to AI agents, The Verge
• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Surface Laptop Ultra, rogue agents and Windows, The New Things
• [2610.15382] Understanding ChatGPT Citations: Evidence from Production Web Search Across Model Generations, Arxiv

Industry & Business

• Is AI eating into Google's search dominance? Tech analyst weighs in, Fox Business Video
• US judge rebuffs $85 million fee request by lawyers in Google Play antitrust litigation, Reuters
• Anthropic quietly pitches its own AI safety bill to lawmakers, POLITICO
• AI Runs Into Its Next Big Obstacle: Insurance, Wall Street Journal
• Investing in the public benefit, Anthropic
• Google Labs' 'Secret Society' Way of Thanking Its MVP Employees, Business Insider

Links & Content Marketing

• Does AI Content Watermarking Mean the End of Content Automation?, seoClarity

Local & Maps

• Why Are Some Locations Blurred Out On Google Maps?, Engadget
• MapQuest Will Now Show You Where Flock Cameras Are In Your Neighborhood, Engadget
• How to track Flock cameras using MapQuest, Mashable
• Google Maps isn't just for roads; here's how I use it to navigate inside buildings, Android Police

Other Search

• ChatGPT can peek at your Chrome tabs now, The Verge
• Continuous accountability for Verified bots, Cloudflare Blog
• Apple HomeView With Robotic Arm; New Mac, iPad Mini Nov. 6 Release; iPhone Duo, Bloomberg

PPC

• Merchant Center Adds a Warranty Attribute for All Products, PPC News Feed
• Data study: What 5,900 accounts reveal about RSA pinning, Adalysis
• Microsoft Requires 18+ Targeting for Several Restricted Categories, PPC News Feed
• AI Max Auto-Upgrades Spotted in Google Ad Grants, PPC News Feed
• Reach Planner Adds Weekly Frequency Suggestions, PPC News Feed
• ChatGPT tests single-brand shopping ads at the bottom of results, Search Engine Watch
• Google Updates Conversion Recommendations Page Layout Again, PPC News Feed
• Google Ads Adds "Scan Another Website" for Image Assets, PPC News Feed

Search Features

• Bing adds white arrows to sitelinks in ads, Search Engine Watch
• 3 new study features in Gemini Notebook, Google Blog
• Bing tests bold breadcrumb text in search result URLs, Search Engine Watch

SEO

• B2B AI Search: Building a 2027 Strategy, Tinuiti
• For Service Providers, AI Giveth And AI Taketh Away, Forrester
• Google Removes the Indexing API Quota Form: What Now?, Alex Anderchukovski
• Why Google ranking data collection is changing, SISTRIX
• Poisoned Google SERPs: How to Spot Them and Still Track Rankings, Brodie Clark Consulting
• The SEO Contract You Didn't Bother Reading, Nikki Pilkington
• B2B Keyword Research Is Missing The Questions That Stop People Buying, Nikki Pilkington
• Getting Indexed No Longer Means Getting Visited, Duane Forrester Decodes
• Got a Manual Action Penalty from Google? Why programmatic content generation can wreck your SEO, Assertive Media
• Wiretapping the SERP: Reverse Engineering Network Data, Mark Williams-Cook
• Sometimes search volume is a bug report, Jono Alderson
• Schema markup gives AI assistants nothing plain text doesn’t., SerptWerker
• AI Mode Queries in Search Console: A Study of 155 Sites, GSC Wizard
• Why SEO Isn’t Enough Anymore - And Why That’s A Good Thing, Leadership in SEO
• AI slop websites rise fivefold with GEO optimization, Axios
• Does schema markup help AI cite you? I ran a controlled version of Mark Williams-Cook's experiment., Rick Ramos on LinkedIn

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News, add as a preferred source on Google and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or just contact us the old fashion way.

Here is something new for you - the Is it new? AI scan tool. It is a feature I thought would be neat to build, where instead of you reaching out to me to see if this or that is a new Google, Bing, etc search feature, you can upload a screenshot, add some descriptive text and then have the AI figure out if it is new.

You can access the tool at seroundtable.com/is-it-new and give it a try.

I had to add a "paywall" of sorts to it, because it is not cheap to run (about 7 cents per run). So I don't want bots running it over and over again. So the paywall is you enter your email and get a code, which also signs you up to my email newsletter (you can unsubscribe whenever you want).

I was joking around with the RustyBrick team about this idea and two of the RB developers were like, sure we can build that. So I said, go ahead. More on how it works on the backend later but here is how the frontend works.

You upload a screenshot, add a description, and you can even highlight the portion of the screenshot that you want to know about. Kind of like Google circle to search...

Then the AI will read the image, classify it and determine what to match on:

It will then scan all the non-hero images in my stories from the past 23 years and see if any match:

We ran a process where AI went through all the images on this site, built an index of those images, to make the matching a bit faster and a lot cheaper going forward. This actually runs daily for new stories to be added to the index.

Then it will find the results that match best:

You can even use a form to send me your findings, so I can manually review it:

On the backend, I store all the images uploaded so I can debug it. We actually run several AI models and I can toggle between them to see what works best. We did a few weeks of testing and the truth is, I can continue to tweak and improve it, but I wanted to get it out in the real world to see how you all use it and what needs to be tweaked.

It is not perfect but it is a pretty cool concept.

Let me know your thoughts - and yes, I limited how many scans you can do per day. And if too many of you use it in a day, it is also capped and will give you a notice.

For a bit more technical view, see the RustyBrick post.

Forum discussion at X.

Google seems to have moved the Google Posts section of a local knowledge panel higher up on the page. In 2018, Google moved the Google Posts section to the bottom of the local panel. Now it seems Google is moving it back up.

Ben Fisher first posted about this a few days ago on LinkedIn and wrote, "Good news, everybody! GBP KP is now testing a higher position on posts!" He said, "Now every 3 days I am seeing posts move up and then 3 days later they move down."

Just so you are clear what Google Posts are, here are the Google Posts and social media updates section - with the red arrow pointing to it:

I am currently seeing them moved up higher, but here are Ben's screenshots.

Lower position:

Higher position:

If they are that high up on the page, it will likely incentivize more to add Google Posts to their Google Business Profiles.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google confirmed it will now show ads in AI Mode results with Personal Intelligence enabled. Back in March, Google said AI Mode with Personal Intelligence turned on would be ad-free, but that is now changing.

Google told Anu Adegbola last March, "There are currently no ads for people who choose to connect their apps with AI Mode. That isn't changing right now." Although Google did say ads will likely come, Google said, "In the future, we anticipate that ads will operate similarly for people who choose to connect their apps with AI Mode. Ads will continue to be relevant to things like your query, the context of the response and your interests."

And yes, now they are here. While ads in AI Mode is not new, ads in AI Mode with Personal Intelligence active is new.

Google told Search Engine Land on Friday, "Google is starting to test ads in AI Mode in Search for users who connect their apps through Personal Intelligence, reversing its earlier ad-free approach to the experience."

If you look at the updated help document it now says (the previous version did not say this):

If I connect my content apps, will my Gmail inbox or Google Photos library be used to serve ads? Ads will not be based directly on your Gmail inbox or your Google Photos library.

If you connect your content apps to Search Services, Search may reference summaries, excerpts and inferences from these sources to personalize your experience and do things for you. That same info may be used to show you ads, so they are even more helpful for you.

As always, Google doesn't show you personalized ads based on sensitive categories, such as race, religion, sexual orientation, or health. You get to choose if you want to connect your content apps to Search Services. You can adjust your settings, including disconnecting content apps from Search services, at any time.

Here is a screenshot:

Google said "ads will continue to be relevant to things like your query, the context of the response and your interests." If you choose to connect your apps and ask AI Mode a question, AI Mode may use limited info like insights and summaries from your apps to provide responses that are uniquely relevant to you. That same data may now be used to show you ads, so they are even more helpful in this experience. Ads will not be based directly on your Gmail inbox or Photos library, and advertisers will not have access to your connected apps. As always, sensitive information will not be used to tailor ads.

Forum discussion at X.

Google is testing letting users view and modify their preferred sources list directly from within the AI Mode citations sidebar. There is a new button named "Source preferences" and when you click on it, it opens up your preferred sources list where you can add or remove preferred sources.

This was spotted by Damien Andell who posted a video of this in action on X - Damien wrote, ""Source preferences" directly in AI Mode to manage your preferred sources."

I don't see this myself but here is a screenshot from his video:

Here is a GIF:

As an FYI, Google AI Mode began supporting preferred sources in May.

Forum discussion at X.