Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
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:
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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
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:
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