Google published a Startup technical guide for building agents on Google Cloud - it's a 60+ page PDF with the option to listen to a podcast version (includes the prompt used in NotebookLM to make the audio).
I don't have an Android phone so wasn't able to see this for myself, but apparently Google Chrome on Android can turn any webpage into a podcast-style conversational audio overview. Seems like a big accessibility improvement since the regular Read Aloud feature was a rather flat, mechanical voice reading the page text verbatim.
The August Spam update ended overnight at 00:00 - it lasted 26 days which is longer than average (the last spam update in Dec. '24 only took 7 days, and the last core update in June of this year took 16 days).
Gems are custom versions of Gemini. Now you can share your Gems with other users.
If you've noticed GSC impressions fall off a cliff recently, you're not alone:
It seems like they're implying that since they never officially supported the parameter, they didn't really take anything away. Anyway, it's helpful to understand why impressions data changed in GSC in case you need to explain it to stakeholders.
Google is rolling out some significant AI-powered Chrome updates:
Apparently Ahrefs MCP is a thing now! HT Chris Long who stumbled across it and shared on LinkedIn.
Meta has new AI glasses with a Neural Band that uses surface electromyography to detect tiny muscle signals when you move your hand and fingers.
They claim it's about “staying present” and “not breaking your flow.” But really they want to cultivate dependency. What good is “looking up” if you’re just looking at a screen only you can see? Great news if you want to pay $800+ for the privilege of tethering your attention to Meta’s technology all day long. There is a legit upside to the Neural Band for people with disabilities, but that's not why they developed it.
Google now offers an interactive store widget to add to your ecommerce website:
LinkedIn is updating their terms on November 3, 2025:
Plus some changes that vary by region. Looks like you can still opt out of things.
HT to Ziggy Shtrosberg for this helpful tip: use a regex to segment GSC queries into buckets based on length. The really long ones are more likely to be from AI search.
Modify these examples as needed:
◦ ^([^" "]*\s){4,7}[^" "]*$
◦ ^([^" "]*\s){19,}[^" "]*$
Bookmark this article for the next time a local business owner asks if Updates on their GPB will "help SEO".
Google Updates:
If you're still having a hard time coming up with ideas for Google Updates, toss this summary or the article into an LLM and ask it to help you brainstorm, or to create questions you can use to get ideas from the business owner.
Google announced the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), an open framework designed to let AI agents make purchases safely on your behalf. More than 60 financial & tech leaders (incl. Ames, Mastercard, PayPal, Salesforce, Intuit) are already backing it.
*How it works:*
This is brilliant: if you have stakeholders who get hung up on unhelpful GA channel labels like "Unassigned" and "(not set)" you can rename them by creating custom channel groups, and recoup "meeting time wasted on Google's terminology choices instead of business insights". The whole article (by Dana DiTomaso) is a smart, satisfying read & tells you exactly how to do it.
OpenAI updated the ChatGPT changelog today with improvements to search in ChatGPT:
Related: This guy noticed that Deep Research in in most AI assistants started pulling from fewer sources when this change happened, likely because of token limits or cost/performance tradeoffs.
@user you will be happy to learn Claude was the exception!
If you use Semrush you may have noticed significant drops OR improvements associated with PAA visibility - it's because of a confirmed bug with parsing PAA if they include AIO. They're aiming to fix it by end of month.
ChatGPT & OpenAI both released reports this week about who's using their tools and what for. There's a ton of insight to dig into, but in a nutshell:
◦ Global use spreading fast, especially in low/middle-income countries
◦ Use is highest in high-income, tech-forward countries with advanced economies
Here are the reports:
(even the report titles underscore the differences!)
YouTube announced a bunch of upcoming new stuff at their 4th Made on YouTube event.
Here are the ones most relevant to SEO:
OpenAI released GPT-5-Codex for even snazzier agentic software engineering. If that is something you do, you will enjoy all of the details in the announcement.
GSC has a new menu item: Achievements. It's where you can find all the milestones from your website performance over time.
Last Friday, people started talking about Google not allowing 100 results per page anymore - some saying it's a test, others speculating it's permanent (Google hasn't said either way). Now people are talking about how it's affecting rank tracking tools and GSC data. Helpful to be aware of if you notice a change around that time.
Good to be aware of: how scammers target small businesses with fake bad reviews. In this NYT article a Google rep said (via email) that they plan to release a tool letting businesses report when they're being targeted by scammers, but wouldn't provide additional details (like when it might be available).
Google published a new guide called "Understanding Product Pricing" in the Merchant Center Help documentation that applies to both free and paid Shopping listings. The main point is: be accurate and transparent with your pricing. It covers core pricing concepts, automatic updates & discounts, special pricing programs (like regional pricing & loyalty programs), subscriptions, and installment pricing.
