News
What is changing in search, maps and ads
Headlines from the publications marketers actually read, updated regularly. Every article links to the original source.
Why it matters
Online is where your next customer decides
What recent consumer research says about how people find and choose local businesses and doctors.
- of consumers read online reviews for local businesses
- 97%
- of consumers expect business owners to respond to reviews
- 89%
- of consumers look for reviews written in the last three months
- 74%
- of consumers won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews
- 47%
Latest headlines
From around the industry
- SEOOpenAI Details How ChatGPT’s LLM Ad Stack Selects And Serves AdsOpenAI explains how a custom LLM orchestrator interprets multi-turn conversations, nominates ads for auction, and drops placements that miss response deadlines.Search Engine Journal (opens in a new tab)
- SEOPichai Says AI Agents Will Click Through Pages And Use ProtocolsGoogle's CEO expects AI agents to reach websites by browsing pages and through protocols, and says protocols scale better but will take longer to develop.Search Engine Journal (opens in a new tab)
- SEOGoogle Business Home: New Google Business Profiles HomeGoogle has launched a new "home" for Google Business Profiles named Google Business Home. It is a beta, but I just received an email with access to the new Google Business Home. Google wrote, this…Search Engine Roundtable (opens in a new tab)
- SEOGetting Indexed No Longer Means Getting VisitedBeing indexed used to buy a visit. In the answer layer, it buys eligibility, and nothing promises anyone arrives at your site.Search Engine Journal (opens in a new tab)
- IndustryHow CPG challenger brands are setting category marketing trendsFrom Liquid Death’s use of AI to Graza’s packaging, upstarts are finding ways to take market share from legacy rivals with larger media budgets.Marketing Dive (opens in a new tab)
- SEOWhy Reddit Belongs In Your PR StrategyReddit conversations can become news stories. Brands that listen and respond gain a chance to address problems before coverage follows.Search Engine Journal (opens in a new tab)
- SEOGoogle Search Tests Layout Change For Local Knowledge PanelGoogle is testing moving things around in the local knowledge panels in Search by swapping the position of the company name, ratings, description and action button with the business photos. It is a…Search Engine Roundtable (opens in a new tab)
- SEOGoogle Ads New Translation ToolGoogle Ads is now rolling out the Translation tool within the advertiser console. This allows advertisers to "Translate your campaigns to reach global customers and boost your conversions," Google…Search Engine Roundtable (opens in a new tab)
- SEOGoogle Ads Customer Lifecycle Goals: Value Mode, Retention Goals & Percentage MultipliersGoogle Ads is rolling out three updates to customer lifecycle goals to help advertisers before the holidays. These three updates include (1) expanding high value mode to Shopping Campaigns, (2)…Search Engine Roundtable (opens in a new tab)
- SEO3 New Studies Suggest AI Visibility & Search Not Worth Investing InThere are three new studies out over the past week that suggest that spending time, money and resources on AI visibility and AI search may not be worth it. In short, the studies all show that AI…Search Engine Roundtable (opens in a new tab)
- SEOGoogle Pauses Ads For Russian Advertisers & Serving Ads To RussiansBack in 2022, Google paused showing ads to users in Russia. That still seems to be active, but Google just posted a new message in the Google Ads and Merchant Center help documentation that it has…Search Engine Roundtable (opens in a new tab)
- SEOGoogle’s Illyes: Robots.txt Covers Crawling, Not AI TrainingGoogle's new robots.txt video says the standard covers crawling, not how content gets used, and recommends percent-encoding non-English robots.txt paths.Search Engine Journal (opens in a new tab)
- SEOGoogle CEO Sundar Pichai Views Search Absorbed Into Agentic LayerGoogle CEO Sundar Pichai says the future of Search is an agentic layer that unifies Google's Search and AI experiences.Search Engine Journal (opens in a new tab)
- Social MediaMeta offers creative targeting for adsThe company added a new feature that will allow third-party platforms to tailor age ranges and gender details for different elements in a promotional campaign.Social Media Today (opens in a new tab)
- SEOUpdraftPlus WordPress Plugin Security Breach Enables Backdoor AttacksHackers installed backdoors on WordPress sites using UpdraftPlus, putting over 3 million active installations at risk.Search Engine Journal (opens in a new tab)
- SEOGoogle On robots.txt Rules For AI Crawlers, Emojis, International URLs & MoreGary Illyes and Chery Prommawin released their second video in the Non-Canonical Cabinet series; this one is named What can you actually put in a robots.txt? Here they discuss what is, and is not…Search Engine Roundtable (opens in a new tab)
- IndustryTarget unwraps high-concept holiday ads focused on gift-giving academyActor D’Arcy Carden serves as Chief Giftologist in a new campaign that will be supported by a bigger creator push around YouTube and TikTok.Marketing Dive (opens in a new tab)
- Paid AdsNew bidding and budgeting tools can transform your upcoming holiday ad strategy.Get actionable insights on bidding and budgeting tools in the latest episode of Google's "Ads Decoded" podcast.Google Ads & Commerce Blog (opens in a new tab)
- Paid AdsExpanding our defenses against financial scam adsWe’re introducing new safeguards in early 2027 to help protect people in the U.S. and Canada from financial scams.Google Ads & Commerce Blog (opens in a new tab)
- Paid AdsAn intelligent new shopping cartUniversal Cart helps make holiday shopping easier. It’s now available in the U.S. across Search and the Gemini app.Google Ads & Commerce Blog (opens in a new tab)
- Paid AdsData-backed secrets to smarter holiday shoppingLearn the best times to buy. Our new When to Buy Guide uses Google Search and discount data to show when holiday deals peak.Google Ads & Commerce Blog (opens in a new tab)
- Paid AdsGuide your campaign spending with new priority and allocation featuresNew controls in Google Ads let marketers categorize channel groupings by priority and better control how budget is allocatedGoogle Ads & Commerce Blog (opens in a new tab)
- Paid AdsBuild your data strength with October’s Demand Gen drop.Boost your measurement and ROI with YouTube’s October Demand Gen Drop.Google Ads & Commerce Blog (opens in a new tab)
- Local SEO3 ways Google Maps can help you navigate your next culinary adventure.Use these built-in Google Maps features to navigate your food journey all year long.Google Maps Blog (opens in a new tab)
- Local SEOGoogle Maps reveals the top food trends and popular restaurants across 10 citiesWe analyzed a year of Google Maps data to uncover the top food trends and popular restaurants across 10 culinary hot spots.Google Maps Blog (opens in a new tab)
- Local SEOThis winter, use Google Maps and Waze to find the best fuel prices in the UK.Find the cheapest petrol and diesel prices in the UK using Google Maps and Waze. Search for fuel stations near you to save money. See the latest rates.Google Maps Blog (opens in a new tab)
- GoogleNew learning paths: curated YouTube playlists for Search fundamentals and Technical SEOOver the years, the Search Central YouTube channel has published hundreds of videos across various series, from Search for Beginners and Ask Googlebot to Search Console Training and Search Off the…Google Search Central Blog (opens in a new tab)
- Paid AdsTurn your existing social assets into high-impact YouTube ads.In this Ads Decoded episode, we discuss ad creative, and how it can make or break your YouTube campaigns.Google Ads & Commerce Blog (opens in a new tab)
- GoogleAnnouncing web multimodal Search performance reporting in Search ConsoleUnderstanding how users find your content is crucial for any publisher or site owner. As Search evolves to include more visual and multimodal experiences, we want to ensure you have the data you need…Google Search Central Blog (opens in a new tab)
- Local SEOHow the GNIS Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in MapsThe U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has formally changed the name for "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" in the United States. Since we update Google Maps …Google Maps Blog (opens in a new tab)
Headlines and summaries belong to their publishers. Last updated Oct 22, 2026.
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