Daily Search Forum Recap: January 12, 2026

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 introduced Agentic Commerce Protocol (UCP) that lets you integrate with Google AI experiences to checkout directly there. Google also announced Direct Offers, a new AI Mode ad experience to show coupons to searchers. Google also announced Merchant Center Business Agents, AI agents for your business. Google integrates its core signals into AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google Ads PMax has new A/B testing assets. Google Ads is testing Brand linking.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Integrates Core Search Signals Into AI Experiences
  Google's Robby Stein reiterated that Google's AI experience, such as AI Mode and AI Overviews, integrates Google's core search signals. This helps Google provide more useful and helpful responses to users in the AI experiences. But it doesn't always get it right, as many of you know.
• Google AI Mode Direct Offers Ads & Universal Commerce Protocol
  In a rare Sunday launch, Google announced new AI Mode ads named Direct Offers. Google also announced branded AI agents and a new open standard for agentic commerce it calls Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).
• Google Merchant Center Business Agent - Branded AI Agents
  Google announced new Business Agents, branded AI Agents, a "new way for shoppers to chat with brands, right on Search," Google said. "It's like a virtual sales associate that can answer product questions in a brand's voice, enabling retailers to connect with consumers during critical shopping moments and help drive sales," Google added.
• Google Ads Performance Max A/B Testing Assets
  Google Ads has a new experiment feature for Performance Max campaigns that lets you A/B-test assets. This allows you to compare the performance of 2 different sets of assets within the same asset group to find out which creative combination works best for your Performance Max campaign.
• Google Ads Brand Linking Experiment
  Google Ads seems to be slowly rolling out a new Google Ads experimental feature in the Google Ads Lab section named Brand Linking. Brand linking lets you "Link customers to brands," it reads.
• Google Research Paper Patent LEGO Set
  Here is a video of the Google Developer team gifting a custom LEGO set of an important Google research paper and patent named MapReduce: Simplified Data Processing on Large Clusters. It was authored by Jeffrey Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat and is now part of a LEGO set with Jeff and Sanjay as LEGO characters.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Why do LLMs keep citing the same sources over and over?, Metehan Yesilyurt on LinkedIn
• Performance Max looks to be moving from 5 videos per Asset Group, to 15 video per Asset Group!, Molly Pritchard on LinkedIn
• Posit 1: browsers don't particularly care about the status code of the parent frame, they'll happily display wherever content the server sent. Posit 2: crawlers very much care about the status code and they'll drop anything with non-content/transition st, Gary Illyes on Bluesky
• Leading Gen AI tools' QoQ change in website visits - 2025. Tool-by-tool breakdown in the thread below., Similarweb on X
• The Reuters press release folder is madness and the #1 parasite right now, and there's not even a debate. - Hair transplant - Appetite Supressant - Crypto casino Unless they no-index that manual action is going to be huge, Harpreet on X
• What happens when you get a big spike in press coverage? Changes to your Google SERP? Yup. Changes to how AIs talk about you? Yup., Rand Fishkin on LinkedIn

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Not all MMM tools are equal: Meridian, Robyn, Orbit, and Prophet explained
• Google launches Universal Commerce Protocol for agent-led shopping
• Anthony Higman shares a PPC redemption story
• Google launches A/B testing for Performance Max assets (Beta)
• Google AI Overviews are tested and removed based on engagement
• Microsoft expands search themes in Performance Max to 50
• Google tests expanded video limits in Performance Max
• Why ecommerce SEO audits fail – and what actually works in 30 days
• Why Demand Gen is the most underrated campaign type in Google Ads
• Google doesn’t want you to create bite-sized chunks of your content
• YouTube is no longer optional for SEO in the age of AI Overviews
• Top 10 Google Ads mistakes to avoid in 2026
• The latest jobs in search marketing

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• DeepSeek To Release Next Flagship AI Model With Strong Coding Ability, The Information
• Global AI Adoption in 2025 – AI Economy Institute, Microsoft
• Anthropic Chases OpenAI Into the AI Heath Arena, Business Insider
• Putting the US AI boom(let) in perspective, Financial Times (Sub)
• Stack Overflow’s forum is dead thanks to AI, but the company’s still kicking... thanks to AI, Sherwood News

Analytics

• GA4 Cohort Exploration, KRM Digital Marketing

Industry & Business

• OpenAI and kids' safety advocates team up on California ballot measure, Axios
• OpenAI, SoftBank Invest $1 Billion in Stargate Partner SB Energy, Bloomberg
• Google employee made redundant after reporting sexual harassment, court hears, BBC
• AI Spending Boom Fuels 24-Year High for Convertible Bond Deals, Bloomberg

Links & Content Marketing

• RAG Without RAG: How to Make a Content Research Index for Claude, Houtini
• Agentic AI in Marketing for 2026, Content Marketing Institute

Local & Maps

• Android Auto bug breaks message replies for some users, 9to5Google
• Why I switched from Google Maps to Apple Maps, How To Geek
• Google Maps finally redesigns settings on Android, 9to5Google
• Google Maps picks up a long-overdue design update, Android Police
• How to Claim Ownership of a Verified Google Business Profile, Online Ownership
• Google Maps' audio navigation quirks make it difficult to trust, Android Authority

SEO

• Content Pruning Consolidation: How to consolidate without losing authority, SearchEngineWorld
• Case Study: Entity Linking Increases AIO visibility by 19.72%, Schema App
• Pruning for AI Systems Using Content, SearchEngineWorld
• Content Pruning Measuring Success, SearchEngineWorld
• Context Graph and SEO: Scaling Agentic Search Authority, I Love SEO
• SEO Is No Longer a Single Discipline, Duane Forrester Decodes
• The New Messy Middle and the Future of SEO, Grumpy Old SEO
• Global publisher Google traffic dropped by a third in 2025, Press Gazette

PPC

• Google Ads Limits Campaigns Without Google Tag Setup, PPC News Feed
• 3 Steps To Turn Off Audience Ads in Microsoft Advertising in 2026, PPC News Feed

Search Features

• ‘Dangerous and alarming’: Google removes some of its AI summaries after users’ health put at risk, The Guardian

Other Search

• Is Craigslist the Last Real Place on the Internet?, Wired
• Chrome 143, Post-Quantum Crypto, and Port 2083, Gary Illyes

Feedback:

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