Daily Search Forum Recap: October 13, 2025

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 local results without the call button, might be the Web Guide layout or a bug. Google's Robby Stein was interviewed again about AI Search. Google's goldmine search content ranking system was exposed. Google has a new help page for Discover feed source. Google Ads auto-apply recommendations setting was updated. And I am offline again this week, Tuesday and Wednesday, anything posted was pre-written and scheduled.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google's Robby Stein On AI Not Replacing Search, AI Within Search, SEO For AI
  Lenny Rachitsky interviewed Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google, who we cited here numerous times over the past couple of years. The interview covers how AI is not replacing search, search is not dead, how AI Mode will be incorporated within Google Search, how to do AEO or SEO for AI answers, how AI Mode came to market and more.
• Google Goldmine Search Content Ranking System?
  Have you heard of the Google Goldmine Scoring System? It supposedly looks at your page, your content, and Google gives it a goldminePageScore, title tag factor, body factor, anchor factor, heading factor and more.
• Google Local Results Without Call Button - Web Guide Or Bug?
  Over the past few days, the local SEO community is pretty upset that Google appears to be testing removing the call button from the local results. I am not sure if this is a bug or part of the design of the new Web Guide interface that more people are seeing. Either way, I do think this must be an oversight and the call button should be added back, I would hope.
• Google Adds Help Page For Discover Feed Source
  A couple of weeks ago, Google added a new help page titled Discover feed source overview. This page discusses those cards in the Google Discover feed and when Google gets the source name wrong, like for those entity Discover pages.
• Google Ads Auto-Apply Recommendations Setting Updated
  Google has updated its Auto-Apply Recommendations setting within the Google Ads interface. The button moved to just above the regular recommendations section.
• Cheese Monster At Google
  Google had some sort of cheese event, or the event had cheese, and that cheese was provided by Cheese Monster. This was at the Washington, D.C. office.
• Programming Note: Offline For Simchat Torah On Tuesday & Wednesday
  This is a programming note that Tuesday and Wednesday are Simchat Torah and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 14th and October 15th.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Friendly PSA: emails coming from the domain "http://e-mails.microsoft.com" are not official Microsoft emails. Do not click on links from that domain, Microsoft Ads Buddy on X
• We are back, LIVE from Dublin! Day 2 of #PESummit25 starts now on PES@Home!, Google's Product Experts Program on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google updates Misrepresentation policy for Shopping Ads and free listings
• Ayisha Yousef talks turning Black Friday fails into lessons
• The latest jobs in search marketing
• Google Ads now flags low-quality images
• CMA designates Google Search with ‘strategic market status’
• Instant Checkout in ChatGPT brings agentic commerce to life
• How different AI engines generate and cite answers

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• OpenAI says GPT-5 is its least biased model yet, Axios

Analytics

• Breaking Free from Misleading Ad Results: Using First-Party Data for Smarter Measurement, PPC Hero

Industry & Business

• Tea in the courtroom: the gossipier side of the remedies trial over Google’s ad tech monopoly, Digiday
• The CMA’s designation of Google Search, Google Blog
• UK triggers new powers to regulate Google search, Reuters

Links & Content Marketing

• B2B Content and Marketing Trends: Insights for 2026, Content Marketing Institute

Local & Maps

• I drove over 1,000 miles to test out Apple Maps vs. Google Maps for a month — here's the winner, Tom's Guide
• Your car is about to get a lot smarter, thanks to Mercedes and Google, ArenaEV

SEO

• E-E-A-T Decoded: Google's Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust, Hobo
• Featured Snippets: How to Capture Position Zero in Google, Backlinko
• We Tested Breadcrumbs — Was Mobile-First Indexing the Real Story?, Search Pilot
• What's new in Lighthouse 13, Chrome for Developers Blog
• Redirects: Permanent 301 vs. Temporary 302, Stepforth
• What is 'Firefly'? Google's Scaled Content Abuse System: QualityCopiaFireflySiteSignal, Hobo

PPC

• Google Clarifies Misrepresentation Policy — What Merchants Need to Know (2025 Update), FeedArmy
• Ads in AI Overviews Expand Beyond the US by End of 2025, PPC News Feed

Search Features

• Google Translate is testing a more expansive look for your translations, Android Police
• How do we tackle AI Mode becoming the default Search experience?, SALT agency
• Reducing notification overload for a quieter browsing experience in Chrome, Chromium Blog
• Nano Banana image editing comes to AI Mode and Google Lens, 9to5Google
• Inside Apple’s Glasses Pivot; When Apple Is Launching M5 MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, Bloomberg

Other Search

• Google's Robby Stein talks about AI Search on Lenny's Podcast, Gagan Ghotra
• OpenAI, Software’s Grim Reaper?, The Information

Feedback:

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