Daily Search Forum Recap: October 22, 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.

We have advice from Google Search on the massive PHP exploit. Three new studies suggest investing in AI visibility and traffic may not be worth it. Google Ads is rolling out three updates to customer lifecycle goals to help advertisers before the holidays. Google posted a video on how search handles robots.txt rules. Google is testing moving around the local knowledge panel information. Google Ads is testing showing Sponsored Products results that dynamically expand to show product attributes at the bottom of the ad units in a gray background color. Google paused ads on Google properties and networks globally for advertisers based in Russia.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google On Taking Sites Down When Fixing The Emergency PHP Exploit - PHP2Shell
  The World Wide Web is rushing now to fix and patch its servers for the critical PHP exploit known as PHP2Shell. Most are able to patch these without downtime but many sites are going offline until the patch is implemented, just to be super safe. Google's John Mueller offered advice on how to handle Google Search if you decide to take down your site while patching it for the PHP security vulnerability.
• Google Search Tests Layout Change For Local Knowledge Panel
  Google 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 subtle change and it matches the current mobile design on Google Search more but it is a change.
• Google Ads New Translation Tool
  Google 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 wrote.
• Google Ads Customer Lifecycle Goals: Value Mode, Retention Goals & Percentage Multipliers
  Google 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) expanding customer retention goals and (3) new percentage multipliers.
• 3 New Studies Suggest AI Visibility & Search Not Worth Investing In
  There 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 or AI services send a tiny fraction of traffic (and conversions) when compared to Google Search.
• Google Ads Sponsored Products Expand To Include Product Attributes
  Google Ads is testing showing Sponsored Products results that dynamically expand to show product attributes at the bottom of the ad units in a gray background color.
• Google Pauses Ads For Russian Advertisers & Serving Ads To Russians
  Back 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 "also paused ads on Google properties and networks globally for advertisers based in Russia."
• Google On robots.txt Rules For AI Crawlers, Emojis, International URLs & More
  Gary 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, supported by robots.txt files. And while Google may support features or directives, other search engines or AI crawlers might not.
• GoogleBox Telephone Booth In London
  The Googlebox, Google telephone booth, is not new, we covered it a lot here. But for some reason, it keeps getting moved around, unless there are many of them in the Google London office...

Other Great Search Threads:

• Anyone Else Get This One? Google Ads Is Updating Data Manager To No Longer Require Hashed Customer Data Starting November 16th, Anthony Higman on X
• This looks fixed - AIOs back according to @semrush, Barry Schwartz on X
• Focus on advertising? Here are some questions from the ChatGPT Ads survey I took this morning. 1) Great to see they are asking these questions. 2) I wonder what's coming?, Glenn Gabe on X
• Gemini is now available in @GoogleMaps navigation on CarPlay. Find the best place to park, report a traffic incident, or change your route with just a quick conversation. Tap the Gemini icon in Google Maps CarPlay during your next drive to try it out , Google on X
• Google Search Console has AI visibility data! We have been going through a very painstaking and manual process of gathering and analysing that data for a number of our tests where there was a strong AI visibility hypothesis. Punchline: we're detecting AI visibility impacts wi…, Will Critchlow on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• ChatGPT sends less than 1% of Google’s traffic: Data
• Should your PPC landing pages change for AI Overviews?
• ChatGPT Ads to enable creative enhancements on October 30
• Why Google reviews will power up your local SEO in 2027
• Google has updated its document on how to block Google Search
• Google AI Overviews: Everything you need to know
• Does AI drive more direct traffic?

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• Why AI’s Deepest Mind Believes the World Is About to Change Radically, Wall Street Journal
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Pitches Europe on All Industries Adopting AI, Bloomberg
• OpenAI bring its AI models to Google's cloud, expands beyond Microsoft, CNBC
• Meta Earnings: Mark Zuckerberg Says Muse AI App Hits Over 10M Users, Business Insider
• OpenAI Expands ChatGPT Ads to 26 More Countries, Says It Has More Than 100,000 Advertisers, The Information
• Using thousands of AI agents to uncover new leads in biological data, OpenAI
• How The New York Times Reports on A.I. Images, New York Times

Industry & Business

• Booking.com targeted in EU investigation into phishing scams, fraudulent listings, Reuters
• Google Stops Using Nondisclosure Agreements for Data Centers, The Information

Links & Content Marketing

• 20 B2B Marketers Defining the Future of Influencer Marketing, TopRank Marketing
• Brands Turn Customer Insights Into Great Marketing, Content Marketing Institute

Local & Maps

• Are small businesses underestimating Google?, BrightLocal
• Google Maps on CarPlay rolling out Gemini when navigating, 9To5Google
• MapQuest Goes Big On The Experience Driver It Needs Most, Forrester
• Drive with “The Cat in the Hat” on Waze, Google Blog
• CarPlay Is Getting the Google Maps Feature Many Android Auto Users Hate, Autoevolution

Other Search

• Our latest defenses against evolving web scams, Google Blog
• Chrome Now Warns Before Insecure HTTP Connections, Google Blog

PPC

• AI Max vs Performance Max vs Standard Shopping (eCommerce), JXT Group
• How to Brief Your Creative Team for AI-Assisted Ad Testing, Hop Skip Media
• How ZATO Thinks About AI in PPC: A Three-Part Framework, ZATO Marketing
• New warranty attribute for products targeting Canada, Google Merchant Center Help
• Transform your holiday ad strategy with new Google tools, Google Blog
• ChatGPT Ads expands to 26 new countries as over 100,000 advertisers have used the platform, OpenAI
• Yahoo tests reviews and popular links in search ads, Search Engine Watch
• Microsoft Monetize: Holiday season updates, Microsoft Advertising
• Agencies need to stop exploiting interview candidates, PPCChat

Search Features

• AI Overviews have nearly doubled across five commercial search modifiers [Study], Semrush
• How Feature Upvote fixed Google’s wrong AI Overview answer, Semrush
• Google tests moving the share button in AI Overviews, Search Engine Watch

SEO

• 3 simple ways to track AI visibility, Morningscore
• Details Emerge About Google Discover's SDF Freshness Algorithm, Search Engine Journal
• Google BotGuard: tests and analysis of the anti-bot system, October 2026, RESONEO
• GEO is a distraction, Marie Haynes
• What Are the Best JavaScript Site Rendering Tools for AEO?, seoClarity
• When AI Fetches Your Content, Is That A Website Visit?, SEO Theory

Feedback:

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