Daily Search Forum Recap: October 29, 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 Search ranking volatility is heating up again, this was kicked off yesterday. Google is rolling out early access to Gemini for Home voice assistant. Google Merchant Center added preferred audience for promotion targeting. Google Local Service Ads is testing reviews and overviews buttons. Google has an undocumented Google user agent named GeminiiOS. And Google partially lost in its ad tech monopoly case.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Search Ranking Volatility Around October 28th
  There may have been another Google Search ranking algorithm tweak around October 28th or so. I am seeing some rumblings both within the SEO community chatter and the third-party Google tracking tools. It seems some are noticing big search ranking swings...
• Ad Tech Monopoly: Judge Rules Google Can't Relitigate Core Antitrust Facts
  A judge has ruled, giving Google a blow in its ad tech monopoly legal battle. This ruling should help the plaintiffs suing Google not get hung up in court as long as some expected, plus Google can't relitgate the core facts in that antitrust case.
• Google Local Service Ads Tests Reviews & Overview Buttons
  Google is testing adding to the call and message button on Local Service Ads a reviews and sometimes overview button. Reviews takes you to the reviews but the overview button to the local listing for that business.
• Google Merchant Center Preferred Audience For Promotions Restrictions
  Google Merchant Center now lets some merchants and advertisers define an audience for a promotion. This allows you to restrict who sees the promotion in Google Search for your Merchant Center shopping listings.
• Google Rolls Out Early Access To Gemini For Home Voice Assistant
  We all knew it was coming and now Google is roll out early access to Gemini for Home voice assistant in the U.S. You can either say "Hey Google" to your speaker or display to request specific help or answers, or talk naturally with Gemini Live by saying "Hey Google, let's chat."
• Undocumented Google User Agent For GeminiiOS
  There may be an undocumented Google user agent named GeminiiOS. GeminiiOS is apparently used when a user clicks on a source link from the Gemini app on their iPhone.
• Human-Sized Google Doll
  Here is a human-sized massive doll. The dress the doll is wearing has the super G Google logo and the doll is in Googley colors.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Nano Banana in Google Lens can do some remarkable things. For e.g. in transforming a black cat into a chrome cat, you’ll see how the model can grasp the physical world. In this case, it used its knowledge of how this cat is likely, Robby Stein on X
• Technical SEO: don't just submit the sitemap index file in Google Search Console, you'll need to submit all important sitemaps individually also. When I get access to a clients GSC, often for very large sites, I unfortunately don't, Brodie Clark on X
• This will be interesting to follow over time. Just launched, only 26 urls indexed, no favicon in the SERPs yet, no search visibility yet, and a handful of links. Google even thinks you meant 'wikipedia' when searching for Grokipedia, Glenn Gabe on X
• YouTube's strengthened approach to online gambling and graphic violence in gaming, YouTube Community

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google DeepMind’s BlockRank could reshape how AI ranks information
• Google Business Profiles What’s happening feature expands
• LLM optimization in 2026: Tracking, visibility, and what’s next for AI discovery
• How to balance speed and credibility in AI-assisted content creation

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• 67% of ChatGPT's Top 1,000 Citations Are Off-Limits to Marketers (+ More Findings), Ahrefs
• ChatGPT Go now available in Brazil, ChatGPT Release Notes
• Google Home acting "pretty creepy" as users report fake identities and hallucinated chores, Tom's Guide
• I Worked at OpenAI. It’s Not Doing Enough to Protect People., New York Times
• OpenAI offers free ChatGPT Go for one year to all users in India, TechCrunch
• Who Rules AI Search? What 3 Months of AI Visibility Index Data Tells Us, Semrush

Analytics

• From .com to .anything: introducing Top-Level Domain (TLD) insights on Cloudflare Radar, Cloudflare
• How does GA4 help drive SEO strategy?, Majestic SEO Podcast

Industry & Business

• Sergey Brin Nonprofit Gets $261 Million Lift in MapLight IPO, Bloomberg
• Built to benefit everyone, OpenAI
• Google Accused of Infringing Earth, Maps, Street View Patents, Bloomberg
• Google has officially petitioned the Supreme Court in Epic v. Google., The Verge
• Google investors high hopes after stock’s sharpest rally in 20 years, CNBC
• Judge hands Google partial defeat in ad tech monopoly case, Courthouse News Service
• Moving Traffic Media Acquires SpiderBoost to Unite SEO, Development, and Media for the AI Era, PR Newswire
• PayPal, OpenAI sign ChatGPT payments deal, CNBC
• The next chapter of the Microsoft–OpenAI partnership, Microsoft Blog
• OpenAI’s Promise to Stay in California Helped Clear the Path for Its IPO, Wall Street Journal

Links & Content Marketing

• Adobe brings AI deeper into content workflows, MarTech
• Invisible’ Product Turned Into Emotional Storytelling, Content Marketing Institute
• Inaugural Adobe Creators' Toolkit Report: 86 Percent of Global Creators Use Creative Generative AI, See it Boosting Creator Economy, Adobe

Local & Maps

• The hidden Google Maps trick that keeps me from overspending, Android Police
• Google sued by University of Southern California over imaging technology, Reuters

SEO

• AI-First Browser from ChatGPT: What Does It Mean for SEO?, Ann Smarty
• Creating a modular approach to json schema in an eleventy website, Simon Cox
• How To Show GEO ROI in the AI SEO Age - New Metrics to Measure, Jenny Munn
• Why SEO Writers Using AI Still Aren’t Earning More in 2025, SuccessWorks
• 100+ Questions That Show AEO/GEO Is Different Than SEO, Metehan
• When Can Skinny Pages Help Your Local SEO?, Local Visibility System

PPC

• 7 key trends set to shape your ecommerce PPC strategy in 2026, PPC Hero
• Explorer access is now available for Google Ads API developers, Google Ads Developer Blog
• Forrester: Open Web to Lose 30% of Ad Dollars in 2026, AdTechRadar
• How Platform Loyalty Is Killing Your PPC Edge, PPC Live
• Updates to Google TV Masthead format requirements: United Kingdom and Brazil (November 2025), Google Advertising Policies Help
• Bid Limits Quietly Added to Max Conversion Value Strategies, PPC News Feed
• Brands Rush to Reddit, Boosting Ad Spend and Gaming AI Search, AdWeek

Other Search

• Google promotes fake content to millions on Discover news platform, Press Gazette
• Google’s Gemini for Home voice assistant: 100 things to try, Google Blog
• HTTPS by default, Google Online Security Blog
• Google is set to release the new Home Speaker next spring. Should you buy it? These are the potential pros and cons of the upcoming smart speaker, based on what we know so far, Android Central

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News, add as a preferred source on Google and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or just contact us the old fashion way.