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Category: News

Verified changes at Google, Bing and in AI search, each traced to a dated primary source.

News Google Opens Its SynthID Detector to Everyone: Image, Video and Audio, Not Text Google opened the SynthID Detector on 7 October 2026. It takes image, video and audio, not text, which is the one modality… 12 min read News Google documents Retry-After for slowing its crawler: what the page says and what it still does not Google added the Retry-After header to its crawl-rate reduction page on 6 October 2026. It also says that going past 1-2 days… 13 min read News A judge dismissed the AI Overviews antitrust suits. What the opinion actually says On 30 September 2026 Judge Amit P. Mehta dismissed all thirteen counts Chegg and Penske Media had brought against Google over AI… 13 min read Table of the three kinds of Google document involved in the change of 1 October 2026. One, the two guides: both stamped 2026-10-01 UTC, they say manual fact-checking is critical and that a fake author is deception, and they are guidance, since Google rarely uses the word critical in Search help. Two, the changelog: one October entry, dated 1 October, naming the generative AI guide only, and it credits the new text to guidelines Google says do not directly affect ranking. Three, the spam policies: still stamped 2026-08-28 UTC and carrying none of the new wording, and that is the enforceable document, the one a manual action is written against. Documentation edits are not rollout events. News Google Now Tells You to Fact-Check Every Line of AI Content Google changed two Search documentation pages on 1 October 2026: fact-check all AI content, and stop inventing authors. What changed, and what… 14 min read Three-phase diagram of what Google's AI contribution pilot pays for, according to its own help text. One, generation: your content significantly influences what response gets generated, and this does earn, although it is the only phase the pilot pays for and no publisher can observe it. Two, confirming facts: your content confirms facts once the response has been generated, and this does not earn. Three, the citation: your page is linked inside the AI response that has been generated, and this does not earn either, although it is the only one of the three you can see and measure. News Google is paying ~100 publishers for AI answers. Nobody can read the rules Google is paying about 100 publishers for content that feeds its AI answers. The rules of the programme live in one document… 15 min read Three-date diagram of what Google has documented about the European spam pullback, in the order it was published. One, 30 August: the spam policies record a change applicable in the European Economic Area, stamped 2026-08-28 UTC, establishing a mechanism swap under one policy section only, site reputation. Two, 24 September: the status dashboard posts the September spam update, which applies globally and to all languages, with no European exception. Three, 25 September: Nick Fox describes a pullback of spam protection in Europe on video, which does not establish a verifiable quotation. News Google Pulled Back Spam Protection in Europe: What’s Documented and What Isn’t Nick Fox says Google pulled back spam protection in Europe. Four Google documents checked on 30 September 2026: only one records it,… 14 min read News Google AI Mode Now Monitors the Web for Everyone: What Changes for Your Site Google extended continuous AI Mode monitoring to every user. The feature appears in none of its help pages or crawler documentation, and… 14 min read Three-step diagram of the gap between the Search Console interface and its API. One, the interface: since 24 September 2026 the web search type splits into two values you can filter between, and it is the only place the split exists, so it allows you to export both rows separately. Two, the API: the searchanalytics.query reference lists six allowed values and multimodal is not one of them, and that reference is stamped 11 August 2026, six weeks before the feature shipped. Three, your report: Looker Studio dashboards, scheduled exports, BI pipelines and rank trackers pull web performance through the API, so they return the blended figure, with no field to separate it and no flag saying the composition changed. News Search Console now reports multimodal search traffic Since 24 September 2026 Search Console splits the web search type into text-based and multimodal. What it measures, what it omits, and… 14 min read Three-step diagram about Google native checkout in AI Mode and Gemini. One, the notice: Merchant Center told Shopify stores their products are now eligible for checkout, yet the Merchant Center announcement log carries no entry about any of this. Two, the two pages: Google says “available for select merchants” and Shopify says “activated by default”, and neither page shows a date, so neither can be shown to describe the current state. Three, the dashboard: in Shopify, Sales channels and then Agentic, where the direct-checkout switch sits, which is the only place that records whether your store is enrolled now. News Google Turns On Native AI Checkout by Default Eligible Shopify stores are already selling inside AI Mode and Gemini with nothing to set up. Google's help page calls it invitation-only;… 14 min read Bar chart: product carousels dropped by 90% to 100% across the measured EEA markets (Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden) on 15-16 September 2026, about 95% for Productrise EEA users, with no change in the non-EEA control markets. News Google Pulled Free Product Listings in the EEA and Only Documented the Replacement Product carousels in the European Economic Area went to near zero around 15-16 September 2026. Google updated the documentation for the units… 10 min read News Google Opens Search Profiles at 10,000 Followers and Ships the Badge Code Google cut the Search profiles follower requirement to 10,000 and published badge documentation. What the primary sources say, what changes in practice,… 9 min read