This week in search October 16, 2026

Google announced five changes to links in AI Mode and AI Overviews, led by inline links appearing higher in responses more often. It’s also adding thumbnails to some links and testing a section up top for tasks with one or two official sources. Search Engine Roundtable notes Google shared no click data, saying more metrics will come over time.

Sites tracked by Graphite saw ChatGPT sessions in Google Analytics fall 22 to 57 percent from October 9, and it looks mostly like a measurement problem. Inline links stopped carrying the tag that identifies ChatGPT, and those visits can show up as direct traffic. Adobe’s Cedric Huesler says OpenAI confirmed a bug to him and a fix began October 15. Check that week before you read anything into the dip.

Fan-out is the set of background searches an AI tool runs to build an answer. Ahrefs studied 66.6 million free, logged-out ChatGPT responses and found 14.4 percent contained them, at about 1.6 each. The word “price” grew 47 percent as a share of those searches in a month. In separate data, Reddit’s citations in US ChatGPT answers fell 88 percent between March and September. The AEO guide covers what fan-out means for a page.

Google launched Universal Cart in the US across Search, AI Mode and the Gemini app. Shoppers can save items from several retailers in one cart, get price-drop alerts, and check out with Google Pay or move to the merchant’s site. Nike, Target, Walmart and many Shopify stores are in. Search Engine Roundtable has the launch details.

Google added Gemini 4 Argon to the model menu in AI Mode for Pro and Ultra subscribers. Robby Stein, who runs product for Search, says it’s better at following instructions across a back-and-forth conversation. Free users see no change for now, and Google hasn’t said whether Argon will become the default for everyone.

Bing Webmaster Tools added a beta called Topics Portfolio to its AI Performance report. It groups the queries where a site appears in AI answers into broader themes, and it lists queries where other sites get cited and yours doesn’t. Microsoft calls the numbers directional, and sites without enough data won’t see the report yet.

Chrome published experimental Core Web Vitals that count soft navigations, the page changes inside single-page apps that older metrics missed. Stable scores don’t change. About 70 percent of sites barely use them, but heavy users make up a large share of the top 1,000 sites. Search Engine Journal reports Chrome is targeting May 2027 to finish the experiment.

A Google job posting describes turning Discover into “a proactive, hyper-personalized concierge experience that helps users make progress on their goals.” It also talks about elevating human voices in the feed. This is one job listing and Google hasn’t announced a product.