This month, we bring you some exciting developments and updates from the world of search, including new studies and industry developments.
Recent Google testing reveals a continued investment in the conversational and visual aspects of the AI search experience. For local searches, Google is testing different coloured map pins in AI Mode to improve result categorisation. Furthermore, a new feature allowing text selection for follow-up questions signals a commitment to making the AI experience highly interactive and efficient.
In a helpful update for data analysis, Google Search Console has introduced AI-powered Query Groups to the Insights report. This new feature automatically clusters similar search queries into high-level topics, providing a much cleaner, quicker overview of a site’s performance without manual data wrangling.
Meanwhile, the competitive AI landscape is heating up. Reddit has expanded its own conversational AI-powered search to five new languages, increasing the platform’s utility and its influence on Google’s AI-generated answers globally. Most disruptively, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Atlas, a full web browser with built-in agentic AI, designed to automate complex, multi-step tasks for the user—a clear sign that the future of the web is “ask and delegate.”
We’ll explore these updates and more in detail in the article below.
Allow our traffic light system to guide you to the articles that need your attention, so watch out for Red light updates, as they’re significant changes that will require you to take action. In contrast, amber updates may make you think and are worth knowing, but aren’t urgent. And finally, green light updates, which are great for your SEO and site knowledge, but are less significant than others.
Keen to know more about any of these changes and what they mean for your SEO? Get in touch or visit our SEO agency page to find out how we can help.
In this post, we’ll explore:
Google has tested different coloured map pins in AI Mode, so if you’re using AI Mode and the search involves a map, such as “best coffee shops near me”, for example, you might start seeing different colored map pins, like red, blue, or yellow, instead of the standard ones. They’re even adding a key below the map to explain what each colour means. It’s a relatively small change, but it’s an effort to make the map results clearer and more structured within the AI Mode answer.
Here’s what the map pins look like:
Google is testing the ability for users to highlight a specific piece of text in the AI’s response and then use that highlighted text as the basis for their next follow-up question. This test is a significant one for how users interact with AI-generated content, as it shows that Google is continuing to enhance the AI search experience to make it more conversational. This test was spotted by a user on X, who shared a video of the test in action, here’s a screenshot of what he saw:
In a welcome move for SEO efficiency, Google has added a new feature to the Search Console Insights report: Query Groups.
This feature uses AI to automatically cluster similar search queries together into overarching, high-level topics. Instead of forcing us to manually export and cluster potentially thousands of long-tail queries (e.g., grouping “best SEO strategies for 2024,” “local SEO tips,” and “SEO agency services” into a single “SEO” topic), the tool handles the heavy lifting.
While query clustering is often performed manually or with third-party tools for deeper analysis, this GSC addition significantly simplifies high-level performance review. It provides a clearer, immediate perspective on the main subjects driving traffic to a website, saving valuable time on data wrangling and allowing for quicker identification of topical strengths and weaknesses.
Reddit has officially expanded its AI-powered “Reddit Answers” search experience to five new languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
This move is significant for international SEO and user experience. It means that users in key global markets—like Brazil, France, Germany, and Spain—can now engage with Reddit’s conversational, Q&A-style search function in their native language.
This not only encourages deeper on-platform engagement but also solidifies Reddit’s position as a go-to search destination for high-quality, community-driven content, directly impacting what Google surfaces in its own AI Overviews.
In a major move that signals the future of how users will interact with the internet, OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Atlas, a new web browser built with the ChatGPT model at its core.
Here’s what the new web browser will look like:
For us, the biggest takeaway is the Agent Mode. This mode can perform multi-step actions on the user’s behalf, for example: researching competitive trends, reading multiple documents or compiling a brief.
While this doesn’t directly affect our keyword rankings today, it highlights a crucial long-term trend: The future is about optimising for AI agents. We must increasingly think beyond the human searcher and consider how to structure content so these autonomous AI systems can easily understand, process, and act upon it. The web experience is rapidly moving from “search and click” to “ask and delegate.”
