Four vendors now point to missing link tags as the reason ChatGPT referrals looked like they fell, while Google moved links higher in AI answers and shipped a shopping cart with a one-way handoff. Each story turns on what your reports can and cannot see.
Counting the Click: Missing Tags and Links Moving Up
Two AI search stories land on the same question: can your analytics tell a visit from an AI answer? The evidence so far leans on vendor data and announcements without measured click impact.
- Four Vendors Now Tie ChatGPT’s Referral Drop to Missing Link Tags Graphite, Peec AI, Profound, and LLM Pulse each published data pointing at stripped tags on inline links, and Adobe’s Cedric Huesler says OpenAI confirmed a bug to him. Whether any visits were truly lost is unsettled, and the report carries no OpenAI statement of its own.
- Google moves links higher in AI Mode and AI Overviews, with two tests Google’s announcement covers inline links placed higher, thumbnails on closing links, wider Preferred Sources carousels, and two tests, yet it gives no figures on how large any shift is. Search Console reports one position for a whole AI Overview, so a baseline of referral clicks taken now is the only way to see the effect.
Where Search Starts and Ends: The Ask Bar and the Shared Cart
Google is reshaping both the front door of its app and the path to checkout. One change is live in the US, the other is only a test.
- Google Universal Cart goes live in US Search, with a one-way store handoff Shoppers can fill one cart from many retailers across Search, AI Mode, and the Gemini app, but cart transfer only creates a cart on the merchant’s site, with no edits or syncing afterward. Items a shopper merely saved have no documented metric, so demand built in the cart can stay invisible to retailers.
- Google app tests an “Ask Google” search bar with a plus button A tipster’s post shows the mobile app’s bar reading “Ask Google” with a plus menu that opens uploads, an image tool, and AI Mode. Google has not announced it, so this is a limited test that may change or vanish.
Today’s Quick Hits
- Google Ads API v26 ships with Search Lift and Local Services PMax New capabilities only arrive after teams upgrade their client libraries and their own code, so scripts and reporting need migration scoping.
- Google Ads adds examples to its sexual content policy The suggestive content section now pairs restricted and allowed examples by type, and Google framed it as clarification rather than a change in enforcement.
- Bing tests “Related searches based on your browsing” in ads Two users spotted a history-based suggestion box under Microsoft Ads, and Microsoft has not announced the test.
- Google Dataset Search returns no results for several hours Even suggested queries came back empty, and the report does not say whether Google has acknowledged the outage or restored the tool.