A preprint reports that Google results paired with OpenAI’s API reproduced under half of ChatGPT’s cited pages, while Google deleted its Indexing API approval steps without saying what changed. Meta’s new business terms and Google’s ad test in AI Mode round out a weekend of rules shifting under publishers and advertisers.
Measuring the Machine: Proxies That Miss and Docs That Vanish
Two stories turn on how much teams can trust the tools and documents they plan around. In both, the missing detail matters as much as the headline.
- Google Plus OpenAI’s API Recovers Under Half of ChatGPT’s Cited Pages Researchers at the National University of Singapore and Xi’an Jiaotong University compared stand-ins against captured ChatGPT sessions, and the match was far stronger for sites than for exact pages. The work is an unreviewed preprint that tested no commercial tracking tool, so vendors should be asked where their page-level numbers come from.
- Google Quietly Deletes Indexing API Approval Steps The request form and its instructions are gone from the docs, yet the default quotas and the JobPosting and livestream eligibility rules remain. Google’s changelog calls it housekeeping and has not said whether the approval requirement itself changed.
Who Gets the Data: Crawl Rights and Ads Built on Personal Context
Meta is widening what business accounts grant it, and Google is testing how linked-app data can shape ads. Each company describes its move narrowly, and the fine print leaves questions open.
- Meta’s New Business Terms Let It Crawl Sites for AI Training Starting Oct. 30, the crawl grant extends beyond advertisers to any business using Meta products, including those that only manage a Page. Legal experts say the wording could support broad scraping, Meta calls that reading false, and robots.txt appears in neither terms update.
- Google Tests Personalized Ads in AI Mode, Reversing Its Ad-Free Start The test is limited to people who opted into Personal Intelligence and linked their apps, and Google revised its privacy policy to cover how that data can inform ad selection. The announcement names no new advertiser controls or wider rollout, so spend planning is premature.
- ChatGPT Ads adds measurement partners and a redesigned Conversions page Northbeam, DV Rockerbox, and INCRMNTAL join the connected tools, alongside new weekly performance emails. The larger image formats are only tests, and OpenAI has shared no results or timeline for them.
Today’s Quick Hits
- Bing tests Read more links and Popular Links labels in results The Read more link points to the same URL as the title, so it adds a click target without touching rankings, and Microsoft has announced no rollout for either test.
- Google Ads lead forms now let advertisers mark qualifying answers The setting sits in the custom question builder, and the reports do not say whether the marks affect delivery or only sort leads for review.
- Google stretches Demand Gen cost adjustment beta to 60 days Eligibility depends on account age, conversion tracking, and setup, and the only visible trace of an adjustment is a gap in reported costs.
- Merchant Center adds a warranty attribute for general products Google cites Quebec’s Bill 29 as an example of why the field exists, and it promises no visibility lift, so treat it as a compliance field.
- Google Ads starts letting some advertisers apply for gambling certification Applications move into a new Policy section under Admin for a limited set of accounts first, while the Help Center route still works and pending applications are unaffected.