LabraSEO

ChatGPT at 20% of Google 🔍, four ads in AI Mode 💰, Reddit search ads 🧵

Issue 30, 5 November 2026

What changed in search and AI answers, for marketing teams, in five minutes.

Headlines & Launches

OpenAI says ChatGPT search volume is now a fifth of Google's (4 minute read)

OpenAI's Adam Fry told Alex Kantrowitz that ChatGPT's search-like query volume is roughly one fifth of Google's, growing from 1 billion to 1.2 billion users in the last two months alone. Fry pointed to people and place lookups plus finance and health questions as big growth areas, the kind that need up to date, factual answers. If your audience asks these question types, treat ChatGPT as a parallel discovery channel worth monitoring, not just Google.

Google AI Mode can now show up to four ads per response (3 minute read)

Google is showing as many as four Google Ads within AI Mode answers for a single query, up from the usual one to three, according to a screenshot shared on Search Engine Watch. Google had already said on its earnings call that it plans more ads, more often, in AI Mode, including ads on follow up queries in the US. Expect AI Mode result pages to get more crowded with paid placements, which may push organic and cited answers further down the page.

AI Mode adds booking and quote links for home services (5 minute read)

Google now lets AI Mode searchers book appointments or request quotes directly through partners including Angi, Thumbtack, Housecall Pro and Jobber, live now in the US with ServiceTitan coming soon. Jobber and Housecall Pro both say there are no lead fees for eligible customers. If you run a home services business, getting listed on one of these partner platforms is now a direct route into AI Mode results, separate from ranking well in organic search.

Microsoft Clarity adds tools to track and question AI agent visits (3 minute read)

Microsoft Clarity launched Agentic Analytics to show which AI agents visit a site and whether they can complete tasks like checkout, plus Ask Clarity for plain language questions about site behaviour and Brand Agents to aid discovery in Copilot, Bing and MSN. Microsoft said AI agents visiting sites nearly doubled in three weeks to almost 2 million. This gives marketing teams a free way to see whether AI shopping agents can actually complete a purchase on their site, not just whether they visit it.

Deep Dives & Analysis

A detailed list of over 120 of Google's ranking adjustment systems (4 minute read)

Olivier de Segonzac at Resoneo published a list of more than 120 so called Twiddlers, the internal systems Google uses to re-rank search results after the main algorithm runs, covering categories like web quality, AI rankers, spam demotions and SERP layout. These include known names like NavBoost and RankBrain alongside many not previously documented in public. It is a reminder that visible ranking factors are only part of the story; sudden ranking shifts can come from these adjustment layers rather than a core update.

Reddit is testing logged-in access but brands should stay engaged (5 minute read)

Reddit will test requiring a login in select markets outside the US starting Q4, but CEO Steve Huffman said shared links should keep working and some access will remain for people arriving from search or opening a shared post. Reddit reported 515.2 million weekly active users in Q3, and a May 2026 survey found half of US respondents verify AI recommendations on Reddit. Reddit content still heavily influences what AI answers cite and what shoppers trust, so brand mentions there remain worth cultivating even as access tightens for some users.

Google defends its AI in schools policy after political backlash (3 minute read)

Following a New York Times report that Google will turn off search by default for schools that reject AI entirely, politicians including Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani publicly criticised the policy as coercive. Google responded that search, Gemini and Gemini Notebook are off by default for all schools and that administrators can turn any of them back on, while AI Mode and AI Overviews will offer step by step guided learning rather than direct answers for schoolwork. This is mainly a policy story for education, but it signals Google is willing to bundle search availability with AI product adoption, worth watching if similar bundling ever reaches business accounts.

Tactics & Tools

Check if your old manual action emails need re-reading (3 minute read)

Google has started emailing site owners, via Search Console, that site reputation abuse manual actions issued in the past no longer affect search results shown to users in the EEA, a change that took effect on August 30 but is only now being communicated. Some emails reportedly went to sites that currently have no active SRA manual action but were hit in the past. If you operate in Europe and ever had a site reputation abuse action, check Search Console and your inbox to confirm your current status.

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