For users who connect Gmail or Google Photos to Search, Google can now use that context to personalize ads, including in AI Mode. Paris Childress covers this and five more stories in today's GEO briefing, including OpenAI data showing about 1 in 5 ChatGPT messages now seeks information.
In this episode:
- Gmail and Photos can shape ads in AI Mode. Google changed its privacy policy so that, for users who connect Gmail or Google Photos to Search, the summaries and inferences it draws can personalize ads, including in AI Mode. Advertisers get no controls or reporting yet, so break out AI Mode performance wherever Google allows.
- 1 in 5 ChatGPT messages is a search. OpenAI's data shows 20.2% of sampled consumer ChatGPT messages in September were information seeking, up from 16.7% in July 2024, while writing fell from 34% to 21%. The shift is gradual, but at about 1.2 billion weekly active users, ChatGPT is a massive new search engine.
- Shopify's knowledge base is the new product feed. Shopify moved the agentic knowledge base that AI shopping agents use into the merchant admin. It drafts FAQs from the storefront, holds up to 1,000 FAQs, and agents only see them once published. The old app shuts down on January 15, 2027. Check the auto-drafted FAQs before you publish.
- Visa: trust is the bottleneck. Visa says nearly 50 AI agent partners are live in production and expects that to double. Early use cases are B2B, such as bill payments and invoice settlement. Watch which AI assistants connect to payment networks' agent programs.
- Semrush confirms poisoned Google results. Google is serving some deliberately wrong results to data collection tools. Earlier vendor estimates put it at 8% to 11% of results, which Paris calls noise rather than collapse. Check any ranking or AI Overview drop against Search Console before you report it.
- Correction and lightning round. Google says the disabled Discover source taps were a bug in an experiment. Plus another ranking volatility spike, iOS 27.2 Siri memory, and John Mueller on Search Console delays.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0qwXPsUtTs
The GEO Show is hosted by Paris Childress, founder of Hop AI and co-founder of GEOforge.
getgeoforge.comWhat is The GEO Show?
The GEO Show is about generative engine optimization (GEO) and AI search: how B2B brands win AI visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Each episode breaks down what is changing in the way AI assistants and answer engines find, cite, and recommend brands, and what marketers should do about it.
The show is built for B2B SaaS marketers, SEO and content leads, and founders who want their brand to show up when buyers ask AI for answers instead of scrolling a page of blue links. If you own organic growth, demand generation, or brand, you will come away with practical GEO tactics you can test, a clear read on the latest AI search news, and better ways to measure AI visibility when traffic alone no longer tells the whole story.
Episodes mix a few formats:
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Solo deep dives on GEO strategy, from how large language models choose which sources to cite to how content, earned media, and brand mentions shape AI answers.
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News breakdowns on the latest moves from OpenAI, Google, Perplexity, and the rest of the AI search landscape, and what each change means for your pipeline.
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Expert guests, including SEO and GEO practitioners, content and PR leaders, agency operators, and founders building for AI search.
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The Friday catch-up with regular co-host Simon Young of Question.Marketing, where the two unpack the week's biggest AI search stories and debate what actually works.
Your host is Paris Childress, CEO of Hop AI and co-founder of GEOforge. Paris brings a practitioner's view of GEO and AI visibility, focused on what B2B teams can apply right away, not hype.
Learn more about GEOforge at https://getgeoforge.com.
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