Google Search Console's search performance report ran more than 64 hours behind over the weekend — an unusual delay that tracker Barry Schwartz flagged as "incredibly unusual for this report," which normally updates within hours. The lag appeared in the days following Google's recent spam update, though Google has not confirmed any connection between the two events.

The GSC delay is only one of several search-infra signals that moved on October 12, 2026. Here is what matters for SEOs, advertisers and publishers, separated into what the engines confirmed and what tool data suggests.

What is confirmed by Google and Microsoft?

Google Merchant Center image quality policy change. Google updated its Merchant Center help document on low image quality to state that poor image quality will not stop products from appearing in Google Search or Google Ads. For e-commerce sites, this removes a long-standing disapproval fear tied to subpar product imagery, though better images presumably still influence click-through.

Google Ads AI goals test. Google confirmed it is testing AI-generated suggested goals and assets for Google Ads campaigns. Advertisers in the test surface can expect machine-proposed campaign configurations — a continuation of Google's push toward automated campaign management.

AI Overviews on typos and empty results. Google confirmed that AI Overviews now appear when Search cannot match specific web pages or when it reads a query as a typo. The AI Overview can respond: "It looks like your message might have been a typo or random keyboard input." That means publishers may see AI Overview impressions on nonsensical or misspelled queries rather than classic zero-result pages.

Microsoft-Decision-1 in Bing and Copilot. Microsoft announced Microsoft-Decision-1 last week and is already experimenting with it in Bing Search and Copilot. Microsoft describes it as a "decision-scoring model delivers top performance in latency and quality on structured decision tasks to outperform both LLMs and other decision models." Rangan Majumder commented on X: "We're experimenting with it in Copilot and it's pretty good! Very impressed with how quickly they improved it as well."

What is tool-signal speculation?

Third-party rank trackers are struggling. Google appears to be blocking scraper attempts against its search results pages more aggressively than it has in a long time, according to Search Engine Roundtable reporting — this is tool-operator observation, not a Google statement. The issue was first reported weeks ago, and many rank tracking tools still show unreliable Google Search data. SEOs relying on third-party position tracking should treat recent volatility readings with skepticism and cross-check against GSC once the delayed data lands.

What else moved in search this week?

• Google Discover adds Bluesky cards. Discover now renders Bluesky posts similarly to X, Threads and TikTok cards, including clickable links embedded in the post, per Damien Andell on X.
• Discover's future direction. A Google job posting for a Principal UX role, Search Discover, indicates Google wants to transform Discover into a proactive, hyper-personalized feed, Andell reported.
• Bing layout tests. Bing is testing an updated layout for its sponsored results section, with CTA buttons shifting from colored to transparent (Khushal Bherwani on X), and light blue sitelink bubbles on desktop (Search Engine Watch).
• ChatGPT traffic grew 3.35% quarter-over-quarter in Q3, according to Similarweb — modest growth as AI answer engines compete for query volume.
• Glenn Gabe's post-update advice: when sites drop for core queries after major algorithm updates, GSC can surface seemingly new, sometimes alarming queries. He recommends exporting that query data before drawing conclusions about whether the queries are genuinely new.
• John Mueller on Bluesky clarified that a sitemaps-based approach — not UGC platform signals — fits certain removal scenarios, asking whether "unavailable after" dates could work when expiry is known.

What should site owners do now?

For advertisers, the Merchant Center change reduces image-related disapproval risk, and the AI goals test signals where campaign automation is heading. For SEOs, the combination of blocked scrapers and delayed GSC data means the next week is a poor window for confident ranking diagnostics — wait for the performance report to catch up and validate any third-party tracker anomalies against first-party data.

Watch whether Google's scraper blocking persists (which could permanently degrade third-party rank tracking accuracy) and whether Microsoft expands Microsoft-Decision-1 from experimentation into a production ranking component across Bing and Copilot.