This is the watchlist used to prepare each issue, not the report itself. An item is included only when there is a new, citable development, and it is assigned a confidence label. Chinese and Baidu sources are out of scope.

Priority (P0)

These ten sites are checked first.

#SourceURLTypeWhy
1Google Search Central Bloghttps://developers.google.com/search/blogOfficialAlgorithm, GSC, and SEO policy primary source
2Google Search Status / Ranking historyhttps://status.search.google.com/products/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi/historyOfficialConfirmed core/spam/ranking rollouts
3Google AI features docshttps://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-featuresOfficial / GEOCanonical AI Overviews and AI Mode guidance for site owners
4Bing Webmaster Bloghttps://blogs.bing.com/webmasterOfficialBing, Copilot, and AI citation signals; IndexNow
5Search Engine Journalhttps://www.searchenginejournal.com/PublisherHigh-frequency SEO and AI-search news
6Search Engine Landhttps://searchengineland.com/PublisherIndustry news and algorithm-update coverage
7Search Engine Roundtablehttps://www.seroundtable.com/PublisherFast community pulse; rumors stay Unconfirmed until a vendor confirms them
8Ahrefs Bloghttps://ahrefs.com/blog/VendorOriginal research on SEO and AI discoverability
9Semrush Bloghttps://www.semrush.com/blog/VendorSEO, SEM, and AI-search strategy and data
10blog.google — Searchhttps://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/Official / GEOProduct-level AI Mode and Overviews announcements

The paired X accounts are @googlesearchc, @rustybrick, @sengineland, @sejournal, @ahrefs, and @semrush. Posts are leads. Link the original document when one exists.

Official and search engines

P0 is checked daily. P1 is opened when it changes. All of these sources are in English.

NameURLTierWhy
Google Search Central Bloghttps://developers.google.com/search/blogP0Official SEO and Search news
Google Search Status — Ranking historyhttps://status.search.google.com/products/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi/historyP0Confirmed ranking updates
Google Search Central — AI featureshttps://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-featuresP0How AI Overviews / AI Mode treat sites
blog.google — Searchhttps://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/P0Consumer and product AI Search announcements
Bing Webmaster Bloghttps://blogs.bing.com/webmasterP0Bing SEO and AI answer / citation tooling
IndexNowhttps://www.indexnow.org/P1Real-time indexing protocol
Schema.org Bloghttps://blog.schema.org/P1Structured-data vocabulary
OpenAI Newshttps://openai.com/newsP1ChatGPT Search product news
Perplexity Bloghttps://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blogP1Answer-engine product and publisher policy

Trade press

NameURLTierWhy
Search Engine Journalhttps://www.searchenginejournal.com/P0Broad SEO and AI Search news
Search Engine Landhttps://searchengineland.com/P0Industry news
SEL — Google algorithm updateshttps://searchengineland.com/library/platforms/google/google-algorithm-updatesP1Curated update archive next to the Status Dashboard
Search Engine Roundtablehttps://www.seroundtable.com/P0Early rumor → confirm pipeline
Moz Bloghttps://moz.com/blogP1Evergreen writing; slower news

Vendor research

Included pieces carry data or a method. Affiliate roundups and GEO agencies without primary data are excluded.

NameURLTierWhy
Ahrefs Bloghttps://ahrefs.com/blog/P0Data studies
Semrush Bloghttps://www.semrush.com/blog/P0SEO and AI Search editorial
Similarweb Bloghttps://www.similarweb.com/blog/P1Traffic and channel-shift data
Screaming Frog Bloghttps://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/blog/P1Technical crawl and tooling
SparkToro Bloghttps://sparktoro.com/blog/P1Search-everywhere and AI prompt research
Amsive Insightshttps://www.amsive.com/insights/P1GEO / AI Overviews practitioner research
Surfer Bloghttps://surferseo.com/blog/P2Content and GEO method; separate it from the sales claim
Clearscope Bloghttps://www.clearscope.io/blogP2Content quality and AI-search education
Authoritas Bloghttps://www.authoritas.com/blogP2Original SEO research
Advanced Web Ranking Bloghttps://www.advancedwebranking.com/blog/P2SERP-feature methodology

GEO docs and product hubs

NameURLTierWhy
Google AI features (site owners)https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-featuresP0Same canonical doc as above
GSC Generative AI performancehttps://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139P1How AI Overviews / AI Mode show in Search Console
OpenAI — Introducing ChatGPT Searchhttps://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-search/P1Primary product post; sequels via OpenAI News
Perplexity Hub Bloghttps://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blogP1Publisher-facing updates
Bing Webmaster — AI Performancehttps://blogs.bing.com/webmasterP0Copilot / AI citation reporting

X accounts

Public accounts were checked on 2026-10-21. Practitioner posts are opinion. Where they conflict with an official document, link the document.

Official and brands

HandleWhoWhy
@googlesearchcGoogle Search CentralOfficial site-owner news
@GoogleGoogleProduct news; filter for Search
@OpenAIOpenAIChatGPT Search
@perplexity_aiPerplexityAnswer-engine product
@ahrefsAhrefsResearch
@semrushSemrushIndustry and product
@sejournalSearch Engine JournalNews
@senginelandSearch Engine LandNews
@MozMozBlog promos

Practitioners (opinion)

HandleWhoWhy
@rustybrickBarry SchwartzFast Google/Bing rumor → Roundtable
@JohnMuJohn MuellerClarifies Google docs; personal account
@randfishRand FishkinSearch-everywhere / AI prompt research
@lilyraynycLily RayGEO / AI Overviews research
@timsouloTim SouloAhrefs research

Google’s former @searchliaison account is closed. For official updates, use @googlesearchc and the Status Dashboard.