Take a breath! Summer is over, and there’s a lot of new changes to talk about. The theme this month is search engines old and new. We’ve spoken a lot about GEO in the past few months, but now new browsers from OpenAI and Perplexity are potentially changing the game once again, just as Google faces fresh legal scrutiny. Reddit is also showing its hand in the search market as well. Meanwhile, a new Ahrefs study puts AI’s (sometimes dodgy) links firmly in the spotlight.
In social, Instagram has launched a long-overdue repost button, potentially changing the hierarchy of social metrics.
It’s a lot to keep up with. So here’s exactly what’s changed, why it matters, and what’s worth your time right now.
OpenAI and Perplexity set to launch AI Browsers, just as Google loses antitrust case
What is the news?
Both OpenAI and Perplexity have announced or launched AI-powered browsers, OpenAI’s long-rumoured browser, with native ChatGPT integration and agentic capabilities, and Perplexity’s “Comet,” which puts AI summaries and automation at the centre of navigation. Both of these browsers are built in Google’s Chromium interface.
Key features of both browsers include “agentic capabilities”, essentially allowing it to complete complex tasks like ordering products or making reservations for you.
These moves arrive against the backdrop of a landmark U.S. antitrust ruling in September, which curtails Google’s exclusive search deals but stops short of forcing it to divest Chrome or Android.
Overall, the verdict is far better news for Google’s shareholders than it could’ve been, and it’ll be a long time before we see any real consequences of Google having to share more data with competitors. But access to new data will strengthen Google’s new AI competitors.
How will it affect marketers?
AI-powered browsing potentially bypasses a lot of steps on the typical online user journey.
If AI assistants are to the go-to route to information and services, it doesn’t just cut out the search engine, it disrupts paid search, SEO and overall traffic across a huge range of sectors. Agentic behaviour may also end up taking some of the buyer comparison out of the equation. Why deliberate between hotels for 15 minutes on a comparison site, when an AI can find the best one (in its view), and book it in a matter of seconds?
What do I need to change?
The current search landscape is powered by the behavioural data that Google has been collecting on us for years. If that data is shared with more competitors, then it doesn’t just mean we’ll need to take into account SEO on more browsers, but different ways of searching entirely.
See our point on the Ahrefs study below. If AI is going to be driving traffic to your site, you need to make sure it’s pulling up to date information. AI is great at finding data, but can struggle to contextualise it, so you need to make sure your site’s entire digital footprint properly represents your brand. Once these new search engines launch, we’ll provide more insights on how brands and individual sites are ranking within them.
Sources: https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/09/perplexity-launches-comet-an-ai-powered-web-browser/
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/openai-release-web-browser-challenge-google-chrome-2025-07-09/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/technology/google-search-antitrust-decision.html
Instagram rolls out reposting
What is the news?
Instagram has launched a “Repost” button, similar to X/Twitter and LinkedIn, letting users share public feed posts and Reels directly to their main feed with full credit to original creators. There is now a dedicated “Reposted” tab visible on user profiles, alongside other social discovery features like the Friends tab.
How will it affect marketers?
Reposts bring the attention back to the feed, rather than Stories. In theory this means brand and influencer content can now be more easily reshared and distributed at scale, much like retweets on X/Twitter. Reposts, shown on a separate tab, improve long-term discoverability and provide new organic reach. This feature also makes it much easier to track the distribution of engagement across influencer-led campaigns.
What do I need to change?
Have another look at your Instagram strategy. We’ve already discussed the fact that posts now index in search results, but now this needs to be considered across multiple accounts.
You can potentially bring your posts to a wider audience using reposts. Encourage followers to repost contests, launches, and campaigns. Reposts could potentially be a more cost-effective way to bring content to a wider audience without having to resort to paid social.
Source: https://about.fb.com/news/2025/08/new-instagram-features-help-you-connect/
Reddit leans into search; aims to rival Google
What is the news?
Reddit has rolled out major upgrades to its search experience and is openly positioning itself as a competitor in web search. Users can use search to find content, comments, and discussions across the platform with much greater accuracy, making Reddit a powerful research, discovery, and brand-tracking tool.
How will it affect marketers?
There’s been quite a bit of discussion about Reddit as a platform for marketing. It’s a platform built around community, so turning up to your favourite Subreddit with a sales pitch is not a desperately popular move. Ranking for Reddit search offers an alternative.
We don’t expect there to be an advertising boom on Reddit. What is more likely is that brands will monitor Reddit for reputation and engagement, as it becomes a distinct “search destination” for consumers and B2B audiences.
What do I need to change?
Not much, but it’s worth learning if your brand already has a footprint on Reddit.
Audit your brand’s Reddit footprint, see which communities, if any, you’ve featured on and use that to potentially engage with your community and monitor relevant discussions within your industry.
If you do decide to post on Reddit, ensure that your content is keyword-rich and genuinely helpful, as advanced search surfaces these assets to more users. Reddit is still for managing communities first and foremost, but implementing it into your search strategy is no bad thing.
Source: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/19696541895316-Available-search-features
AI hallucinations harm brands: Ahrefs finds AI referral traffic sends 3x more users to dead links than Google
What is the news?
A major Ahrefs study covering 16 million URLs has found that AI assistants send users to “404” dead links almost three times more often than Google. ChatGPT stood out, with 1% of referred clicks and 2.38% of cited URLs ending up as broken pages, compared to Google Search’s 0.15% and 0.84%.
How will it affect marketers?
While the absolute volume of traffic from AI-generated links is still modest (0.25% of total site traffic), being cited with a non-functional or hallucinated URL risks brand confusion, missed opportunities, and a poor user experience. As AIs become a more frequent source of referral, inaccurate links could have increased impact.
Another report from study from Netcraft recently asked chat GPT for login pages to 50 major brands, this resulted in 66% correct links, 29% went to unregistered domains, and 5% went to unrelated sites. These AI hallucinations are potentially putting people off your brand before they even find you. With more AI search on the way, it’s something to watch out for.
What do I need to change?
Regularly monitor analytics for AI assistant referrals; use filters identify traffic from OpenAI, Perplexity, Gemini, etc.
If you can identify pages on your site that are being hallucinated, proactively set up helpful 404 pages and consider 301 redirects. When high-traffic fake links emerge, redirect to relevant real resources or create landing pages that capture that interest.
It’s also worth looking at your wider digital footprint. AI search is unlikely to know that a brochure from 2019 is going to contain some out-of-date content. If you don’t want this to be presented as fact by these assistants, you need to review, refresh and potentially remove any outdated official assets.
Sources: https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-often-do-ai-assistants-hallucinate-links/
https://www.netcraft.com/blog/large-language-models-are-falling-for-phishing-scams