Newsletter - AppWT Web & AI Solutions Google Now Shows You Which Photo Searches Find Your Business

**This Week in Web and AI**

Google gave you a new way to see how customers find you through images. On Thursday, September 24, 2026, Google introduced Search Console reporting for web multimodal search, in both the Search performance report and the Generative AI features report. The data covers searches made with Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search, and the Chrome right-click "Search this image" feature.

The change matters for any Michigan business with physical products, storefronts, menus, or job sites. Customers point a phone camera at an item and ask Google what it is and where to buy it, and now you can measure whether your pages show up in those answers.

**Tip You Can Use Today**

Export your AI visibility data before Google changes the reports again. Two recent shifts affect what you see: as of September 7, 2026, Search Console combines AI Mode and AI Overview impressions rather than reporting AI Mode separately, and AI Mode rows can be filtered by user prompt, the first time Google has exposed the questions driving your AI exposure.

- Open Search Console and select your verified property.
- Go to the Generative AI performance report under Search results.
- Filter AI Mode rows by user prompt and write down the top ten questions customers ask.
- Answer each question directly on a page of your site, in plain language, near the top.
- Use the Export button to save a baseline. Values shown as a tilde or dash become zero in the download.
- Remember the limit: the report is impressions-only, so pair it with your GA4 traffic numbers.

**Tool Worth Knowing**

Anthropic shipped a cheaper model that fits small business budgets. On September 22, Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5, the first model in its new Claude 5.5 family, and says the model performs at roughly the level of its higher-end Claude Fable 5.1 on most work while costing about 40 percent less to run.

Lower run cost means the customer service bots, quote drafts, and content workflows your team already uses get less expensive to operate. Before you switch models, test one repetitive task both ways and count correction time, not just output speed. A draft produced in two minutes that needs forty minutes of cleanup saved you nothing.

**Talk to AppWT**

Most business owners have never opened the new multimodal or Generative AI reports in Search Console, and the data sitting there shows exactly which questions and photo searches bring customers to you. AppWT will review those reports with you, identify the gaps, and build a plan to get your business cited in AI answers. Schedule a free consultation at https://appwt.com/schedule, call +1 (888) 565-0171, text +1 (734) 203-0171, or email sales@appwt.com.