Last week, OpenAI announced a new feature for ChatGPT named location sharing. This allows you to share your precise location with ChatGPT, so ChatGPT can give you more localized and near me results.

OpenAI wrote:

Users can now choose to share their device location so ChatGPT can provide more relevant information, such as local recommendations, news, and weather. Sharing your device location is completely optional and off until you choose to enable it. You can update device location sharing in Settings > Data Controls at any time.

As Glenn Gabe put it on X, "Let's call this the "Near Me ChatGPT Update."

By enabling location sharing, it will allow ChatGPT more precisely reply to queries like 'what are the best coffee shops near me?', "ChatGPT can use your precise location to provide more relevant nearby results. On mobile devices, you can choose to toggle off precise location separately while keeping approximate device location sharing on for additional control."

This is rolling out to all ChatGPT consumers plans on iOS and web today with Android is coming soon.

I shared about the "Near Me ChatGPT Update" the other day and just let ChatGPT use my device location. This is supposed to enhance results for local queries. I just asked for the "best steakhouses near me" and several of the restaurants are ~45 minutes away. Both restaurants'... pic.twitter.com/gRkMeuzMQt

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 30, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

The Information wrote "OpenAI's First Advertisers Can't Prove ChatGPT Ads Work." In short, the ChatGPT ad platform from OpenAI shares almost no data with advertisers. It is low tech, there is no ad performance data, and it also has very limited ad targeting features.

Glenn Gabe quoted solid portions of the article and posted it on X:

"Two executives at agencies working with early ChatGPT advertisers said they haven't yet been able to prove the ads have driven any measurable business outcomes for their clients."

"OpenAI hasn't yet offered marketers any automated way to buy ad space. Buyers have had to rely on making phone calls and sending spreadsheets and emails to OpenAI representatives, one ad executive said. More importantly, advertisers found it hard to tell whether the ads were paying off."

I don't think anyone is surprised by this but I mean, why not have their AI write up some nice reporting tools?

And of course, OpenAI will be pushing more:

"The company has said ChatGPT will be showing ads to all U.S. users of the free and low-cost version of the chatbot in the coming weeks, one of the people said, which would be a significant jump from the portion of users it showed ads earlier in the pilot."

"OpenAI has also advised advertisers that they can boost how often their ads are shown and improve ad performance by providing more variations of the text and visuals that go in the ads, the two executives said."

I am sure we will hear more from advertisers over time and hopefully things will improve.

More about the ChatGPT ads pilot. They will open the floodgates soon -> "The company has said ChatGPT will be showing ads to all U.S. users of the free and low-cost version of the chatbot in the coming weeks, one of the people said, which would be a significant jump from the'...

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 22, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

OpenAI announced GPT-5.3 Instant and said it "delivers more accurate answers, richer and better-contextualized results when searching the web, and reduces unnecessary dead ends, caveats, and overly declarative phrasing that can interrupt the flow of conversation."

But with that, ChatGPT may deliver fewer web links and more of an answer response, which might even lead to fewer clicks from ChatGPT than before - if that is even possible.

Regarding ChatGPT search, OpenAI wrote, "GPT''5.3 Instant also improves the quality of answers when information comes from the web." "It more effectively balances what it finds online with its own knowledge and reasoning'"for example, using its existing understanding to contextualize recent news rather than simply summarizing search results," OpenAI added.

But maybe with fewer links, OpenAI went on to explain, "GPT''5.3 Instant is less likely to overindex on web results, which previously could lead to long lists of links or loosely connected information." So fewer links?

And also, web search that is "less likely to overindex on web results." Interesting.

Why fewer links? Well, OpenAI said the links make it feel robotic and it wants to give a more natural answer. "It does a stronger job of recognizing the subtext of questions and surfacing the most important information, especially upfront, resulting in answers that are more relevant and immediately usable, without sacrificing speed or tone," OpenAI wrote.

Here is a video on this:

We heard your feedback loud and clear, and 5.3 Instant reduces the cringe. pic.twitter.com/WqO0XzLcVu

'" OpenAI (@OpenAI) March 3, 2026

Marie Haynes wonders...

ChatGPT's web search has improved with the launch of GPT 5.3 Instant.

"GPT-5.3 Instant is less likely to overindex on web results, which previously could lead to long lists of links or loosely connected information."

ð¤"https://t.co/wGtPEVOYq8 pic.twitter.com/Uvl7dhcDyV

'" Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) March 3, 2026

Glenn Gabe posted before/after examples - how wild!

This is what I was referring to before about ChatGPT 5.3 Instant and their claims that it provides "more useful, well-synthesized answers when using the web." Well, like @Marie_Haynes also saw, it provides WAY LESS links than 5.2. Check out these two screenshots. It's not even'... https://t.co/NQBksKSBZI pic.twitter.com/ioxvkE3g8B

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 4, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Anthropic updates its crawler documentation explaining what its crawlers do, and what blocking them will result in. Anthropic has three primary bots and they include ClaudeBot, Claude-User and Claude-SearchBot.

The documentation is over here and was updated I believe last Friday, February 20th. Pedro Dias spotted the change and posted about it on X saying, "Seems Anthropic today updated their docs to include more information about their crawlers and their purpose."

Here is what it says today:

• ClaudeBot: ClaudeBot helps enhance the utility and safety of our generative AI models by collecting web content that could potentially contribute to their training. When a site restricts ClaudeBot access, it signals that the site's future materials should be excluded from our AI model training datasets.
• Claude-User: Claude-User supports Claude AI users. When individuals ask questions to Claude, it may access websites using a Claude-User agent. Claude-User allows site owners to control which sites can be accessed through these user-initiated requests. Disabling Claude-User on your site prevents our system from retrieving your content in response to a user query, which may reduce your site's visibility for user-directed web search.
• Claude-SearchBot: Claude-SearchBot navigates the web to improve search result quality for users. It analyzes online content specifically to enhance the relevance and accuracy of search responses. Disabling Claude-SearchBot on your site prevents our system from indexing your content for search optimization, which may reduce your site's visibility and accuracy in user search results.

Anthropic also supports the Crawl-delay directive and robots.txt file directive.

Forum discussion at X.

As you know, OpenAI said they would release ads in ChatGPT and then about ten days ago, said the ads went live for a limited number of users. Since then, we have not seen reports of anyone seeing ads in the wild within ChatGPT until now.

Those ads, at least the ones spotted in the wild, were from Expedia and were spotted by Ashley Fletcher from Adthena. He posted this screenshot of them:

The query or prompt was [What's the best way to book a weekend away?] and it did not require a follow up prompt to trigger the ads. The ads just showed up at the bottom of the first response.

Ashley wrote, "Contrary to early predictions that ads would only appear after a back-and-forth dialogue, these triggered immediately on the first prompt response." "Notably, the UI features a prominent brand favicon and a "Sponsored" label, slightly different to OpenAI's original concepts," he added.

Hat tip:

Well there you have it, the first sighting of ChatGPT ads in the wild. I still cannot get any to trigger across free accounts, but seems Adthena spotted one from Expedia. It's like seeing Bigfoot in the wild. :) ð" https://t.co/k1mF3OzoUb

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 19, 2026

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Update: More:

More examples of ChatGPT ads in the wild. The experience didn't sound great for @EmilyForlini. And the targeting might be off -> I'm Seeing Ads in ChatGPT, and OpenAI Broke Its Promise. Here's What They Look Like

From Emily: "On mobile, one advertisement I saw took up nearly the'... pic.twitter.com/dB6nqhsDvz

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 22, 2026

When you are having a conversation with chatgpt on mobile, the ads it shows take up the whole screen when you start to reply, hiding the conversation. Ruins the flow. (from https://t.co/hwoiC5UrzK) pic.twitter.com/rIddJlTJoY

— Juozas KaziukÄ-nas (@juokaz) February 23, 2026