Google opened AI Mode's information monitoring to all users on Sept. 28, and OpenAI launched its always-on ChatGPT agents, called dots, on Sept. 29. Within 24 hours, both companies shipped products that keep a user's request active after the user leaves — a shift that turns one-off search queries into what industry analysts call standing instructions.

The tools differ in scope. Google's feature watches changing information within Search and sends updates. Dots manage assigned tasks across connected apps and a cloud computer. What they share matters for anyone who publishes online: an update prepared later can include information that did not exist when the request was made.

Persistent Requests Are Not New

Google Alerts already converts topics into regular searches, emailing users "whenever we find matching search results" once they set frequency, site types, language and region. OpenAI has precedent too. Its release notes date scheduled tasks in ChatGPT to January 2025, with support for future and recurring tasks. A July 9, 2026 entry introducing ChatGPT Work says Work can use scheduled tasks "that run once, repeat on a schedule or trigger, or monitor for changes." The current Scheduled tasks help page defines monitoring tasks as checks that "send a notification when a relevant update occurs" and can "use information from previous runs."

Google framed the gap in older tools through Liz Reid, VP of Search, who said at I/O in May that people "have to keep checking and checking and checking," and described a stock-tracking request with specific parameters where, in her words, "Nothing's going to do that."

How Google Builds Monitoring Into Search

Google's May I/O post introduced information agents that "look across everything on the web, like blogs, news sites and social posts," plus real-time finance, shopping and sports data. Reid wrote that an apartment hunter can "brain dump all of the exact requirements" and the agent "will continuously scan for you." Users create one by adding "keep me updated" to a search, and updates arrive "along with helpful links to explore further on the web."

The feature reached Ultra subscribers on June 12 across all AI Mode languages and markets. Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search, said agents would send "detailed updates and links to the web." His Sept. 28 post refers to "info monitoring capabilities" and says Search will "continuously check across changing info on the web" and suggest tasks during searches. Notably, the September post drops the links language from May and June.

Reid's May post also says the agent sends a synthesized update "with the ability to take action." It does not specify what action, who takes it, or whether approval is required. The September post does not mention actions at all. None of the reviewed posts explains how Search decides which sources to include in an update.

How Dots Work

OpenAI's launch post describes dots as "always-on agents" with their own cloud computer, their own browser, and access to a person's connected apps. The getting started page says a dot "can take on ongoing responsibility and keep making progress between conversations." A dot can "decide when to pause and wake up to continue," and users "can also specify a time or a supported event that should trigger work."

Event monitoring depends on the connected service supporting it. As OpenAI's Tasks and memory page states, "Connecting Slack or another source alone doesn't create a monitoring task."

Proactive research runs without a new request. According to the privacy and safety page, a dot can gather updates by reading permitted connected sources and saving private notes before anyone asks. Its research tools cannot directly message others, change content through plugins, or control browsers or computers. That limit excludes browser-based website watching from proactive research — and the computers and apps page notes that "some websites block cloud browsers or require further verification."

Dots are rolling out to Pro users outside the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK, and to Business Premium users across all supported regions. The Enterprise beta is off by default.

Different Mechanics, Shared Intent

Google's June post says updates happen "the moment new info is available." A dot operates on a schedule, responds to a supported event, or acts on its own timing. Google chooses the source categories Search checks; a dot's access depends on connected accounts and granted permissions.

The safety gap is concrete. OpenAI's safety page details Custom Rules and Auto-review, including user-defined limits, automatic checks, and steps like password changes returned to the individual. Google's side offers only the May mention of the "ability to take action."

Sundar Pichai signaled this direction in an April interview Roger Montti covered: "a lot of what are just information seeking queries will be agentic search," and users "will do long-running tasks, can be asynchronous." Those are projections, not confirmed behaviors.

What It Means for Visibility

Google's September post cites examples relevant to marketers: nearby new restaurants, pop-ups, and local holiday activities for kids, plus back-in-stock alerts and price-drop notices for retailers. It names Google's Shopping Graph as a source but does not specify whether price updates come via merchant feeds, page crawls or both. Google's AI features page advises site owners to keep Merchant Center and Business Profile data current.

For publishers, Google's May post included news sites among the sources agents scan. An article published after someone set a task could appear in a subsequent update — though no documentation establishes whether a particular article would be selected, linked or clicked.

Measurement splits into three events that should not be combined. Sites in AI Overviews and AI Mode appear in the Performance report under the Web search type. The Generative AI performance report, which Google says reached websites worldwide by Aug. 31, counts impressions — how many times links to a site are shown in a generative AI feature. A retrieval alone is not a displayed-link impression. A click-through is a third event: Search Console counts external-link clicks in AI Mode, while Analytics measures subsequent site activity. As of Sept. 30, neither the AI features page nor the report page mentions monitoring updates.

On the OpenAI side, watching a public competitor page through a browser falls outside proactive research. As of Sept. 30, OpenAI's crawler page lists four user agents, none of them for dots.

What Remains Unexplained

Google's posts do not clarify how Search selects sources for monitoring updates, whether every update includes links, or if some tasks involve additional fetching and under which user agents. The September post says "globally" but lacks details on languages or when Pro access arrived.

OpenAI's launch post, help pages and crawler page do not specify which browser or fetch identity a dot uses on the public web, whether updates include citations, or how a site owner can distinguish a dot's visit from other ChatGPT activities.

Google ended its September post with "Lots more to come!" OpenAI said it will share dots usage terms for each plan after the first month. A dot-specific public-web identifier and citation guidance would give site owners the first reliable way to recognize and measure these standing requests.