TL;DR Summary:
23-Year Search Check: Search Engine Roundtable’s new AI tool compares uploaded screenshots against more than two decades of documented search-feature images in seconds.Screenshot Verification: Users upload an image, describe what they see, and highlight the exact area they want analyzed, replacing slow email-based fact-checking.Fast but Experimental: Each scan costs about 7 cents, requires signup, and uses multiple AI models, but results should still be treated as an early starting point rather than a final verdict.Is that new Google search feature actually new, or has it been around for years? Search Engine Roundtable launched an AI scan tool on October 19, 2026, that answers this exact question when you upload a screenshot. The AI scan tool matters right now because it replaces a process that used to require emailing the site’s editor directly and waiting for a reply.
What The AI Scan Tool Does And Who Built It
Barry Schwartz, executive editor at Search Engine Roundtable, built the tool with two developers from RustyBrick. You can find it at seroundtable.com/is-it-new. You upload a screenshot of a search feature, add a short description, and highlight the exact part of the image you want checked. This works like Google’s circle to search function, where you mark a specific area instead of submitting the whole picture. The AI reads your image, classifies it, and compares it against a database built from the site’s own stories.
How The AI Scan Tool Searches 23 Years Of Images
The tool scans non-hero images, meaning the smaller images inside articles rather than the main header image, from stories published over the past 23 years. Schwartz’s team built an index of every image on the site ahead of launch, so each scan doesn’t have to search raw files one by one. This index updates daily as new stories go live. In practice, this means a feature spotted in Google search results today gets compared against more than two decades of documented changes in seconds. This kind of documented verification isn’t limited to spotting new search features, either. Tools like Screpy’s AI SEO audit platform apply a similar logic to technical SEO, tracking bot and crawler activity so site owners have hard data on changes instead of relying on manual checks or assumptions.
Why The AI Scan Tool Has A Paywall
Each scan costs about 7 cents to run. To stop bots from draining that budget, Schwartz added a signup step. You enter your email, receive a code, and that signup also adds you to his newsletter, which you can leave anytime. He also capped how many scans each person can run per day, and set an overall daily limit across all users. Once that cap is hit, you’ll see a notice instead of a result.
What Happens On The Backend
Schwartz stores every uploaded image so his team can debug the tool and see where it gets things wrong. The system runs several different AI models at once, and he can switch between them to compare accuracy. His team spent several weeks testing before release. Schwartz says the tool isn’t perfect, and he expects to keep adjusting it based on how people actually use it. You can also submit your own findings through a form built into the tool, which goes to Schwartz for manual review.
What This Means For You
If you track search engine updates, the AI scan tool gives you a faster way to check your own screenshots against years of documented history instead of guessing or asking around. Keep in mind the results come from an early version still being refined, so treat matches as a starting point rather than a final answer. Watch for updates from Schwartz and the RustyBrick team as they adjust the models and daily limits based on real usage. And if the question isn’t just whether a search feature is new but whether your own site is even being crawled and indexed properly in the first place, a tool like Screpy’s AI-assisted SEO auditor can offer that same kind of documented, data-backed answer instead of guesswork.
