The news that moves growth.
A daily digest of what's happening in search, social, AI and advertising — curated headlines linking to the original sources, refreshed every morning.
Curated from the sources we actually read.
Last updated: 18 October 2026, 04:30 IST
Search & Digital Marketing
AI Cites Your Brand: How to Choose Your Next Move
AI visibility gaps call for different fixes. Constance Tan shows how to decide between correcting information, earning mentions, creating content, and checking bot…
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Google’s Hidden Data Layer: What Is It And What To Do About It
Trace misleading sale badges and outdated product images to Google's hidden data layer, with checks that go beyond your current feed.
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How To Build A Content Distribution System That Compounds
Keep content working long after launch with a distribution owner, a repeatable checklist, and a 90-day plan to earn backlinks and AI citations.
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What To Expect From Google’s Next Search Ranking Update
Google's recent changes provide strong clues about major changes from the next core algorithm update.
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Google Shows How Long Crawling, Indexing & Recovery Can Take
Google's Gary Illyes showed timing ranges for crawling, indexing, site moves, and core update recovery at Search Central Live Deep Dive Europe in Barcelona.
Read on our siteSocial & Advertising
TikTok’s ad network bet: More reach, more budget
TikTok is the latest platform itching itself as somewhere advertisers can buy inventory it doesn’t own, on top of its own. Advertisers, however, want to know what…
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OpenAI moves to make ChatGPT Ads more measurable — and more visual
Since OpenAI started selling ads in ChatGPT in February , advertisers have kept coming back to the same complaints: they can’t measure the ads properly, they don’t have…
Read on our siteInfluencer marketing has an AI trust problem
AI influencers are harder to spot, making transparency essential to protecting consumer trust.
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Digiday Media Agency Report 2026: How agencies adapt to a media landscape shaped by AI and creators
01 Introduction Media agencies are navigating an increasingly complex advertising landscape, as economic uncertainty, fragmented media consumption and rapid advances in…
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‘The future is going to be in real life”: IRL events are becoming the new proof point for creator marketing
Maya Raichoora built her career on short videos that teach people to visualize — the technique she credits with getting her walking again after years in hospital. The…
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Media Buying Briefing: With so much at stake, midterm election spending is insane
You know it has been the craziest midterm political season when, under the guise of “U.S. Government,” the White House — the United States’ federal seat of power — is…
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‘We’re all going to live with uncertainty forever’: Advertising Week New York opens amid industry rebuild
Nobody at Advertising Week New York this week will be stuck for conversation, though to be fair you could have said that about any of the last ten. Organizers claim more…
Read on our siteX launches updated video composer
The new editor features an improved captioning process and a more intuitive layout.
Read on our siteInstagram tests read-only mode
The feature would allow users to view profiles but would not enable liking, messaging or following.
Read on our siteInstagram adds AI songs to DMs
Users can leverage artificial intelligence to generate music to share with their friends, echoing a similar paid Snapchat feature.
Read on our siteAI & Automation
HackerRank’s AI interviewer offers a glimpse into what job interviews could become
HackerRank’s AI interviewer has already conducted more than 500,000 interviews, with Snowflake, Snorkel, and Capgemini among its early testers.
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OpenAI launches visual ads that appear alongside image generation results
The new ads will begin to appear later this month in the U.S. only for now, and will feature products and services from an initial test group of advertisers.
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Open or closed AI? How founders are choosing what to build on at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
Learn how founders are choosing between building on open or closed AI at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Register now to save up to $100 and get a second pass at 50% off.
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Researchers are tracking a Chinese AI ‘agent fleet’
Independent researchers discovered an agent swarm that seems to be running on Tencent's infrastructure and targeting Alibaba's map service, Amap.
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Meet the Startup Battlefield 200 judges who’ll decide the winner at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
Meet the final five Startup Battlefield judges who'll decide who wins the pitch competition at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Get your pass now to save up to $100, and get a…
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The final Disrupt Stage lineup: Three days of conversations you won’t hear anywhere outside of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
The full TechCrunch Disrupt Stage lineup revealed, featuring Max Hodak, Mark Wahlberg, Benchmark partners, and more. Register now to save up to $100 on your pass and get…
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Can Safeworld convince people that GenAI robots won’t hurt them?
Safeworld is building digital humans to make sure robots don't hurt the real ones.
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Google froze its open source bug bounty program due to a ‘significant rise’ in AI submissions
AI slop seems to be overwhelming bug bounty programs.
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Can ‘super intelligence’ and a non-binding safety pact solve AI’s image problem?
On Equity, we discussed the Trump administration's attempts to rebrand AI.
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