The news that moves growth.

ChatGPT Calls Lead On Quality, But Not Conversions

Phone call data breaks out AI referrals for the first time. Calls from ChatGPT become leads more often than any other channel, but convert average.

Google AI Mode ads reach nearly 30% of queries: Study

Google’s AI Mode showed text ads on 29.45% of commercial queries in a new SE Ranking study, less than a year after ads began appearing in…

Google tests Performance Max network controls with new Partners (Alpha) setting

Google is testing a new Partners (Alpha) setting in Performance Max that gives advertisers the ability to opt in or out of Search Partners and the…

Google is AI Mode’s No. 2 most-cited domain: Report

Google’s AI Mode increased citations to google.com by 8.4x in about two months, making it the No. 2 cited domain in Profound’s tracking. The increase…

Where AI agents get stuck on your site

The next mass frontier of AI is agentic: Google introduced agentic tasks in Search. The web gets more visits from bots than humans now. Salesforce…

Why CPC inflation starts before the auction

Rising CPCs aren’t just the result of more competition inside search auctions. They’re increasingly the result of what happens before anyone places a…

How Google May ‘Understand’ Unique Content

Long doesn't mean valuable. Google normalizes for length. Here's what its information gain patent says actually moves the needle.

Why the SEO vs. PPC debate is finally over

SEO vs. PPC ? SEO vs. PPC vs. AI ? SEO vs. PPC vs. AI vs. (everything else)? I’ve been covering this question and its ever-changing answer for nearly…

Google Says No SEO Penalty For Year-Long A/B Tests?

Google's Mueller says long A/B tests won't result in SEO demotions, contradicting official guidance that says they may be considered deceptive.

Your next customer may discover your brand on TikTok before Google

You pick up your phone to reply to a message. A few taps later, you’re watching a TikTok about a restaurant in Sicily, a boutique hotel in…

GA4’s AI Assistant Channel Undercounts Your AI Traffic: How To Build One That Doesn’t

GA4's AI Assistant channel fragments traffic from a single source into three separate channels, making your AI referral numbers quietly wrong.

How To Report The PPC Metrics Your CFO Actually Cares About

CFOs focus on revenue impact over vanity metrics. Discover the essential PPC measurements that resonate with executives.

Social Media TodayJul 16, 2026

Social & Advertising

X offers Mention Boosts to Premium Business subscribers

The feature allows brands to amplify organic customer call-outs and reviews, converting those posts into promotional campaigns.

DigidayJul 15, 2026

Brands won this season of ‘Love Island USA’

This story was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail . Peacock’s “Love Island USA” has become an advertising juggernaut, and the impact of…

AI & Automation

Hack suggests AI music generator Suno scraped YouTube for training data

The hacker used an employee's credentials to access source code, which revealed how Suno scraped decades of audio.

Whatnot acquires Shaped to power real-time live shopping recommendations

Livestream shopping platform Whatnot has acquired AI startup Shaped, a machine learning company focused on real-time recommendations and search. The…

Microsoft patches record number of security vulnerabilities, citing its use of AI

Microsoft's monthly release of security fixes, dubbed Patch Tuesday, resolved a record 570 security vulnerabilities across the company's product…

Apple Intelligence approved for launch in China with Alibaba’s Qwen AI

The deal, which was rumored to be in the works last year, marks an important step for Apple's AI ambitions in a key market.

Inside Ode with Anthropic, the startup betting AI services are the future of enterprise

Can a handful of engineers really do the work of an army of consultants? That’s the bet behind Ode with Anthropic — the joint venture dedicated to…

Anthropic, Blackstone bet the next trillion-dollar AI business is implementation, not just models

Anthropic-backed Ode launches as AI labs bet that embedding forward-deployed engineers inside enterprises is the key to accelerating enterprise AI…

Reelful’s AI turns your camera roll into short-form videos for social media

The app is designed for people who want to create social content, but find traditional video editing tools too complex or time-consuming.

Rime picks up $24M Series A to help enterprises field customer calls

Rime is handling over 100 million calls each month across multiple companies.

Indian AI coding startup Emergent becomes a unicorn with $130M Series C

The startup has reached a $120 million annualized revenue run rate and more than 200,000 paying customers.

Vint Cerf is working on a plan to unleash AI agents on the open internet

The guy behind TCP/IP is working on a standard for identifying AI agents in the wild.