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: 19 August 2026, 04:30 IST
Search & Digital Marketing
Google updates Demand Gen view-through conversion optimization
Google is changing how view-through conversion (VTC) optimization works in Demand Gen campaigns, expanding support to more inventory while shifting optimization to focus…
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The Paid ‘Search’ Email Placement: Right Place, Right Time
Email placements work, but not as a replacement for email marketing. What Demand Gen and Audience Ads actually deliver, and how to set them up.
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The AI visibility index: Which brands are vanishing from AI search?
Some of the brands with the strongest SEO footprints barely appear in AI answers. Others with much smaller search footprints show up again and again. Fractl analyzed how…
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The $113,000 paid search test: How much traffic did organic replace?
I turned off $113,000 a month in paid search . Thirteen weeks later, 65% of the paid-attributed revenue had been recaptured through organic and direct, and the analysis…
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AI Assistants Are Choosing Local Businesses For Your Customers
AI assistants narrow local searches before customers reach a website. See how Google builds those answers and which local signals businesses can optimize.
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Inside ChatGPT’s retrieval stack: The index, cache, and pages it actually reads
When ChatGPT cites a web page, where did that page come from? In July, our team at RESONEO captured and dissected 1,200 ChatGPT answers, 88,000 search results, and…
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Google: Subject/Object Entity Order Affects AI Answers
Google's research shows that LLMs struggle to recall facts when questions reverse the usual subject/object entity order.
Read on our siteSocial & Advertising
New research reveals 75% of LinkedIn AI citations come from individual profiles, not company pages
Discover what makes LinkedIn content more visible in AI search, based on analysis of 9.5 million citations from Meltwater and LinkedIn.
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Brand marketers are adopting fan-first social media strategies
For soft-drink brand Poppi, fans come before consumers. The Pepsico-owned brand has bottled up an innovative approach to social media that’s beginning to be picked up by…
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Creators build GEO strategies to get discovered by brands and agencies in AI search
Creators have spent years optimizing for social media algorithms. Now, they’re facing another digital hurdle in discoverability: AI chatbots. It’s not just shoppers…
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How H&M, Chobani, UrbanStems and Teleties are refining their partnership strategies
This story was originally published on sister site, Modern Retail. Marketers often tout influencer and brand collaborations as one of the most effective ways to unlock a…
Read on our siteUSA Fencing relies on creators to attract new fans ahead of the 2028 Olympics
If the World Cup was any indication, creators are a crucial marketing pillar of sports leagues and major sporting events, drawing new fans to sports through their…
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Media Buying Briefing: How ‘outcomes’ has become the latest term to be overused
Welcome to the year that the holding companies all use (and perhaps abuse) the word “outcome” in either singular or plural form. With the first half of 2026 in the books…
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New court filings detail how WPP’s turnaround stalled — from the inside
WPP’s fall from holdco supremacy has been apparent for a while. But newly revealed accounts from insiders lay out, in granular detail, exactly how it happened. Before…
Read on our siteX adds video overlays
The feature allows iOS users to add text and emojis over clips, bringing the platform’s editing capabilities more in line with other social media apps.
Read on our siteTikTok announces 2026 Music on Stage competition
The second annual competition invites musicians to share their work in the app and compete for professional development opportunities.
Read on our siteLinkedIn playbook offers tips on effective ad campaigns
The platform’s four-step guide outlines best practices for audience targeting, formatting and measurement.
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Teen social media bans face barriers to success
Despite widespread proposals, restrictions on app usage have not yet delivered the intended results.
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Google lowers search profile requirements
Brands and creators will now qualify for a dedicated presence with fewer subscribers or followers, opening the feature up to more users.
Read on our siteAI & Automation
Nvidia investing $1.5B in SoftBank data center developer behind OpenAI project
Nvidia's investment in SoftBank's data center developer will guarantee its chips power an OpenAI data center.
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Wispr raises $280M at $2B valuation as it looks beyond dictation
The funds will allow Wispr to increase its footprint as it ventures into new areas, such as meetings, with its newly released note-taker tool.
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Stripe will reportedly acquire AI gateway startup OpenRouter for $7B+
OpenRouter's CEO recently described the startup as Stripe for AI.
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Why people aren’t buying Mark Zuckerberg’s AI future
On the latest episode of Equity podcast, we discuss why not everyone is buying Zuckerberg’s vision.
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Anthropic CEO says AI backlash is ‘fundamentally a crisis of trust’
Dario Amodei is pushing back against the idea that he's been painting an overly pessimistic picture of AI.
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