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
ChatGPT Already Knows Who’s In The Running Before It Searches
ChatGPT names brands in its own search queries before it fetches anything. Being in that query is worth 33 times more.
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The missing step in vibe coding: Verify what actually shipped
AI can build a working prototype in minutes. That doesn’t mean it built what you asked for. The same problem that has long affected software development is showing up in…
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Google Ads Is Retiring Language Targeting In Search Campaigns
Google Ads is changing language targeting for Search and Performance Max in September 2026. Learn what’s changing and what advertisers need to know.
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Google Ads is removing language targeting from Search campaigns
Google is removing campaign-level language targeting from Search and AI Max for Search campaigns starting in late September, shifting responsibility for language…
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The GEO Trust Gap: SEOs Want The Data, But Not The Platforms Selling It
Practitioners value AI visibility data highly and won't fund the platforms selling it. New survey data on what's actually blocking the category.
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Shopify: AI referrals up 197%, but organic search still leads traffic
AI-referred sessions to merchant storefronts grew 197% year over year in the second quarter, Shopify said. Organic search traffic also increased 12%, according to new…
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Microsoft Clarity AI Scrape-to-Referral insights report
Microsoft Clarity has added another new AI metric, this one is called AI Scrape-to-Referral insights. It puts a single metric on the AI scrape activity against referral…
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The PPC Clean-Up: How to Audit and Fix ‘Value Inflation’ in Google Ads
PPC managers inheriting an account: verify the conversion value before touching the bid strategy. Five checks that separate real revenue from phantom value.
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An anatomy of the creator brand trip’s midlife crisis
The uproar over OpenAI’s luxury creator trip to New York — in which around 30 creators stayed at a high-end farm resort, ate farm-to-table meals and learned beekeeping —…
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Future of Marketing Briefing: The public ad tech era is over
The ad tech public era is over. Not literally, of course. A handful of scaled, still-growing platforms remain public. There just aren’t many of them, and the…
Read on our siteEuropean publishers are getting hit harder by AI bot scraping, report finds
European publishers are getting hit harder than North American sites by AI bot scraping – and no one really knows why. A recent report from TollBit found that European…
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The consumer journey is CPG marketing’s ‘North Star’ — and why brands can’t discount promotion strategies
Economic uncertainty and changing shopping behaviors are pushing brands to rethink how different channels work together. With the exponential growth of AI and the media…
Read on our siteMeta gives 15,000 pairs of AI glasses to vision impaired users
The initiative is run through not-for-profit charitable organization Vision Ireland and may help assuage some negative sentiment about the devices.
Read on our siteInstagram reveals its new logo
It’s the first updated branding for the app in more than a decade, and users have received the refresh with mixed reactions.
Read on our siteMeta removed more than 750,000 teen accounts in Australia
The company credited artificial intelligence analysis for improving its enforcement rates with regards to the country’s eSafety Commission under-16 social media ban.
Read on our siteX shares new insights into transparency and shadowbanning
The platform released an update to its code display on GitHub that allows users to check their content for any potential restrictions.
Read on our siteMeta publishes holiday marketing guides
The company advised brands to start planning early in order to take advantage of audience insights before the December gifting phase heats up.
Read on our siteAI & Automation
Writer introduces new AI model and upgraded harness to contain token costs
Built as a post-training variation on Z.ai's open source model GLM-5.2, Writer says the new system should provide deployment-ready capabilities at a much lower price.
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Databricks wanted to raise $1B, investors wanted $15B. It settled on $5B at a $190B valuation.
AI is expensive, Ali Ghodsi tells TechCrunch. With so many investors wanting into his latest round, he said yes to more than planned.
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OpenAI introduces ‘Ultrafast,’ a new mode that makes GPT-5.6 Sol work at 14x the speed
OpenAI is launching a preview of a sped up version of its latest, most powerful model, in an effort to court enterprise users.
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IBM partners with OpenAI to bolster enterprise AI push
IBM plans to train and certify tens of thousands of consultants on OpenAI's technologies as part of this deal.
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Anthropic set AI agents loose on the same task. They started a turf war.
Anthropic researchers found AI agents can clash, collude, and coordinate in unexpected ways, raising new questions about whether today’s safety tests capture the risks…
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OpenAI hires new CRO as executive shake-up continues
OpenAI has replaced chief revenue officer Denise Dresser after just nine months on the job, tapping Wiz president and chief operating officer Dali Rajic to take on…
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Microsoft kills off unsuccessful AI features while merging its separate Copilot apps
Microsoft is simplifying Copilot by combining its consumer and business apps, and dropping AI-generated podcasts, Group Chats, Deep Research, and its Mico character.
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