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Search Console May Be Adding AI Performance Data, SEOs Say
A Reddit thread in r/SEO has practitioners buzzing about new generative AI performance reporting inside Google Search Console, but Google hasn't confirmed the rollout publicly. Here's what marketers should actually do this week.
Google's AI Opt-Out Setting May Cost Publishers Top Stories
Google has started running the Top Stories carousel inside AI Overviews instead of below them, and the new AI opt-out setting in Search Console may determine who gets left out.
Google's Gemini API Managed Agents Gain Hooks, Model Choice, Free Tier
Google DeepMind updated Managed Agents in the Gemini API with environment hooks for auditing tool calls, a default switch to Gemini 3.6 Flash, and free tier access, moving the sandboxed agent framework closer to production-ready marketing automation.
Creators Now Co-Develop Products, Not Just Post About Them
A new survey of 125 brand and agency professionals shows creator marketing has moved past awareness plays into seasonal campaigns, product launches and, in some cases, actual product co-development.
Google Ads Mandates Passkeys Starting Aug. 5, Closing a Scam Loophole
Google Ads will require every API customer to authenticate with a passkey starting August 5, a move aimed at shutting down a scam that's been draining agency ad accounts.
Claude Share Pages Leaked Into Google Despite a Robots Block
Anthropic's shared Claude chats turned up in Google search results this weekend, exposing a textbook conflict between robots.txt and noindex that any marketing team could replicate by accident.
Google Manual Action Hits 500K Forum Posts as Thin Content
Google issued a manual action against a two-decade-old forum for 'thin content,' suppressing over half a million posts at once. SEOs suspect the real target is AI-generated text, though Google hasn't said so.
Google Adds Manual Action Triggers for Fake Reviews
Google quietly expanded its review snippet documentation with three new prohibitions on fake and undisclosed incentivized reviews, and it's spelling out manual action as the penalty.
Renaming Your Google Business Profile: Rules & Risks
Yes, you can change your Google Business Profile name. But Google treats a rename less like an edit and more like a confession, and the review that follows can cost you your listing.
Google Slaps Manual Action on WindowsForum Over Thin Content
A screenshot circulating in r/SEO shows Google hitting WindowsForum.com with a manual action for thin content, a reminder that legacy forum pages are squarely in the crosshairs.
What Does a CMO Do? Role, KPIs and Reporting Lines in 2026
The CMO job description hasn't changed on paper in twenty years. Almost everything under it has, and that gap is why so many marketing leaders are getting fired for doing the job they were hired to do.
AI Marketing's Carbon Footprint: A 2026 Data Deep-Dive
Vendors won't hand you a carbon number for your AI stack, so we built one from Google's own disclosures, IEA data and peer-reviewed energy research, then turned it into a framework you can run this quarter.
Google May Ignore Robots.txt Rules Due to This File Error
John Mueller diagnosed a robots.txt formatting error that let Googlebot disregard a disallow rule, indexing search-spam pages a Shopify client thought were blocked.
CMO Mag Poll: SEO & AI Search Wins the 2026 Budget Fight
In a CMO Mag reader poll of 30 marketing leaders, SEO and AI search edged out paid social as the channel getting the biggest budget bump for 2026, but the margin is closer than the headlines suggest.
2026 Budget Poll: How 30 Marketing Leaders Are Shifting Spend
CMO Mag asked 30 marketing leaders which channel is getting their biggest 2026 budget bump. SEO and AI search won, but the real story is what each rank actually signals.
Google Search Revenue Growth Slows to 17% in Q2
Alphabet's core search advertising engine cooled to 17% growth in the second quarter, snapping four consecutive quarters of acceleration and raising fresh questions about AI's bite on the click economy.
OpenAI Launches Presence, an Enterprise Agent Platform for Support
OpenAI has introduced Presence, a new platform for deploying voice and chat agents inside enterprise customer service operations, according to the company's own announcement.
Claude Now Learns Tasks From Video, Automation Gets Smarter
Anthropic's new Record a Skill feature lets Claude Cowork watch a screen recording of a task and turn it into a skill it can run again, no coding required.
Albertsons Runs a Scripted Micro-Drama Inside Retail Media
Albertsons Media Collective and Procter & Gamble just put a 22-episode scripted series on grocery store screens, betting that retail media can carry brand storytelling, not just item-and-price ads.
AI Marketing Certifications: Are They Worth It in 2026?
The market is flooded with AI marketing courses promising instant relevance. Here's which credentials hiring managers actually notice, and which ones you can skip.
Court Dismisses Google's DMCA Claims Against SerpApi
Chief U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed Google's anti-circumvention claims against SerpApi, ruling that blocking scrapers from results with no copyrighted content doesn't violate the DMCA.
JustAI Raises $17M Series A to Build AI Marketing Platform
JustAI closed a $17 million Series A round to build out its AI marketing platform, adding to a wave of capital flowing into AI-native martech this year.
AI Marketing Agents Explained: Capabilities vs. Hype
Vendors are rebranding chatbots as autonomous agents faster than anyone can test the claims. Here's what marketing agents actually do today, where they still need a human, and what to check before you sign.
Martech Stack Audit: A Step-by-Step Guide for 2026
Before you build next year's martech budget, run the audit that actually catches shadow subscriptions, dead integrations, and tools three teams are quietly duplicating.
Out-of-Home Advertising Formats and Costs: A 2026 Buyer's Guide
Billboards, transit wraps, digital spectaculars, and place-based screens all get lumped under one label. Here's what each actually costs, how impressions get counted, and who to call.
Marketing Attribution Models Compared for 2026 Budgets
Five attribution models, five different campaign winners. Here's how each one actually works, where it breaks in a cookieless and AI-crawled web, and how to pick one before you lock FY2026 budgets.
OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Program for Small Business Owners
OpenAI announced a ChatGPT for small businesses program on July 21, 2026, bundling training, in-person academies and partner integrations aimed at owners doing marketing, accounting and sales themselves.
Google Ships Gemini 3.6 Flash, Cuts Agent Costs 17%
Google released three new Gemini models built for agentic workloads, with 3.6 Flash cutting output token usage 17% and undercutting 3.5 Flash on price.
Apple Maps Ads Locks Out Plumbers, Crypto ATMs, Bail Bonds
Apple's newly published advertising policy, effective July 14, 2026, shuts an entire class of local advertisers out of Apple Maps before the product even ships.
Google Says AI Search Sends 'Billions' of Clicks Weekly, No Data Shown
Google's Nick Fox posted new click figures for AI features in Search, but without a denominator or methodology, marketers still have no way to verify what the numbers mean for their own sites.
Google's NotebookLM Rebrand Opens New Scraping Risk for Sites
Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook and updated its fetcher identity, giving site owners a narrow window before old blocking rules stop working and scraping without attribution continues.
Google's Gemini Agent, Ask Advisor, Now Spans Its Whole Ad Stack
Google is making a Gemini agent the front door to its advertising products. For marketers, the console is starting to answer back.
Google's Ad Stack Is Becoming an Agent You Brief. Here's the Playbook.
Google's new Gemini agent isn't a new direction. It's the destination a decade of automation was always heading toward, and the marketers who come out ahead will be the ones who kept the two things the agent can't hand them: guardrails and honest measurement.
Fleet Graphics Are Advertising's Cheapest Impression. On Paper.
Wrapped vans really are among the cheapest ways to reach people. The catch is the impression math behind that famous sub-dollar CPM.