Google Local Services Ads have switched to displaying Google Business Profile phone numbers for call tracking instead of advertiser-specified Google Ads numbers, and the change appears to be permanent.

The IAB released AAMP 3.0 with OpenProposal to standardize AI-driven media buying, plus a measurement services contract template.

Microsoft is testing new labels on Bing product carousels to highlight Top Picks, Price Drops, Sales, and other attributes.

OpenAI is testing a new ad format in ChatGPT that launches a sponsored business agent when users click an ad.

Google is expanding AI-powered performance insights in Merchant Center to merchants in Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand.

WordPress is launching a security initiative to help protect sites against vulnerabilities as AI tools make exploits easier to discover.

MartechTribe's analysis of 953 real-world martech stacks shows that revenue outperformers don't buy more tools—they align their investments to industry and business context, not feature breadth or vendor maturity.

Seismic and Highspot merged into a $100M R&D AI revenue-enablement platform, but Forrester warns most customers lack the data integration and infrastructure to use advanced capabilities.

Google explicitly warns Shopify merchants not to uninstall and reinstall the Google & YouTube app, as the Content API to Merchant API migration will happen automatically by August 18.

Andrej Karpathy recommends prompting LLMs to write in aerospace manual style or output diagrams, HTML, and videos for clearer explanations.

Alchemer's survey finds 60% of consumers expect faster responses from companies using AI, yet 89% report AI has hurt their experience in some way.

Google and OpenAI are expanding features that let users maintain standing search requests rather than individual one-off queries.

Google Local Service Ads now obscure phone numbers until users hover over the ad, requiring a click-to-reveal interaction.

Bing is testing a new 'Recommended By' label in product search results, though product links route to retailers rather than the recommending entity.

Google Ads sponsored product carousel results are missing product images, either due to a bug or an ongoing test.

Google is testing the removal of the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button from its search interface, replacing it in some cases with AI-related options.

Google is experimenting with variable product grid layouts in search results, testing configurations that show three to five products.

Cloudflare has moved its Monetization Gateway and Pay Per Use tools into beta, enabling per-request charging for AI agents and publisher compensation for AI usage.

OpenAI has enabled its Dots product to automatically run read-only research checks on connected apps between user conversations.

Salesforce is acquiring Listen Labs, an AI-powered customer research platform, for approximately $2 billion to add qualitative research capabilities to its CRM and marketing products.

Bing is testing descriptive feature labels (like

Google is experimenting with a two-row button layout for local search panel actions on mobile devices.

Google Maps is placing some service area business pins in the ocean instead of at correct locations.

Google is expanding monitoring capabilities in its AI Mode search feature from paid subscribers to all users globally.

Anthropic released updated prompting guidance for Claude Opus 5.5, recommending developers retest effort settings and reconsider certain prompt patterns.

MIT and Harvard research outlines how SEO and paid media managers can advance to director roles by demonstrating AI's value and developing team reskilling strategies.

Google removed Web Search Service API documentation it had accidentally published, though the API itself remains unavailable to most users.

Google updated several Google Merchant Center policy documents covering product eligibility, content standards, and prohibited categories.

Google is testing a "Loading..." button to replace "Show More" under AI Overviews.

Google is testing alternative sitelinks designs in mobile search results, including a vertical list format with a left-side accent line.

X is launching a rewards program to encourage developers to build AI bots powered by Grok, its proprietary language model.

Bing is testing an editable icon on search images that lets users modify them using Bing's AI image editing feature.

Microsoft is testing renaming Bing's Copilot search tab to AI Mode, aligning its naming with Google's terminology.

Meta is designing cute characters and hardware around always-on AI recording to increase user adoption while addressing data privacy concerns.

Bing is testing a new sitelinks interface variant that displays link descriptions when users hover over individual sitelinks.

YouTube is expanding Ask YouTube AI with shopping capabilities that surface product reviews in comparison tables and answer product questions on watch pages.

Google published documentation for using experiments to test AI Max campaigns against Dynamic Search Ads.

Google clarified that business owners have a four-day window to reject user-suggested edits to their Google Business Profiles before the changes auto-apply.

Comscore data reveals ChatGPT ads appeared in 47% of video gaming chats among US desktop users, with growth across three retail categories.

Meta's AI-powered Muse agent delegates some user-initiated calls to human staff rather than handling them fully autonomously.

Meta's Muse AI agent can now make purchases across Shopify stores but will not support Amazon transactions.

Google added newly-launched CrUX ad metrics to its Page Experience documentation without confirming them as a ranking signal.

The permanently closed status option has disappeared from Google Business Profiles, along with temporarily closed and some other closure-related options.

Google is testing a 'More From [Advertiser Name]' label above sitelinks in sponsored search results to clarify ad ownership.

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke warns that unreviewed AI-generated output is creating extra work for colleagues, a trend freelance marketplace data reflects industry-wide.

Meta is expanding Muse, its personal AI tool, by adding new agent connections and releasing a Mac version.

Social Media Today reports LinkedIn has discontinued its AI post-enhancement feature and launched a new post-proofreader tool instead, responding to user pushback against AI-generated content.

Google Search Console's crawl stats report is missing data from September 15th, a recurring issue the company typically resolves.