- AI chat-based search for all
- An AI-powered shopping experience with virtual try on
- Gemini in Chrome
- Multi-modal search via camera
- XR glasses
- How will this change user behavior?
- How will big G monetize AI search?
- No more paying for default status (this was the obvious ask)
- Get rid of Chrome
- Open source the data—queries, coverage, performance, etc
- Provide more information to advertisers in search query reports
- Let advertisers opt out of broad and automated keyword matching.
- Links to primary social media channels
- Highlighted social media content
- Upcoming or current sales and promotions
- Brand images and videos
- Brand voice and values
- It gets monetized as an ad product
- Recruit more sellers via website referral tracking
Drop the look, keep the voice.
High-performing brands have shifted to voiceover-first UGC, Ads that strip away the face, drop the performance, and just let the message land.
As Google Ads tries to become more like social, are social ads becoming more like podcasts?
via Buyology
What Google announced at I/O that you might want to know about
(hint: it rhymes with “hey why”)
The two main questions for marketers:
We might get some hints during Marketing Live today.
Some Google updates you might have missed earlier this year:
Exclude age groups from shopping placements in Performance Max campaigns
an AI sales assistant in shopping related search results (in testing)
Demand Gen campaigns are adding display network to the placement portfolio at the ad group level (so much for quality).
Video Action Campaigns are being migrated to Demand Gen, but you
will be able to use Demand Gen to create a YouTube only performance campaign
More robust campaign planning with Advanced Plans. Looks to offer options based on your objective, recommending the campaign type mix and budget allocation.
Customer Match list membership duration will be capped at 540 days
Could Google’s best anti-trust defense be to play up its coming irrelevance?
Apple SVP of Services Eddy Cue said last week that AI will one day replace search engines like Google.
Cue said he expects Safari to eventually swap out Google for AI services from up-and-comers including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity.
Which of course brings to mind the Twain-ism, “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
In the long run, Google’s 10 Blue Links™ approach is likely dead, a former monopoly. But how long is that long run?
via The Daily Upside
Eventually all large platforms become commerce platforms
When ChatGPT users search for products, the chatbot will now offer a few recommendations, present images and reviews for those items, and include direct links to web pages where users can buy the products.
The ChatGPT search update is part of OpenAI’s effort to compete with rival Google by creating a better, more personalized experience to find products and information on the internet.
Everyone is coming for Google these days.
via TechCrunch
Perplexity wants to be Google, but based in AI vs. traditional search.
From TechCrunch:
“That’s kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser, is we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you,” [CEO Aravind] Srinivas said. “Because some of the prompts that people do in these AIs is purely work-related. It’s not like that’s personal.”
This aligns with the company’s vision and is not a recent pivot, but you can tell they smell blood in the water with Google’s regulatory woes.
Here’s how the DOJ & friends want Google to break up its search monopoly:
If it’s still a monopoly in 5 years, Android could be on the chopping block.
The advertising remedies are kind of weird…
On the first one, sure, whatever.
But on the second, feels like advertisers refusing to change and wanting their old toys back.
The behavior change Manton outlines here is one I find myself mirroring
I’m now asking AI for simple queries that Google would be equally good for. Using AI essentially automates the workflow of getting 10 links from Google, clicking on 3-4 of them, then skimming the web pages to get your answer.
Getting links in the response plays a part for me.
I imagine this will become more common.
The hits keep on coming for Google
Google created an illegal monopoly in the online advertising industry, a Federal judge ruled
According to the ruling, Big G pulled some anticompetitive shenanigans with ad servers and exchanges, and hurt publishers and users by doing so.
The Department of Justice argued that through acquisitions and anticompetitive conduct, Google seized control of the full advertising technology stack: the tools advertisers and publishers buy and sell ads and the exchange that connects them.
An appeal is coming.
via MarTech
The China tariffs are changing the ecommerce landscape in the US as the major players grapple with increased costs.
Temu and Shein have already cut average daily spending on social media platforms by 31% and 19% in the past 30 days
Temu backed out of Google Shopping entirely.
Auction pressure is going to be a lot different for advertisers.
Recent related tariff posts: analysis trap | ad spend impact
via The Daily Upside
It’s not the magnitude, it’s the trend.
For the first time since 2015, Google’s global share of the search market fell below the 90% threshold
The search giant’s global market share has dropped below 90% in six of the previous seven months
The splintering continues.
via ADWEEK
Google will start using “Landing Page Screenshots for Video Ads for Demand Gen Campaigns” “to improve your YouTube ad performance,” according to emails they’ve been sending to account holders.
I understand all those words, but don’t quite know what this will look like. Couldn’t find any examples.
Google Merchant Center now uses your marketing email content “in places across Google such as Search, Shopping, and Maps.”
From the docs:
What information does Google extract?
Google crawls through the marketing content to gather relevant data, including, but not limited to:
Not great if you like VIP offers for subscribers.
Opt-in by default. Big G may auto-subscribe or may need to be added to your list manually.
According to Semafor:
[YouTube] is currently developing a feature that would allow host-read ads to be dynamically inserted and swapped out within individual YouTube videos
Should make it more appealing for podcasters.
But what’s the long term plan? How does Google monetize these ads? Does YouTube want to become a legit podcast hosting platform? Will it build a host read marketplace?
And how does this impact current efforts to place podcast ads via Ads Manager?
🚨 Annotations are back in Google Analytics! 🎉
Zig to your competitors’ zag and have much success.
contrarian investment funds far outperform their herd-fund rivals in several performance measurements, and that their managers have found ways to gather information that other managers haven’t figured out.
The study was specific to investment funds, but the thinking holds.
Do the same thing as everyone else and get worse results..
Herd behavior benefits the first movers.
YouTube is making changes to avoid the most annoying ad placement occurrence on the platform, a midroll ad cutting off a sentence.
Starting May 12, 2025, We’re improving the quality of mid-roll ads on YouTube. That means we’ll show more mid-roll ads at natural break points, like pauses and transitions, and fewer ads where they may feel interruptive or cause viewers to abandon the video, like in the middle of a sentence or action sequence.
Another example of AI (I’m assuming) turbocharging contextual features.
Amazon is running a beta called shop brand sites directly, which surfaces results for brands not sold on the platform, directing shoppers to the brand’s site to purchase.
Likely 1 of 2 plays here (maybe both):
Some interesting findings from a study comparing Google Search to chatbot traffic (caveat: chatbot volume is much smaller)
AI chatbot referrals stay more than a minute longer than Google traffic.
And visit more pages
The data indicates that homepages are more important in the “AI future” and that AI chatbots qualify users better before sending them out.
and
AI seems to go counter to the age-old study of “every second a page loads faster, it converts more people.”
Instead, it pre-qualifies users before they visit a site, which leads to those users being happy to spend more time.