2026-09-16 Daily Brief

Gemini can be used to help with household chores and spending decisions. Gemini Live's camera feature allows you to check modem lights or ingredients in the refrigerator, and extract spending information from receipt photos. Google AI & Economy ATLAS v1.0 analyzed 15 million de-identified interactions and found that more than 86% of conversational AI interactions occurred outside of official work.

You can choose either your website or a Google-hosted page as the click-through location for your PMax ads. Google-hosted pages are powered by Google Business Profile and have built-in conversion measurement. Natasha Kaurra says the feature isn't entirely new, but its availability appears to be quietly expanding.

Before and after Local Services Ads are migrated to Google Ads, you should first review your existing data. Checks include historical reports, tracking numbers, and lead quality. To compare the results after the migration, you need to keep track of the pre-migration records.

Go Fish Digital and OpenAI officials will participate in this webinar. We will cover how ChatGPT Ads operate, check the brand's ChatGPT exposure status, and when to invest in advertising and GEO, respectively. The event will take place on September 22nd at 2pm ET.

A growing number of U.S. consumers are using generative AI tools to research their shopping or make purchasing decisions. State Farm said changes in consumer behavior driven by AI search do not make brand campaigns less important. IAB explained that spending to improve AI search performance contributed in part to the increase in U.S. advertising spending.

Brands and publishers are using multiple digital and physical touchpoints as advertising platforms. The Digiday podcast covered these changes through examples from Netflix, BMW, Samsung, and Time. We also look at the steps Spotify, YouTube, and Netflix have taken to reduce advertising fatigue, and discuss the line between useful advertising and noise.

Unlike Google searches, ChatGPT users can continue long conversations and ask follow-up questions. Advertisers must make decisions based on more limited targeting signals and performance measurement history. Our suggestion is that before moving your budget, you should determine what role you expect ChatGPT Ads to play, the users you want to reach, and what you're willing to give up for testing resources.

Rajan Patel said Search Live supports real-time conversations, responses with web links, and language switching during conversations. Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking are available to all users of Search Live. Google Search Live is powered by Gemini 3.8 Live, Google's latest AI model.

Brand protection is about finding where a brand is misrepresented, confused, impersonated, or misused, and making it easy to verify accurate information and official channels. Fake support pages, outdated or misleading claims, unauthorized affiliates, and third-party information can spread through searches and AI responses. A method was proposed to document information that remains connected to the brand, such as brand name, legal name, official domain, app, social accounts, products, and support channels. In the SaaS field, a case of ‘slopsquatting’, where a malicious package is registered with a name likely to be referenced by an AI coding tool, was also mentioned.

The new setting adds an AI learning opt-out preference to robots.txt while allowing Googlebot, Applebot, and Bingbot to crawl for search purposes. Sites that previously chose to block AI learning or block pages with ads will be transferred to the new settings. You must select ‘Block’ to completely block crawlers that perform both search and learning. Cloudflare classified crawlers related to Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon·Anthropic·Meta·OpenAI as ‘Accountable’ and announced that these companies’ separate AI learning crawlers are blocked in the settings.

Marketers are noticing that AI goes beyond ranking brands to deciding whether to mention them. The IAB is developing a framework to standardize AI exposure measurement. Data from Tinuiti and Adobe·Semrush shows that citation sources and brand exposure can vary significantly across LLMs and platforms.

The ad captured this time looks like a plain text link with anchor text. The ad appears as ‘Sponsored’ at the top of the AI-generated response and has been confirmed on desktop and mobile. Previously, text anchor links were seen within AI Mode responses, but this time they appeared as sponsored results.

Google stated that it cannot provide specific response timing for pending API applications. Victoria Kroll advised not to submit additional applications once the initial application is being processed. We are also experiencing longer than usual support wait times in the Google Business Profiles support area.

Techniques revealed include the elimination of ‘mannered prose’, which reduces exaggerated metaphors and expressions. Methods were also presented to use forms depending on the situation and encourage the use of search and search results at a low level of effort. Anthropic explained that users of other AI models can also check existing prompts to match model changes.

Instead of passive scrolling, Pinterest explains that it helps users develop their own tastes. We also emphasized the strategy that the ultimate goal of digital experience is offline interaction. More than half of Pinterest users are now Gen Z, and the platform is expanding its reach to include everyday inspiration and shopping journeys as well as major life events.

Meta launched Muse on September 8, which lets you open a browser, fill out forms, and negotiate on your behalf. According to the original text, expressions related to risk, attack, attacker, mistake, untrustworthy, and prompt injection appear 39 times in engineering posts alone. Muse runs on the Muse Secure VM, is available in the US via WhatsApp or the Muse app, and will also be released on AI glasses.

Equinix’s ‘Fabric Intelligence’ was released to respond to new network connections frequently required by AI. Omdia predicted that agentic AI, which performs tasks without human intervention, will grow at an average annual rate of 175% over the next five years in the corporate networking field.