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As consumers lean into AI search, the industry has focused on the technical “how” – tracking everything from Agentic Commerce Protocols (ACP) to ChatGPT’s latest shopping research tools. In doing so, it often misses the larger shift: conversational search, which is changing how visibility is earned. There’s a common argument that big brands will always win in AI. I disagree. When you move beyond the “best running shoes” shorthand and look at the deep context users now provide, the playing field levels. AI is trying to match user needs to specific solutions, and it’s up to your brand to provide the details. This article explains how conversational search changes product discovery and what ecommerce teams need to update on product detail pages (PDPs) to remain visible in AI-driven shopping experiences. How conversational search builds on semantic search While semantic search is critical for understanding the meaning and context of words, conversational search is the ability to maintain a back-and-forth dialogue with a user over time. Semantic search is the foundation for conversational visibility. Think of it like a restaurant: If semantic search is the chef who knows exactly what you mean by “something light,” conversational search is the waiter who remembers that you’re ordering for dinner. FeatureSemantic searchConversational searchGoalTo understand intent and contextTo handle a flow of questionsHow it thinksIt knows “car” and “automobile” are the same thingIt knows that when you say “how much is it?”, “it” refers to the car you just mentionedThe interactionSearching with a phrase instead of keywordsHaving a chat where the computer remembers what you were asking about beforeExampleAsking “What is a healthy meal?” and getting results for “nutritious recipes.”Asking “What is a healthy meal?” followed by “give me a recipe for that.” AI blends them together. It uses semantic understanding to decode your complex intent and conversational logic to keep the thread of the story moving. For brands, this means your content has to be clear enough for the “chef” to interpret and consistent enough for the “waiter” to follow. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with What conversational search and AI discovery mean for ecommerce I recently shared how my mom was using ChatGPT to remodel her kitchen. She didn’t start by searching for “the best cabinets.” Instead, she leveraged ChatGPT as her pseudo-designer and contractor, using AI to solve specific problems. Product discovery happened naturally through constraint-based queries: “Find cabinets that fit these dimensions and match this specific wood type.” “Are these cabinets easy for a DIY installation?” Her conversations were piling up, allowing her to reach multiple solutions at once. Her discovery journey was layered. When ChatGPT recommended products to complete her tasks, she simply followed up with, “Where can I buy those?” Brands and marketers need to stop optimizing for keywords and start optimizing for tasks. Identify the specific conversations where your product becomes the solution. If your data can’t answer the “Will this fit?” or “Is this easy?” questions, you won’t be part of the final recommendation. “Recommend products” is the top task users trust AI to handle, highlighting a clear opportunity for brands, according to Tinuiti’s 2026 AI Trends Study. (Disclosure: I am the Sr. Director of AI SEO Innovation at Tinuiti.) For your brand to be the one recommended, your PDPs must provide the “ground truth” details these assistants need to make a confident selection. Dig deeper: How to make ecommerce product pages work in an AI-first world What to do before you start changing every PDP Step away from the keyword research tools and stop asking for “prompt volumes.” In an AI-driven world, intent is more important than volume. Before changing a single page, you need to understand the high-intent journeys your personas are actually taking. To identify your high-intent semantic opportunities: Audit your personas: Who is your buyer, and what are their non-negotiable questions? If you haven’t mapped these lately, start there. Bridge the team gap: Talk to your product and sales teams. They know the specific attributes and “deal-breaker” details that actually drive conversions. Listen to the market: Use sentiment analysis and social listening to find hidden use cases or brand problems. How are people actually using, or struggling with, your product in ways your brand team hasn’t considered? Map constraints, not keywords: Identify the specific constraints (size, compatibility, budget) that AI agents use to filter recommendations. How to build PDPs for AI search with decision support Your PDP should operate like a product knowledge document and be optimized for natural language. This helps an AI system decide whether to recommend the product for a specific situation. Name your ideal buyer and edge cases Content should support better decision-making. Audit your PDPs to determine whether they provide enough detail on who the product is best for – and not for. Does the page explicitly name your ideal buyer, their skill level, lifestyle constraints, and deal-breakers? AI shopping queries often include exclusions, and clearly outlining the important parts of your user search journey will help you understand where your products fit best. Cover compatibility and product specifications Compatibility feels synonymous with electronics (e.g., “Will my headphones connect to this computer?”). But think beyond one-to-one compatibility and expand into lifestyle compatibility: Is this laptop bag waterproof enough for a 20-minute bike ride in the rain, and does it have a clip for a taillight? Can I fit a Kindle and a book in this purse? Will this detergent work with my HE washer? Will this carry-on suitcase fit in the overhead compartment on every airline? Is this “family-sized” cutting board actually small enough to fit inside a standard dishwasher? People are searching for how products fit into their lifestyle needs. Highlight and emphasize the features that make your products compatible with their lifestyle. Dig deeper: How to make products machine-readable for multimodal AI search Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Provide vertical-specific product guidance Breaking down your customer search journey and listening to your customers’ concerns, either through AI sentiment analysis, social listening, or product reviews, will help you understand what you need to be specific about. Apparel brands should add sizing and fit guidance. Maybe you’re comparing your size 10 jeans to competitors’ sizing, or considering sizing changes based on the cut or style of your other jeans. Beauty or skincare brands need ingredient combination details. Is this product compatible with other common formulas? Can I layer it over a vitamin C serum? Toy brands could include important details for parents. Does your product need to be assembled, and how long will it take? Can they assemble it the night before Christmas? If your biggest customer complaint is understanding when and how to use your products, you’re likely not making it easy enough for them to buy. Better defining your product attributes helps users and LLMs alike better understand your products. Write for constraint matching instead of browsing AI shopping discovery is driven by constraints instead of keywords. Shoppers aren’t asking for “the best laptop bag.” They’re asking for a bag that fits under an airplane seat, survives a rainy commute, and still looks professional in a meeting. PDPs should be written to reflect that reality. Audit your product pages to see whether they answer common “Can I …?” and “Will this work if …?” questions in plain language. These details often live in reviews, FAQs, or support tickets, but rarely surface in core product copy where AI systems are most likely to pull from. Here’s what transforming your content can look like: Traditional PDP copy Laptop backpack Water-resistant polyester exterior. Fits laptops up to 15″. Multiple interior compartments. Lightweight design. USB charging port. PDP copy written for constraints Laptop backpack Best for: Daily commuters, frequent flyers, and students who need to carry tech in unpredictable weather. Not ideal for: Extended outdoor exposure or laptops larger than 15.6″. Weather readiness: Water-resistant coating protects electronics during short walks or bike commutes in light rain, but is not designed for heavy downpours. Travel compatibility: Fits comfortably under most airplane seats and in overhead bins on domestic flights. Capacity and layout: Holds a 15-15.6″ laptop, charger, and tablet, with room for a book or light jacket – but not bulky items. Lifestyle considerations: Integrated USB port supports charging on the go (power bank not included). LLMs evaluate how well a product satisfies specific constraints in conversational queries or based on predetermined user preference information. PDPs that clearly articulate those constraints are more likely to be selected, summarized, and recommended. This type of copy should also help your on-site customers better understand your products. Dig deeper: Why ecommerce SEO audits fail – and what actually works in 30 days Technical foundations still matter for ecommerce Just because search platforms change doesn’t mean we should abandon everything we’ve learned in traditional optimization. Technical SEO fundamentals still heavily apply in AI search: Can crawlers access and index your site? Are your product listing pages (PLPs) and PDPs clearly linked and structured? Do pages load quickly enough for crawlers and users? Is your most critical content accessible? In conversational shopping, structured data is playing a different role than it did in traditional SEO strategies. In conversational shopping, it’s about verification. AI systems use your schema to validate facts before they risk reusing them in an answer. If the AI can’t verify your price, availability, or shipping details through a merchant feed or structured data, it won’t risk recommending you. Variant clarity is just as important. When differences like size, color, or configuration aren’t clearly defined, AI systems may treat variants as separate products or merge them incorrectly. The result is inaccurate pricing, incompatible recommendations, or missed visibility. Most importantly, structured data must match what’s visibly true on the page. When schema contradicts on-page content, AI systems avoid recommending uncertain information. Dig deeper: How SEO leaders can explain agentic AI to ecommerce executives See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with Owning the digital shelf in 2026 Success on the digital shelf has moved beyond high-volume keywords. In this new era, your visibility depends on how well you satisfy the complex constraints users can provide in a single search. AI models are scanning your pages to see if you meet specific, nuanced requirements, like “gluten-free,” “easy to install,” or “fits a 30-inch window.” The shift to conversational discovery means your product data must be ready to sustain a dialogue. The goal is simple: provide the density of information necessary for an AI to confidently transact on a user’s behalf. Those who build for these multi-layered journeys will own the future of discovery. View the full article

In the comment section on a recent letter from someone whose coworkers were upset about her work anniversary gift, there was a lot of discussion about corporate gift programs. I heard from a reader who works for one of the larger companies that organizes these programs, and they generously offered to answer questions about it. Here’s our interview. To start, what are these programs all about, and how do rewards and recognition companies like yours fit in? Rewards and recognition falls under the bigger HR tech umbrella. Other things under the umbrella include incentives, promotional items, wellness programs, payroll, benefits, and HRIS that does pretty much everything. Some companies manage all this stuff in-house with programs they’ve cobbled together, but there are software providers for all of them. Rewards and recognition (when done well!) helps companies build better cultures, decrease attrition, and improve employee engagement. The idea is, if you appreciate employees for their work regularly, they will be happier, more loyal, and more productive. Some vendor names you might find surprising: Tiffany’s used to offer service awards, Hallmark offered recognition before that part of the business was bought, Jostens owns a recognition company. Rolex used to be a very popular service award or retirement award, but a few years ago, they stopped doing B2B sales (it was diluting their brand). No recognition vendors can now offer Rolexes — and some companies find that very upsetting. The rewards and recognition industry tries to relieve the burden of administration from HR and automates the program flow, so its easy for employees to use. Rewards and recognition software generally has two components (and companies might do one or both): A. Performance recognition. This is focused on publicly recognizing employees for good work. A user can write up a note thanking a coworker for something (things like “thanks for covering while I was out” or “good job on that presentation”), attach an amount of points to that note, and then send it off. The note is then published on a feed so other coworkers can see it, like it, and comment on it. The points go into a bank, so users can save them up and redeem them from a catalog of items. B. Service awards. This recognizes employees for how long they have been with the company, usually starting at five years and every five years after. One of the easiest/most common approaches is a points deposit. Say you are celebrating five years at your company. On your anniversary, you would get an email that says something like, “Congrats on five years! Here’s to another five!” and a notification that 500 points have been deposited into your points bank. This could be a specific bank that now has 500 points for you to redeem in the catalog, or the points could be deposited into your recognition bank, so you can use your service award and recognition points together to redeem for something bigger. What challenges do you see companies run into most often with corporate gifts and rewards/recognition programs? I think the biggest challenge is a lack of commitment. There are all sorts of proven benefits to these types of programs (lowered attrition, improved business outcomes, etc.) and some companies think they can get those benefits by just purchasing a software. They don’t want to spend the time or money on creating a comprehensive strategy — and since every company culture is so different, you really need to make a strategy that focuses on what’s right for your specific organization. So instead, they end up wasting money on a platform that doesn’t get used, because no one knows it exists or how to use it. And because they’re not getting the ROI they want, they get mad and fire their vendor, move onto another one, and have the same issues because they won’t commit, all while losing money on the software shift and confusing any users who where engaging. Executive buy-in is also a big issue. I can’t tell you how many times a CHRO has been ready to sign a contract when the CEO comes in and shuts everything down. Along with that is making sure they stay bought-in. A lot of larger organizations with long-standing programs have started questioning the value of recognition programs. When the economy gets rough, this is usually one of the first things to get cut, as it seems extraneous. But companies who kept up with recognition during the pandemic saw improved morale and increased employee loyalty. What do you think are some of the “secrets of success” of the companies that do it well? 1. Communicating to employees not only that this program is available, but also offering info on the best way to use it. This might be paper guides, email reminders, formal training — whatever is best for that company’s culture. 2. Having a reasonable budget. Being stingy will make employees feel less appreciated than if there had been no recognition program at all! Healthcare is notorious for having tiny budgets. Imagine working endless shifts saving people’s lives and being thanked with nothing more than a branded pen. 3. Celebrating a variety of events. Not everyone will end up being recognized for everything, but celebrating different things with different types of rewards (company milestones, service awards, promotions, personal life events, department wins, company challenges, etc.) will give each employee more chances to feel appreciated. 4. Letting everyone send recognition. Some companies set their programs up so only managers can give recognition and/or points. So if your manager doesn’t see or hear about something great you did, you will never receive recognition for it. If peers can instead recognize each other, then the volume of recognition greatly increases. And so does employee goodwill! 5. Ensuring recognition doesn’t feel transactional. We all know the feeling when you receive a birthday card and it’s a bunch of signatures vs. receiving one with actual, thoughtful notes. Companies with expectations of how recognition should be done have more sincere interactions. For example, if their policy is to mail someone a plaque for the 10th anniversary, the item becomes just another thing to set on the shelf and forget about. But if they instead present the plaque in person to the celebrant, maybe along with a handwritten card from the manager or by sharing some achievements with the team (if the person enjoys being recognized publicly), then that plaque feels a lot more significant. Essentially, throw enough money at it that it makes an impact, but throw that money strategically. One thing that comes up over and over on Ask a Manager is that there’s no one gift that everyone will like (except for more money and time off!). As soon as one person mentions a gift that sounds amazing to them, someone else will be ready to let them know they’d hate it. How can companies navigate that thoughtfully? Offering a variety of options is the best way to do this. Let’s say the company is celebrating their hundred year anniversary. Rather than giving everyone the same branded jacket, the company could instead offer a few different types of jackets, maybe a vest and pullover, and then other things that could be branded, like a cooler, a Bluetooth speaker, a suitcase, an expensive blanket, etc. and throw in some things that aren’t branded at all! (I personally love a branded item, but I know many, many people hate it.) What’s something that’s surprised you about working in this field? And/or something that you think would surprise people outside of it to learn about? Receiving recognition points counts as reportable income, so you get taxed on it. Seeing that on your paystub without knowing why its there can be kind of upsetting (one of those things that I don’t think companies tell their employees about). It’s especially upsetting if it ends up being a burden on you, rather than your employer. That’s why R+R providers recommend organizations “gross up,” i.e. if you are awarded $100 of points, the company actually pays something like $140 for those points, so the employee receives the full $100 and the $40 goes to covering the income tax portion. Service/milestone awards have their own tax situations. In the U.S. and Canada, if a milestone award meets certain requirements, there is no income tax on it. Also, this industry is cutthroat, which is funny for an industry ostensibly focused on helping create positive employee experiences. The R+R industry is not super large and there’s maybe five really big players. Lots of employees move between these different companies, so plenty of company secrets get passed around. It is always funny when the executive of one company goes on LinkedIn and writes a rant about another company being mean to them, or stealing their idea, or spreading rumors. It happens more than you would expect! When you say companies run into trouble because they don’t commit to a good strategy, what does that look like in reality (when it’s done well and when it’s done badly)? First, most important thing: recognition cannot be used as a substitute for a living wage, raises, bonuses, or benefits. You have to first make sure you are adequately providing those things, or else spending money on recognition (especially when your employees are paycheck to paycheck) is only going to breed resentment. Signs a company has a good strategy in place: Users know how to access the software and use it regularly Can find worthwhile items to redeem for in the catalog Career anniversary gifts/trophies become a point of pride, rather than a useless tchotchke Employee satisfaction scores usually increase Signs a company has a bad/no strategy in place: Users don’t know about the software or can’t access it easily Limited users can send recognition Budgets are so low that recognition points are quickly spent Point values or gift options are so low that it is offensive There is no company culture around recognition, so people feel disappointed when their work is not recognized or their anniversary goes by without comment Career anniversaries are non-existent or don’t start for a long time, like year 10 There are no regular notifications nudging employees to take action, such as giving recognition, approving recognition, or redeeming points (companies like to turn these off) Holidays, employee appreciation day, and company milestones are not celebrated Example of bad strategy: My sister was at her job for three years before realizing she’d received hundreds of points she could redeem. There was no communication on the software (that it existed, how to access it, or how to use it). Giving recognition is limited to managers and above. Since she works different hours from her manager, they rarely saw her work and thus could not recognize it in person. For her first anniversary, she received a tiny bonus and doesn’t know what people receive on other anniversaries. The company is spending money on this software, but probably receiving very little ROI. In this case, they’d probably have better ROI if they forewent the software and gave that money directly to employees via raises, increased PTO, or better benefits. You mentioned stingy gifts, and I hear about this all the time (like a hospital that gave its doctors hospital socks for Christmas or a company that gave everyone “cheaply-printed gratitude journals” during Covid). Any insight into what these companies are thinking?! It seems like it should be obvious that really cheap gifts are going to harm morale more than if they did nothing at all. I think this is the same mindset that leads to giving overworked employees a pizza party rather than rewarding them with bonuses. It’s that paternalistic “They should be grateful for anything I give them” sort of feeling. The people making these decisions can be very out of touch about what actually matters to employees. How to fix that? When coming up with the recognition strategy, companies should involve employee feedback (surveys, focus groups, town halls, etc). They should also keep doing this (some vendors have features to help with this) throughout the program and adjusting as needed. You recommended letting peers send recognition. Do companies worry that if they set it up that way, people will abuse it? Does that ever happen in reality? Yes, they worry about abuse, and no, it doesn’t really happen that often. There’s ways to flag if recognition looks suspicious; you can put checks in place like all recognition has to be approved by a manager, and you can put caps on how much recognition people can give and/or receive. I think this worry comes from that same mentality that leads to sick leave policies requiring a doctor’s note; some employers think their employees are unruly children that need to be managed with a firm hand rather than responsible adults you can trust. Does your company do amazing employee gifts for you and your coworkers? I feel like the expectations must be very high! My company loves doing gifts. There are some events that have the same gift every year, but they go all in for big milestone events. There was a large anniversary a few years before I started and people still talk about the items they got. One person uses the collapsible wagon they ordered all the time, and I am jealous whenever they wheel it into the office. They really commit for service awards, and I’ve never heard anyone complain about their experience. They also do gifts for Employee Appreciation Day, and sometimes they miss the mark, but the gesture is always appreciated. I have received more water bottles than anyone could possibly need, but they’re always high-quality, so I can always find a friend or family member who would like one. The post interview with someone who works in the corporate gifts industry appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

In a conversation on the OpenAI podcast, host Andrew Maine spoke with OpenAI executive Assad Awan, who detailed how ads will roll out in ChatGPT, who will see them and how the company plans to protect user trust. Who will see ads: Ads will appear for Free and Go tier users Plus, Pro and Enterprise subscribers won’t see ads Enterprise workspaces will remain fully ad-free The guardrails: Awan emphasized that OpenAI is structuring ads around strict trust principles: Separation: Ads are visually and technically separate from model answers Privacy: Conversations aren’t shared with advertisers Sensitive topics: Health, politics and other sensitive chats won’t show ads Controls: Users can adjust or turn off personalization — or upgrade to remove ads According to Awan, the model itself doesn’t know when ads are present and can’t reference them unless a user explicitly asks about one. Zoom in. OpenAI internally prioritizes user trust over user value, advertiser value and revenue, Awan said — a framework meant to prevent ads from shaping how the model responds. For small businesses. Awan described a future where AI acts as an advertising agent, helping small businesses run campaigns by describing goals in plain language rather than managing complex dashboards. Why we care. ChatGPT ads could open a new, high-intent channel where businesses reach users during active conversations and decision-making moments. The platform’s focus on relevance, AI-driven matching and agent-style campaign tools could lower the barrier to entry for small and midsize advertisers while improving performance for larger brands. If OpenAI succeeds in building a trusted ad environment, it may reshape how advertisers think about discovery and customer engagement in AI-driven interfaces. What’s next. Early ad tests will be conservative, focusing on usefulness and relevance over volume as OpenAI refines formats and placement. The big picture. Through advertising, OpenAI is aiming to scale ChatGPT access while maintaining a trust-first design — a balance the company says is central to its long-term strategy. Dig deeper. Watch full interview with Assad Awan View the full article

Adjustments related to higher credit risk weights for new acquisitions and rate shifts offset increases in the government-sponsored enterprise's core earnings. View the full article

The Federal Aviation Administration reopened the airspace around El Paso International Airport in Texas on Wednesday morning, just hours after it announced a 10-day closure that would have grounded all flights to and from the airport. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a social media post that it has lifted the temporary closure of the airspace over El Paso, saying there was no threat to commercial aviation and that all flights will resume. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the FAA and the Defense Department “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.” He said normal flights are resuming Wednesday morning. He did not say how many drones were involved or what specifically was done to disable them. The shutdown announced just hours earlier “for special security reasons” had been expected to create significant disruptions given the duration and the size of the metropolitan area. El Paso, a border city with a population of nearly 700,000 people and larger when you include the surrounding metro area, is hub of cross-border commerce alongside the neighboring city of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. The brief closure does not include Mexican airspace. The airport said in an Instagram post after the closure was announced that all flights to and from the airport would be grounded from late Tuesday through late on February 20, including commercial, cargo, and general aviation flights. It suggested travelers contact their airlines to get up-to-date flight information. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat whose district includes El Paso, had urged the FAA to lift the restrictions in a statement Wednesday morning. There was no advance notice given to her office, the city of El Paso or airport operations, she said. “The highly consequential decision by FAA to shut down the El Paso Airport for 10 days is unprecedented and has resulted in significant concern within the community,” Escobar said. “From what my office and I have been able to gather overnight and early this morning there is no immediate threat to the community or surrounding areas.” The airport describes itself as the gateway to west Texas, southern New Mexico, and northern Mexico. Southwest, United, American, and Delta all operate flights there, among others. A similar temporary flight restriction for special security reasons over the same time period was imposed around Santa Teresa, New Mexico, which is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of the El Paso airport. Southwest Airlines said in a statement that it has paused all operations to and from El Paso at the direction of the FAA. “We have notified affected customers and will share additional information as it becomes available,” Southwest Airlines said. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of its customers and employees.” —Darlene Superville, Associated Press View the full article

Officials say airspace around southern town of El Paso was temporarily closed due to aerial activity from Mexican cartels View the full article

Google Ads is rolling out recommended experiments on the Experiments page, surfacing test ideas based on an account’s setup and performance data. How it works: The platform suggests experiment opportunities — such as testing bidding strategies, creative variations, or new campaign features — and presents them directly inside the Experiments dashboard. Each recommendation includes a preconfigured experiment setup Advertisers can launch immediately or customize settings Suggestions appear alongside the standard Create Experiment workflow Why we care. By removing the need to build tests from scratch, Google is lowering the barrier to experimentation. Advertisers can act on optimization ideas faster and more consistently. However, advertisers should still ensure that the right tests/configurations are being launched to avoid wasted time and budget. Zoom in. Example prompts include suggestions like enabling final URL expansion to improve campaign performance, displayed through in-dashboard popups tied to the Experiments interface. The big picture. Google is increasingly embedding automated guidance into Ads workflows, nudging advertisers toward continuous testing and data-driven optimization. First seen. This update was spotted by PPC News Feed owner, Hana Kobzová. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Wireless open-ear earbuds are a popular choice for runners, commuters, dog owners, and anyone else who wants premium audio quality while still allowing enough ambient noise through to stay safe and aware of their surroundings. The Shokz OpenFit Air open-ear earbuds are one of the best budget open earbuds on the market; they check all those boxes. They’re a reliable, lightweight option for everyday music and podcast listening, and right now, they’re 33% off at an all-time low price of $79.95 (originally $119.95). Shokz OpenFit Air Open-Ear Earbuds $79.85 at Amazon $119.95 Save $40.10 Get Deal Get Deal $79.85 at Amazon $119.95 Save $40.10 These earbuds sit over your ear canals, stay in place during high-impact workouts, and are comfortable enough for all-day wear. For those who have been eyeing the Shokz OpenFit earbuds but still can’t justify spending around $200, the OpenFit Air model is a more budget-friendly alternative. They still offer the same comfort, stable ear design, and safety benefits as pricier open-earbuds; however, the lower price comes with slightly weaker bass and a shorter battery life (six hours vs. seven—still long enough for most marathon training sessions). With the charging case, total battery life reaches up to 28 hours. If you don’t mind those trade-offs, an unexpected perk is that compared to the pricier version, their lightweight, stripped-down design makes them even more comfortable and secure for workouts. They also have an IP54 rating, making them sweat and water-resistant, though they can’t be submerged like the Shokz OpenSwim Pro headphones. Four built-in microphones provide clear audio on calls, but because there’s no noise cancellation, background noise can still come through. While they don’t offer the most immersive sound and may be underwhelming for listeners of bass-heavy music, you can customize the listening experience and different EQ modes via the Shokz app, which also enables multipoint pairing. Some reviews also note that the touch controls can be inconsistent and prone to accidental activation. If you’re looking for an alternative to in-ear buds and your priority is excellent comfort for extended wear, the Shokz OpenFit Air open-ear earbuds are a great value buy at around $80—just expect slightly less battery life and bass compared to pricier models. Our Best Editor-Vetted Presidents' Day Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $139.99 (List Price $179.00) Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 46mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant — $329.00 (List Price $429.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $299.00 (List Price $349.00) Bose QuietComfort Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones — $229.00 (List Price $349.00) Dell 16 DC16255 (AMD Ryzen 7 250, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, 2K Display) — $649.99 (List Price $869.99) HP Omen 35L (Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, RTX 5080, 2TB SSD, 64GB RAM) — (List Price $3,099.99 With Code "PRESDAYPC100") HP OmniBook X Flip Ngai 16-Inch (AMD Ryzen AI 7 350, Radeon 860M, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, 2K Display) — (List Price $649.99 With Code "PRESDAYPC50") Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Kraft Heinz said Wednesday it’s pausing its plans to split into two companies. Steve Cahillane, a former Kellogg Co. chief who became CEO of Kraft Heinz on Jan. 1, said he wants to ensure that all of the company’s resources are focused on profitable growth. “I have seen that the opportunity is larger than expected and that many of our challenges are fixable and within our control,” Cahillane said in a statement. The company’s shares dropped 5.2% in early trading Wednesday as Kraft Heinz reported lower quarterly and annual results. Kraft Heinz announced in September it was splitting into two companies a decade after a merger of the brands created one of the biggest food manufacturers on the planet. One of the companies would include stronger-selling brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other would include slower-selling brands like Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. At the time, Kraft Heinz said it expected the split to be finalized in the second half of this year. On Wednesday, the company said it will pivot from the split and invest $600 million in marketing, sales and product development. In its fourth-quarter earnings release Wednesday, CEO Steve Cahillane said Kraft Heinz’s balance sheet and free cash flow potential were strong. “We are confident in the opportunity ahead and believe this investment will accelerate our return to profitable growth,” Callihane said. —Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Business Writer View the full article

Small business owners seeking to streamline their operations and enhance efficiency may find a promising new tool in the recently launched NetSuite Integration Platform. Announced during SuiteConnect New York on February 11, 2026, this AI-powered, low-code solution is designed to simplify the integration of various enterprise applications, enabling businesses to automate complex workflows seamlessly. Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, emphasized the platform’s potential in transforming how organizations handle data integration. “By using AI to bring together mission-critical business data, we are helping our customers reduce technical complexity, move faster, and gain more value from the comprehensive AI capabilities embedded in NetSuite,” he stated. This focus on making integration more accessible could be a game-changer for small businesses that often face resource limitations and technical challenges. The NetSuite Integration Platform offers several key benefits tailored to the needs of small business owners: – Business-led Automation: The platform allows business analysts and process owners to create or modify integrations using simple, plain language. This means small businesses can engage their teams in automation efforts without needing extensive technical expertise. The AI-powered mapping and documentation features enable quicker deployment and troubleshooting, which can enhance overall data consistency. – Accelerated Project Delivery: For finance, operations, and IT leaders, the platform facilitates rapid connections between NetSuite and other critical systems. The availability of prebuilt adapters and natural language prompts means small businesses can implement workflows that synchronize revenue, inventory, and customer data in real-time without depending heavily on specialist developers. – Resilient Workflows: The platform supports IT teams by providing centralized automation governance, role-based access, and audit trails. This functionality helps small businesses ensure compliance and minimize integration sprawl, which can often lead to inefficiencies and errors. – Unified API Management: With a single command center for managing APIs, developers and administrators can secure and monitor integrations effectively. This feature is particularly advantageous for small businesses looking to maintain high-quality integrations while adapting to evolving operational needs. – Intelligent Document Processing: The platform also empowers businesses to convert unstructured data into actionable workflows. For example, AI document recognition can facilitate automated order data intake or procurement approvals, streamlining operations and reducing manual errors. The NetSuite Integration Platform is built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), which underpins its capabilities with a unified data foundation. This infrastructure not only supports streamlined integration but also enhances execution speed, which is critical for small businesses aiming to remain agile in a competitive market. Currently, the platform is available to customers in North America, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Ireland, making it accessible to a wide range of small enterprises looking for innovative solutions to their integration challenges. As small business owners navigate the complexities of modern enterprise applications, the NetSuite Integration Platform presents an opportunity to enhance operational efficiency and drive growth. By embracing this low-code, AI-powered solution, businesses can not only overcome integration hurdles but also position themselves more competitively in the marketplace. This article, "NetSuite Launches AI-Driven Integration Platform to Simplify Workflows" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Small business owners seeking to streamline their operations and enhance efficiency may find a promising new tool in the recently launched NetSuite Integration Platform. Announced during SuiteConnect New York on February 11, 2026, this AI-powered, low-code solution is designed to simplify the integration of various enterprise applications, enabling businesses to automate complex workflows seamlessly. Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, emphasized the platform’s potential in transforming how organizations handle data integration. “By using AI to bring together mission-critical business data, we are helping our customers reduce technical complexity, move faster, and gain more value from the comprehensive AI capabilities embedded in NetSuite,” he stated. This focus on making integration more accessible could be a game-changer for small businesses that often face resource limitations and technical challenges. The NetSuite Integration Platform offers several key benefits tailored to the needs of small business owners: – Business-led Automation: The platform allows business analysts and process owners to create or modify integrations using simple, plain language. This means small businesses can engage their teams in automation efforts without needing extensive technical expertise. The AI-powered mapping and documentation features enable quicker deployment and troubleshooting, which can enhance overall data consistency. – Accelerated Project Delivery: For finance, operations, and IT leaders, the platform facilitates rapid connections between NetSuite and other critical systems. The availability of prebuilt adapters and natural language prompts means small businesses can implement workflows that synchronize revenue, inventory, and customer data in real-time without depending heavily on specialist developers. – Resilient Workflows: The platform supports IT teams by providing centralized automation governance, role-based access, and audit trails. This functionality helps small businesses ensure compliance and minimize integration sprawl, which can often lead to inefficiencies and errors. – Unified API Management: With a single command center for managing APIs, developers and administrators can secure and monitor integrations effectively. This feature is particularly advantageous for small businesses looking to maintain high-quality integrations while adapting to evolving operational needs. – Intelligent Document Processing: The platform also empowers businesses to convert unstructured data into actionable workflows. For example, AI document recognition can facilitate automated order data intake or procurement approvals, streamlining operations and reducing manual errors. The NetSuite Integration Platform is built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), which underpins its capabilities with a unified data foundation. This infrastructure not only supports streamlined integration but also enhances execution speed, which is critical for small businesses aiming to remain agile in a competitive market. Currently, the platform is available to customers in North America, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Ireland, making it accessible to a wide range of small enterprises looking for innovative solutions to their integration challenges. As small business owners navigate the complexities of modern enterprise applications, the NetSuite Integration Platform presents an opportunity to enhance operational efficiency and drive growth. By embracing this low-code, AI-powered solution, businesses can not only overcome integration hurdles but also position themselves more competitively in the marketplace. This article, "NetSuite Launches AI-Driven Integration Platform to Simplify Workflows" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Google Ads rolled out a new feature that shows advertisers which campaigns their products are eligible for, directly in the Products section. How it works. A new dashboard in the Products section includes: A table showing product details, status, issues, and priority flags A line graph summarizing campaign status trends Filters to segment eligibility views A pop-up panel that lists “Eligible” and “Not eligible” campaigns per product Why we care. dvertisers can now quickly identify products that are missing from key campaigns or unintentionally overlapping across Shopping and Performance Max. The added visibility reduces the need to jump between campaign views to diagnose eligibility gaps. The big picture: The changes help advertisers quickly identify products that aren’t running in expected campaigns, spot campaign overlap before it becomes a budget problem and save time troubleshooting product-level issues. Between the lines. This is Google’s latest move to give advertisers more granular control over Shopping campaigns, where product-level optimization can make or break profitability. When. Available now in Google Ads. First seen. This update was spotted by PPC News Feed owner Hana Kobzová. View the full article

Google's John Mueller explains how a leftover HTTP homepage invisible to Chrome users can cause site-name and favicon problems in search results. The post Hidden HTTP Page Can Cause Site Name Problems In Google appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

At ISE 2026 in Barcelona, HP unveiled next-generation audio and video innovations designed to enhance hybrid work environments, a move that resonates with small business owners striving to adapt to more flexible work models. This new lineup includes collaborative solutions aimed at making remote and in-office meetings more engaging and productive, establishing a clear path forward for the future of work. HP showcased products such as the Poly Mission 400 series, which features enhanced audio and video capabilities aimed at optimizing virtual communication. With many businesses continuing to navigate hybrid work models, the need for effective collaboration tools has never been greater. HP’s focus is on creating technology that not only boosts productivity but also simplifies the user experience. For small business owners, integrating advanced collaboration tools can lead to significant benefits. Not only can these improvements enhance team communication and morale, but they can also minimize meeting disruptions caused by technical issues. HP’s Poly Mission 400 series, for instance, promises high-definition video and crystal-clear audio that creates a more immersive meeting atmosphere. This can reduce misunderstandings that often arise in virtual settings, driving better outcomes in decision-making and project management. “The hybrid work model is more than just a trend; it’s becoming a cornerstone of how we operate,” said an HP representative at the event. This statement underscores the importance of adapting to evolving work preferences, which small businesses are recognizing as critical for retaining talent and fostering a collaborative corporate culture. Small businesses looking to implement these technologies may find practical applications in their daily operations. For example, the tools can facilitate seamless onboarding processes for remote employees, allowing them to feel more connected to their team from the start. Additionally, companies can host engaging webinars or virtual training sessions using these advanced audio/visual solutions, maximizing employee skill-building efforts. However, while there are many benefits to adopting these innovations, some challenges may arise for small business owners. The costs associated with acquiring high-tech equipment can be daunting, particularly for companies with tight budgets. Further, there may be a learning curve associated with using advanced collaboration tools effectively, which could temporarily disrupt workflows. Additionally, ensuring a reliable internet connection becomes paramount when implementing heavy audio and video functionalities. Businesses will need to assess their current infrastructure to confirm that it can handle increased data demands without leading to interruptions in service. Despite these hurdles, the potential for streamlined operations, enhanced engagement, and improved employee satisfaction can make the investment in these tools worthwhile. Small business owners should weigh their options carefully, considering the balance of upfront costs against long-term benefits. In a marketplace that increasingly prioritizes flexibility and digital communication, HP’s renewed commitment to enhancing hybrid work environments presents a timely opportunity for businesses of all sizes. As small businesses continue to evolve in this new landscape, embracing innovative solutions will not only enhance operational efficiency but also position them favorably in a competitive landscape. For more information on HP’s latest innovations in hybrid work, check out the original press release at HP Newsroom. Image via Google Gemini This article, "HP Unveils Advanced Audio-Video Solutions to Enhance Hybrid Work at ISE 2026" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

At ISE 2026 in Barcelona, HP unveiled next-generation audio and video innovations designed to enhance hybrid work environments, a move that resonates with small business owners striving to adapt to more flexible work models. This new lineup includes collaborative solutions aimed at making remote and in-office meetings more engaging and productive, establishing a clear path forward for the future of work. HP showcased products such as the Poly Mission 400 series, which features enhanced audio and video capabilities aimed at optimizing virtual communication. With many businesses continuing to navigate hybrid work models, the need for effective collaboration tools has never been greater. HP’s focus is on creating technology that not only boosts productivity but also simplifies the user experience. For small business owners, integrating advanced collaboration tools can lead to significant benefits. Not only can these improvements enhance team communication and morale, but they can also minimize meeting disruptions caused by technical issues. HP’s Poly Mission 400 series, for instance, promises high-definition video and crystal-clear audio that creates a more immersive meeting atmosphere. This can reduce misunderstandings that often arise in virtual settings, driving better outcomes in decision-making and project management. “The hybrid work model is more than just a trend; it’s becoming a cornerstone of how we operate,” said an HP representative at the event. This statement underscores the importance of adapting to evolving work preferences, which small businesses are recognizing as critical for retaining talent and fostering a collaborative corporate culture. Small businesses looking to implement these technologies may find practical applications in their daily operations. For example, the tools can facilitate seamless onboarding processes for remote employees, allowing them to feel more connected to their team from the start. Additionally, companies can host engaging webinars or virtual training sessions using these advanced audio/visual solutions, maximizing employee skill-building efforts. However, while there are many benefits to adopting these innovations, some challenges may arise for small business owners. The costs associated with acquiring high-tech equipment can be daunting, particularly for companies with tight budgets. Further, there may be a learning curve associated with using advanced collaboration tools effectively, which could temporarily disrupt workflows. Additionally, ensuring a reliable internet connection becomes paramount when implementing heavy audio and video functionalities. Businesses will need to assess their current infrastructure to confirm that it can handle increased data demands without leading to interruptions in service. Despite these hurdles, the potential for streamlined operations, enhanced engagement, and improved employee satisfaction can make the investment in these tools worthwhile. Small business owners should weigh their options carefully, considering the balance of upfront costs against long-term benefits. In a marketplace that increasingly prioritizes flexibility and digital communication, HP’s renewed commitment to enhancing hybrid work environments presents a timely opportunity for businesses of all sizes. As small businesses continue to evolve in this new landscape, embracing innovative solutions will not only enhance operational efficiency but also position them favorably in a competitive landscape. For more information on HP’s latest innovations in hybrid work, check out the original press release at HP Newsroom. Image via Google Gemini This article, "HP Unveils Advanced Audio-Video Solutions to Enhance Hybrid Work at ISE 2026" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 130,000 jobs last month, but government revisions cut 2024-2025 U.S. payrolls by hundreds of thousands. The unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The report included major revisions that reduced the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000, weakest since the pandemic year of 2020, and less than half the previously reported 584,000. The job market has been sluggish for months even though the economy is registering solid growth. But the January numbers came in stronger than the 75,000 economists had expected. Healthcare accounted for nearly 82,000, or more than 60%, of last month’s new jobs. Factories added 5,000, snapping a streak of 13 straight months of job losses. The federal government shed 34,000 jobs. Average hourly wages rose a solid 0.4% from December to January. The unemployment rate fell from 4.4% in December as the number of employed Americans rose and the number of unemployed fell. Weak hiring over the past year reflects the lingering impact of high interest rates, billionaire Elon Musk’s purge last year of the federal workforce and uncertainty arising from President Donald The President’s erratic trade policies, which have left businesses unsure about hiring. Dreary numbers have been coming in ahead of Wednesday’s report. Employers posted just 6.5 million job openings in December, fewest in more than five years. Payroll processor ADP reported last week that private employers added 22,000 jobs in January, far fewer than economists had forecast. And the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that companies slashed more than 108,000 jobs last month, the most since October and the worst January for job cuts since 2009. Several well-known companies announced layoffs last month. UPS is cutting 30,000 jobs. Chemicals giant Dow, shifting to more automation and artificial intelligence, is cutting 4,500 jobs. And Amazon is slashing 16,000 corporate jobs, its second round of mass layoffs in three months. The sluggish job market doesn’t match the economy’s performance. From July to September, America’s gross domestic product – its output of goods and services – galloped ahead at a 4.4% annual pace, fastest in two years. Consumer spending was strong, and growth got a boost from rising exports and tumbling imports. And that came on top of solid 3.8% growth from April through June. Economists are puzzling out whether job creation will eventually accelerate to catch up to strong growth, perhaps as President Donald The President’s tax cuts translate into big tax refunds that consumers start spending this year. But there are other possibilities. GDP growth could slow and fall into line with a weak labor market or advances in AI and automation could mean that the economy can roar ahead without creating many jobs. Wednesday’s report included the government’s annual benchmark revisions, meant to take into account the more-accurate jobs numbers that employers report to state unemployment agencies. They cut 898,000 jobs from payrolls in the year ending March 2025. Despite recent high-profile layoffs, the unemployment rate has looked better than the hiring numbers. That is partly because President Donald The President’s immigration crackdown has reduced the number of foreign-born people competing for work. As a result, the number of new jobs that the economy needs to create to keep the unemployment rate from rising — the “break-even” point — has tumbled. In 2023, when immigrants were pouring into the United States, it reached a high of 250,000, according to economist Anton Cheremukhin of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. By mid-2025, Cheremukhin found, it was down to 30,000. Researchers at the Brookings Institution believe it could now be as low as 20,000 and headed lower. The combination of weak hiring but low unemployment means that most American workers are enjoying job security. But those who are looking for jobs – especially young people who can be competing at the entry level with AI and automation – often struggle to land one. —Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer View the full article

The federal government should step in to prevent an emerging patchwork of state regulations from stifling the benefits of applying the tools of generative artificial intelligence to the mortgage market. View the full article

The dark web is a virtual neighborhood beyond the borders of the normal, everyday internet (which includes the website you're looking at right now). It's somewhere Google and Bing don't index, and you need special tools to get to it. It's a place where you'll find data leaks and illegal trades, but also legitimate, legal online activities users want to carry out without attracting the attention of law enforcement agencies or governments. It's a part of the internet that's less regulated and more shadowy, for better and for worse. Piqued your interest? I'm going to explain how to get on the dark web and what you can find there—though Lifehacker doesn't endorse doing anything that breaks the law, so I'm not going to tell you how to do something you shouldn't. The deep web versus the dark web: What’s the difference? Much of the web isn't freely accessible. Credit: Lifehacker You'll often see these terms used in your travels across the internet, and there's some confusion about what they mean. I'll start with the deep web: That's everything online that isn't indexed by regular search engines, which includes pages locked behind paywalls, private databases, email archives, company intranets, and so on. Think about all the parts of the web you can't see without logging in, from academic journals to your Netflix account page: That's the deep web. It accounts for around 90 percent of websites, by some estimates, so we're talking about a substantial chunk of everything that's online. The dark web, which is what I'm discussing here, is a small subset of the deep web, and refers to websites that are specifically trying to stay out of sight. These pages come with extra protections for user anonymity and data security, and you need special software to access them. You can't get at them through your normal web browser, like you can with much of the rest of the deep web. Dark web tools and servicesThe dark web comes with its own set of tools and services, including web browsers and search engines (which I'll get on to in a moment). Part of what makes the dark web the dark web is that you can't access it through your normal web browser, nor can you look something up on it via a Google search. Having a place on the internet that's private and anonymous will naturally encourage certain kinds of illicit activities: Hacking tools, drugs, fake passports, porn, firearms, and more are all traded on the dark web. It's a bit like wandering into the sketchiest part of a city, with all the associated goings-on. However, there are plenty of legal and legitimate online activities that require privacy and anonymity. The dark web is used by journalists, whistleblowers, and political activists who need the protections that it offers. Anything you need to do that has to be off the books to some extent, for noble or ignoble reasons, can be done on the dark web. To browse the dark web, you need a dark web browser Tor is your way into the dark web. Credit: Lifehacker To get on the dark web, you need a browser built for the job, and the best in the business is Tor. Tor is a browser engineered for extra security and privacy, and can be used to navigate the normal, surface web as well as the dark web. It blocks trackers, prevents user fingerprinting, encrypts data, and reroutes your browsing so no one can see where in the world you are. Tor is like the public-facing door to the dark web, and there are also mobile apps for Android and iOS. While there are other browsers you can use to get on the dark web, Tor is usually recommended as the best for most people in terms of the features it offers and the ease with which anyone can make use of it. Key to the way Tor works is what's known as onion routing technology. It gets its name from the way it puts several layers of obfuscation between you and the web, like the layers of an onion: Your traffic is bounced between multiple nodes, which means it's not as quick as regular browsing, but also that it's very difficult for anyone else to tell who you are or where you are. Configuring dark web access through Tor. Credit: Lifehacker When you open up the browser for the first time on the desktop, you'll see the option to Configure Connection or just Connect—choose the former, and you get more control over the nodes (or "bridges") used to get online. For most people, it's fine to let Tor handle this automatically (and you can set this to be the default in your browser too, if you like). Once you are online, everything works in a similar way to a regular browser. You can access all of the normal web through Tor, and take advantage of the extra privacy its rerouting provides, as well as diving into the dark web. There are a few neat extra touches though, like the New identity button (the broomstick icon, top right) that clears everything from your current session and restarts Tor. The mobile apps are straightforward to use as well. Tor for Android is the official app for Google's mobile platform, and while there's no exact equivalent on iOS, the open-source Onion Browser is a recommended alternative: The buttons for "onionizing" sites are on the top left (Android) and top right (iOS) corners. In both cases you can choose to install the Orbot VPN service, also part of the Tor project, to further secure your connection to the web. The Onion Browser on iOS, with rerouting details. Credit: Lifehacker Even with Tor and onion routing in place, though, you're not suddenly completely invisible and free to do whatever you want, without repercussions. Certain details of your traffic can be intercepted at the entry and exit points of the node, by the people running those nodes, if they know what they're doing and what they're looking for. You're also open to threats like end-to-end correlation attacks, so while Tor is a lot more secure and private, it's by no means completely safe. Bear in mind, too, that your internet provider will be able to see you connecting to Tor nodes, even if it doesn't know exactly what you're doing. Many people install a VPN as well, but then you're putting your trust in an additional third party to not track your activities or report them to anyone else. Cybersecurity has to also cover everything physically on your computer too—which law enforcement or government authorities might have the right to seize if they come calling. If you want to be untraceable and undetectable, connecting to the dark web via the Tor browser is a major step towards that, but not the only step you'll need. A dark web search engineOpen up Tor, and you won't suddenly see the dark web staring back at you. Not only do you need a dark web browser, you need a dark web search engine too. This search engine will get you to the sites you need, though you can also go directly to dark web addresses if you know what they are, as with standard URLs. DuckDuckGo is the default search engine inside the Tor browser, and once you turn on the Onionize toggle switch in the search box, you're able to use it to find dark web links. These typically come with ".onion" after them, rather than something like ".com" as on the standard web. On the dark web, you have to do become more of a search engine yourself: You'll often get web links from other users or forums online, and you'll need to keep these bookmarked to get back to them later. Other dark web search engines worth investigating are Ahmia, Torch, NotEvil, and the Onion URL Directory—just type out some keywords for what you're looking for. Some of these sites can be found through regular web browsers, but you'll then need to switch over to Tor once you've got the onion links you want to follow. Dark web websites The BBC has a dark web site. Credit: Lifehacker Individual sites on the dark web look much like they do on the regular web, though a lot of them are a bit more rough around the edges. (Presentation and polish isn't quite so important on this part of the internet.) Click on any website link, and it'll appear on screen, with its address at the top. Some of the websites to look out for on the dark web include mirrors of both the BBC and the Mediapart journalism platforms, built to help inform people who are living in countries where the internet is heavily censored. If you're after secure email, look for the Proton Mail service. If you visit a regular website that also has a dark web (.onion) equivalent, you should see see a message to this effect in the top right corner of Tor: Click on the Visit the .onion button to view it. Given the associations that the dark web has and some of the illegal activities that take place on it, you won't find a huge number of well-known websites on there—a lot of the dark web is made up of sites, wikis, and forums maintained by volunteers. However, there's still plenty worth exploring. What's for sale on the dark webI've already touched on some of the stuff that you'll find for sale on the dark web: It's a long way from eBay, let me put it like that. Anything you can think of that you shouldn't be downloading or buying, you can usually find it somewhere on the dark web. For obvious reasons—I don't want to get you or me into trouble, after all—I'm not going to get too specific when it comes to what you can find for sale on the dark web. A lot of transactions are handled via cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which is relatively (but not completely) private and anonymous. Another private cryptocurrency you'll find being used is Monero, which prides itself on being untraceable. That's not to say you should assume any transactions you make on the dark web won't ever be linked back to you—law enforcement has gotten pretty good at tracking down people who think they've been acting in the shadows. Even if you're using a private, anonymized crypto wallet, there are other ways your identity can be revealed—even if it's something as simple as letting a personal detail slip in an instant message. Taken as a whole, there aren't many good reasons to move your legitimate shopping activities to the dark web. Because of the way it works, and the kinds of items and goods that are typically on sale, it attracts a lot of scammers and hackers, and there are very few protections for you if you find yourself duped. Is the dark web illegal? Many dark web sites come and go. Credit: Lifehacker The dark web itself isn't illegal, and you're not going to get into any trouble just by visiting it—but it's a place where a lot of illegal activities are carried out, because it's much harder for law enforcement agencies to see what's going on there. You might often see news stories about criminal activity involving the dark web, and because of what's happening in some corners of the dark web, it tends to put off law-abiding companies and users alike. Sections of the dark web are often closed down, too, as part of police operations. With all of that in mind, you need to tread carefully when browsing, in terms of the sites you visit and the other users you interact with. Bear in mind too that laws about freedom of speech and censorship vary from country to country, which is part of the reason the dark web exists in the first place. Staying on top of the hacker undergroundHackers spend a lot of time on the dark web, and it's not too difficult to get access to hacking tools and data leaks in this part of the internet. However, it's much harder to get at the people who are doing the uploading and downloading. If you make use of a password manager, then it may come with a feature that monitors the dark web for mentions of your email address and password, or any other personal details. If dark web monitoring isn't offered by the security packages you already have, there are other ways to do it, and there are steps you can take if your information does get leaked. As I've previously said, it's a good idea to keep your interactions with the dark web to a minimum, unless you can absolutely trust the people you're dealing with. You'll often see a sign in stores that says "look, don't touch," and it's not a bad adage to bear in mind as you navigate around the dark web. View the full article

AI search influence didn’t show up in our SEO reports or AI prompt tracking tools. It showed up in sales calls. “Found you via Grok, actually,” a new lead said. That comment stopped us cold. We hadn’t tried to rank in Grok. We weren’t tracking it. Yet it was influencing how buyers discovered and evaluated us. That disconnect kept appearing in client conversations, too. Everyone was curious about AI search, but no one trusted the data. Teams wanted visibility in ChatGPT and other AI tools, then asked the same question: “Why invest in a channel that doesn’t show up cleanly in attribution?” To answer that, we ran controlled experiments using assets we could fully control – an agency website, personal sites, an ecommerce brand, and purpose-built test domains. The goal wasn’t to win AI rankings. It was to understand what still matters once AI enters the decision process: Does AI search change what people buy, or just where brands appear? Can something influence revenue without ever appearing in analytics? Does AI recommendation affect performance across other channels? Why we ran the experiments Most AI search conversations fixate on visibility signals like brand mentions, citations, or visibility screenshots from AI prompt tracking tools. Search has always had one job: help people make a decision. We wanted to know if AI search performed the same job and actually changed commercial outcomes. AI systems now operate at the stage where buyers compare options, shortlist providers, and reduce risk. If AI mattered, it had to show up at the moment of decision. On measurement limits: We didn’t rely on API data because API responses often differ from what real users see. Instead, we observed live interfaces across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. We used prompt tracking to spot patterns, not to declare absolute wins. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with Experiment 1: Self-promotional ‘best of’ lists on your own website A simple tactic became popular over the past year: Create a “best X” list on your site. Put yourself at the top. Let AI systems pick up the list. I’ve seen agencies do this locally and felt conflicted about it. It wasn’t spam. But it relied on a blind spot – LLMs struggle to separate independent rankings from self-written ones. Around the same time, Ahrefs published a large study that helped explain why this works. Glen Allsopp analyzed ChatGPT responses across hundreds of “best X”-style prompts and found that “best” list posts were the most commonly cited page type. Two things from the study stood out: Format: This included cases where brands ranked themselves first Freshness: Most cited lists had been updated recently I could have tested these observations on StudioHawk. Instead, I did it on my personal brand website to manage the risk. I published a list of the “Best SEO agencies in Sydney” and included my own website among the entries to test whether AI would “take the bait,” so to speak. Within two weeks, LawrenceHitches.com appeared across AI tools for “best SEO agency Sydney” style searches: The speed was surprising – traditional SEO rarely moves that fast. If visibility appears this easily, then visibility alone can’t mean much, so I tested it again. Experiment 2: Self-promotion of a fake business Initially, I could have been piggybacking off the already established StudioHawk brand, so I decided to run a self-promotion test on a fake website We used a basic landscaping site built only for SEO and AI testing and published the same type of page, a “best X” list. This time, the topic was “best landscapers in Melbourne”: Within two weeks, the list appeared in AI responses again. The result repeated almost exactly. If a brand-new test site can surface this fast, then “appeared in AI” doesn’t mean much on its own. Visibility vs. trust These two experiments showed one thing clearly: LLMs are still easy to influence at the surface level. I ran these tests back in August 2025, but the same pattern still appears today. A “best SEO agency Sydney” search run in January 2026 shows the same list-driven results: This creates a real conflict for brands. On one side, the data says yes – the Ahrefs research shows “Best X” pages attract citations. Large brands like Shopify, Slack, and HubSpot publish self-ranked lists without obvious damage to rankings or AI visibility. On the other side is buyer trust. As Wil Reynolds put it, listing yourself first on your own site doesn’t build confidence with buyers. That’s the tension. When bullish founders ask for the secret sauce to appear in ChatGPT, I’m blunt. List-based “best of X” pages that rank the author first have been a fast way to surface in some AI results. That doesn’t work everywhere, and it’s unlikely to hold up long term. Dig deeper: Google may be cracking down on self-promotional ‘best of’ listicles If a landscaping site with no reputation can surface this quickly, then appearing in AI means very little on its own. Why prompt tracking can’t be a success metric A lot of money is flowing into AI prompt tracking tools. Clients ask for them constantly. We use them too, but with a clear warning. I wouldn’t make major decisions based on screenshots or Reddit threads about where a brand appears in ChatGPT. Brand overlap between API outputs and real user sessions was as low as 24%, according to recent research from Surfer SEO comparing tracking APIs with scraped user experiences. That means three times out of four, what the API told you was happening wasn’t what the user was actually seeing. If a brand can appear in a screenshot but disappear in a real user session, then appearance alone isn’t a metric. We stopped asking if we showed up. Instead, we started asking, “Did this change how buyers behaved?” Did leads reference AI tools without prompting? Did sales calls skip education? Did the speed of buying change? Did price resistance soften? These signals were harder to collect. Dig deeper: 7 hard truths about measuring AI visibility and GEO performance Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Experiment 3: Kadi and the limits of digital PR alone Kadi, an ecommerce brand we invested in that sells luggage, provided insight into our questions about whether AI results were affecting buyer behavior. Running tests on Kadi has been an eye-opening experience for two reasons: It’s the difference between running an agency and running ecommerce. It forced us to become our own client. To move fast, we led with digital PR. Kadi’s SEO foundation was solid but not perfect. We wanted to see how far off-site mentions could push SEO and AI visibility without heavy technical work or a polished site structure. We conducted a large number of creative data campaigns and product placements, including: Travel data studies: “Over-touristed destinations,” “Hidden fees,” “Best time to fly,” and “Happy Hour at 30,000 ft.” Advisory pieces: “Airport cybersecurity” and “duty-free shopping” guides Product and feature focus: “Kadi kids carry-on adventure,” “cloud check-in features,” and inclusions in “best suitcase round-ups.” It worked: Coverage landed. Authority grew without the need for “traditional SEO.” We saw temporary keyword spikes and traffic boosts. But there was a catch: Digital PR alone wasn’t enough to close the gap with competitors. It created quick traction in search results, but it didn’t resolve the underlying issues. After launch, SEO foundation work became the priority. Then, Black Friday made the reality obvious. A customer found Kadi through ChatGPT on a “kids carry-on” query. We saw this happen on the day of the query and showed the pathway: They didn’t buy immediately. They checked the shipping policy. They browsed the range. They added three additional products. They debated colour (olive over pink). Attribution later showed Instagram as the source. That order was the largest of the Black Friday period. On paper, AI did nothing. In reality, it was part of shaping the decision. Digital PR can get you visibility spikes, but it doesn’t address the whole picture. While AI traffic does convert, the attribution is inconsistent. Experiment 4: StudioHawk Across 2024 and 2025, StudioHawk underwent a full website rebrand and migration from WordPress to HubSpot. Our own site sat at the bottom of the priority list for years. It was always the project we would get to later. Finally, we paused other priorities and rebuilt the entire site. The work started in 2023, before terms like “GEO” existed. We were focused only on rebuilding service pages, social proof, and user experience end to end. After launch, rankings improved and continue to grow. In 2025, SEO became the agency’s strongest channel by efficiency. It drove 65% of inbound leads and close to 60% of new revenue. Between July and December 2025, AI search leads began to appear more often: Initially, these were “Oh, cool, we got a lead from AI” moments around the office. Sales calls started skipping early education. New leads arrived aligned based on fit and expectations. Over time, we saw that: SEO inbound leads: Averaged 29 days to close. AI search leads: Closed in roughly 18 days. That 10-day gap mattered. It meant less time educating, fewer scope objections, lower price sensitivity, and higher confidence earlier in the process. Within the first year, AI-influenced conversations contributed over $100,000 in closed revenue from 20+ leads, including deals with direct attribution from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok. The blind spot remains attribution paths such as Instagram, direct, or organic, where AI influenced the decision but didn’t appear in reporting (as seen in the Kadi example). Where direct AI attribution existed, buyers were more prepared. That preparedness shortened sales cycles and lifted revenue. AI compresses consideration We started by asking where people would search next. Our key finding? AI search doesn’t replace discovery. It compresses the consideration phase. Consideration is that messy middle where buyers reduce risk, shortlist vendors, compare tradeoffs, and ask, “Who should I trust?” They answer these questions before a buyer ever clicks a link. It means your website no longer carries the full load – AI summaries and third-party mentions do the pre-selling for you. This is the shift we now describe as the new consideration era. As the map illustrates, we’ve moved from a straight funnel to a complex, AI-influenced pathway where consensus is key: Because this happens off-site, last-click attribution is broken. A buyer might use ChatGPT to create a shortlist but convert later via direct search. Where traditional SEO still fits Strong SEO metrics were a core across all our experiments, but we’ve stopped viewing them as the primary driver of value: Keyword rankings confirm search engines understand your entity. However, those high rankings don’t guarantee effective pre-selling. Traditional SEO became a supporting signal – proof that the foundation is sound, rather than the end goal. What this means for brands After running a variety of AI search experiments, here’s what I think brands should focus on. 1. Measure where AI influence actually lands Stop obsessing over prompt appearances (e.g., citations, mentions). These are shiny objects, but they fluctuate too easily. Instead, measure: Sales velocity (Did deals close faster?) Quality of the lead (Did they ask fewer questions to learn?) Value per lead (Did price friction ease?) 2. Make clarity more important than creativity AI hates vagueness. Making pages that make it clear what you do and who it’s for. Pay attention to content that answers questions about risk, comparison, and price. 3. Change the content to help people decide what to buy Focus on content that answers comparison, risk, and pricing questions. This makes a bigger difference than general category explanations. 4. Make entity consistency a crucial factor Lack of consistency makes people doubt themselves. Conversely, consistency boosts confidence. Check to see that your website, reviews, and digital PR all talk about your brand in the same way. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with AI search compresses consideration, not discovery In the end, the results were the same across all experiments. What we got from our sales pipeline was typical: Clear intent. Tight positioning. Consistent signals of authority. AI search isn’t replacing basic SEO. Instead, it shows weak positioning more quickly than traditional search ever did. What does that mean? Simply put, AI speeds up decisions that were already forming. Dig deeper: From searching to delegating: Adapting to AI-first search behavior View the full article

Oracle NetSuite has unveiled a series of AI-driven innovations aimed at enhancing efficiency and accelerating growth for businesses. This announcement was made at SuiteConnect New York, where Oracle NetSuite, recognized as the top AI Cloud ERP, highlighted features designed to streamline financial operations, strengthen internal controls, and boost profit margins. Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, emphasized the importance of these innovations, stating, “With a single unified suite and the ability to leverage powerful AI models, NetSuite turns disconnected tasks into intelligent end-to-end workflows.” This integration of AI across various business processes allows organizations to automate routine tasks, gain deeper insights, and respond more agilely to market demands. The new features include the Intelligent Close Manager, which automates the financial close process through a centralized command center. This tool shortens close cycles, enhances accountability, and improves data integrity by utilizing advanced analytics that monitor close activities and provide detailed insights into financial performance. For small business owners, this means less time spent on closing books each month and more focus on strategic decision-making. Another significant enhancement is the AI-powered bank transaction matching feature. By increasing the speed and accuracy of bank reconciliations, this innovation allows businesses to reduce manual reviews and close accounts more efficiently. With generative AI handling the classification of bank activities, small businesses can expect quicker and more reliable reconciliations, ultimately improving cash flow and financial oversight. AI-generated report narratives further empower organizations by transforming complex data into actionable insights. This feature enables users to generate comprehensive narratives within financial and operational reports with a single click, making it easier for small business owners to grasp critical information quickly and share it with stakeholders. Additionally, AI-powered customer summaries streamline issue resolution and improve engagement by providing tailored summaries of cases and transactions. This capability enhances customer service efficiency, allowing small businesses to resolve issues faster and foster stronger customer relationships. For those navigating pricing complexities, the AI-assisted advanced pricing tool centralizes and governs pricing strategies. This feature not only protects profit margins but also enables businesses to respond swiftly to market fluctuations. The ability to configure prices based on various factors, such as customer segments and item assortments, offers small business owners a competitive edge in pricing strategies. NetSuite also introduced the SuiteCloud Developer Assistant, which boosts productivity for developers and administrators by automating repetitive tasks and accelerating coding processes. This can significantly reduce the time needed for custom solutions, allowing small businesses to adapt their ERP systems to their specific needs more efficiently. The NetSuite EPM Planning Agent and EPM Reconciliation Agent are designed to enhance planning and reconciliation processes. The former allows for real-time financial planning and analysis, enabling businesses to conduct “what-if” scenarios that support informed decision-making. The latter automates transaction clearing using AI, which reduces manual effort and allows teams to focus on high-risk exceptions, enhancing overall financial accuracy. NetSuite’s commitment to supporting small businesses extends beyond these AI innovations. Their advanced subscription metrics provide early indicators of growth momentum and churn risk, while multi-subsidiary vendor payments enhance spend management and fraud protection. The flexible commitment allocation feature simplifies complex pricing structures, and improved consignment inventory management optimizes vendor-owned stock tracking. As these features roll out to NetSuite customers globally, the focus remains on empowering businesses to leverage data-driven insights for improved operational efficiency and strategic growth. This article, "NetSuite Unveils AI Tools to Streamline Financial Processes and Boost Efficiency" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Oracle NetSuite has unveiled a series of AI-driven innovations aimed at enhancing efficiency and accelerating growth for businesses. This announcement was made at SuiteConnect New York, where Oracle NetSuite, recognized as the top AI Cloud ERP, highlighted features designed to streamline financial operations, strengthen internal controls, and boost profit margins. Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, emphasized the importance of these innovations, stating, “With a single unified suite and the ability to leverage powerful AI models, NetSuite turns disconnected tasks into intelligent end-to-end workflows.” This integration of AI across various business processes allows organizations to automate routine tasks, gain deeper insights, and respond more agilely to market demands. The new features include the Intelligent Close Manager, which automates the financial close process through a centralized command center. This tool shortens close cycles, enhances accountability, and improves data integrity by utilizing advanced analytics that monitor close activities and provide detailed insights into financial performance. For small business owners, this means less time spent on closing books each month and more focus on strategic decision-making. Another significant enhancement is the AI-powered bank transaction matching feature. By increasing the speed and accuracy of bank reconciliations, this innovation allows businesses to reduce manual reviews and close accounts more efficiently. With generative AI handling the classification of bank activities, small businesses can expect quicker and more reliable reconciliations, ultimately improving cash flow and financial oversight. AI-generated report narratives further empower organizations by transforming complex data into actionable insights. This feature enables users to generate comprehensive narratives within financial and operational reports with a single click, making it easier for small business owners to grasp critical information quickly and share it with stakeholders. Additionally, AI-powered customer summaries streamline issue resolution and improve engagement by providing tailored summaries of cases and transactions. This capability enhances customer service efficiency, allowing small businesses to resolve issues faster and foster stronger customer relationships. For those navigating pricing complexities, the AI-assisted advanced pricing tool centralizes and governs pricing strategies. This feature not only protects profit margins but also enables businesses to respond swiftly to market fluctuations. The ability to configure prices based on various factors, such as customer segments and item assortments, offers small business owners a competitive edge in pricing strategies. NetSuite also introduced the SuiteCloud Developer Assistant, which boosts productivity for developers and administrators by automating repetitive tasks and accelerating coding processes. This can significantly reduce the time needed for custom solutions, allowing small businesses to adapt their ERP systems to their specific needs more efficiently. The NetSuite EPM Planning Agent and EPM Reconciliation Agent are designed to enhance planning and reconciliation processes. The former allows for real-time financial planning and analysis, enabling businesses to conduct “what-if” scenarios that support informed decision-making. The latter automates transaction clearing using AI, which reduces manual effort and allows teams to focus on high-risk exceptions, enhancing overall financial accuracy. NetSuite’s commitment to supporting small businesses extends beyond these AI innovations. Their advanced subscription metrics provide early indicators of growth momentum and churn risk, while multi-subsidiary vendor payments enhance spend management and fraud protection. The flexible commitment allocation feature simplifies complex pricing structures, and improved consignment inventory management optimizes vendor-owned stock tracking. As these features roll out to NetSuite customers globally, the focus remains on empowering businesses to leverage data-driven insights for improved operational efficiency and strategic growth. This article, "NetSuite Unveils AI Tools to Streamline Financial Processes and Boost Efficiency" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

There are few things everyone can rally behind as much as finding a lost dog. But what if that mission is actually a workaround for mass surveillance? That’s the question many people are asking following a Super Bowl commercial from Ring, Amazon’s doorbell camera and home security brand. The 30-second video shows a series of missing dog posters and claims that 10 million pets go missing every year. It pitches Ring’s Search Party feature as the solution. Launched in November, Search Party takes a photo of the pet and taps into Ring cameras across the area. They can then use AI to identify the missing pet and send an alert. The ad claims that at least one dog a day has been found since the feature launched. It sounds like a happy ending, except that critics of Search Party see the ad’s framing as a way to normalize widespread biometric identification and a loss of privacy. Take a response from WeRateDogs, a dog-lovers’ account connected to 15/10 Foundation, a nonprofit raising money to get necessary medical help for shelter dogs. In a video posted to Bluesky on Tuesday, the brand’s creator, Matt Nelson, states, “Neither Ring’s products nor business model are built around finding lost pets, but rather creating a mass surveillance network by turning private homes into surveillance outposts and well-meaning neighbors into informants for ICE and other government agencies.” Solutions for finding lost dogs already exist Nelson further claims that Ring’s success rate of one dog found per day equals about 0.03% of reports shared. Instead of using Search Party, he suggests dog owners get their pet microchipped—a common means of tracking lost dogs. Vets and some shelters can microchip dogs. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit focused on “defending civil liberties in the digital world,” takes a similar stance on Ring. “The addition of AI-driven biometric identification is the latest entry in the company’s history of profiting off of public safety worries and disregard for individual privacy, one that turbocharges the extreme dangers of allowing this to carry on,” EFF wrote in response to the ad. The nonprofit continues: “People need to reject this kind of disingenuous framing and recognize the potential end result: a scary overreach of the surveillance state designed to catch us all in its net.” EFF points to instances such as in 2023, when Ring had to pay $5.8 million to settle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after Ring employees were found to have had extensive access to customer footage—including in intimate spaces. In reaching the settlement, Ring denied violating the law. In early 2024, Ring claimed it would stop providing footage to the police without a warrant. But both Nelson and the EFF point to Ring’s late-2025 partnerships with Flock Safety and Axon. The companies can request footage from Ring customers—without a warrant—for a case and then send it to thousands of law enforcement agencies. Fast Company has reached out to Ring for comment and will update this post if we hear back. A May 2025 report by 404 Media found that police using Flock’s AI license plate reader regularly put the reason as “ICE.” In a specific case, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in Texas, used Flock in its search for a woman who self-administered an abortion. How to turn off Ring’s Search Party feature Ring’s Search Party feature is on by default, but users can turn it off. According to Amazon’s Ring support, you can turn off the Search Party feature by: Going to the Ring app and tap the menu icon (three lines) Clicking Control Center Choosing Search Party Tapping Enable or Disable Search for Lost Pets (Click the blue Pet icon next to it if you want to turn it on or off for specific cameras) Nelson’s post on Bluesky has attracted thousands of shares and hundreds of comments, with some pointing to a Reddit thread in which users are saying they plan to return their Ring camera for a refund. View the full article

Amsterdam court upholds decision to suspend Chinese CEO, hand power to EU-based directors and probe mismanagement allegationsView the full article

Effective article-to-video workflows prioritize what to cut, what to keep, and how to structure 150 words that actually hold attention. The post From Article to Short-Form Video That Holds Attention appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

While ChatGPT has nearly a fifth of Google’s query volume, people use the platforms in different ways. I wanted to see how ChatGPT compared to Google, not just on the total number of searches, but also searches where they compete…Read more ›View the full article