All Activity

Developers including D.R. Horton Inc., Lennar Corp. and KB Home all missed expectations last quarter and estimates suggest both sales and earnings have fallen further as conflict in the Middle East unsettled buyers and raised costs. View the full article

PM will update the Commons about officials’ failure to share findings of security checksView the full article

Treasurys posted solid gains Friday as oil futures dropped $15 a barrel, while the S&P 500 logged its 10th straight day of higher highs, according to the head of correspondent business development at AD Mortgage. View the full article

In 2026, news SEO content performance isn’t just defined by page views and clicks — brand awareness is taking center stage. With the emergence of multimodal search, digital editorial strategy is no longer just about the first page of Google. You have to meet readers anywhere and everywhere they consume content. Amid this industry shift, AI platforms are an increasingly important traffic source for publishers to consider. If publishers want to remain relevant, it’s critical to find ways to play ball with Google AI Overviews, chatbots, voice assistants, and other emerging technologies. Fortunately, utility news content is a key deliverable that can connect with audience needs across platforms throughout a variety of breaking news and evergreen windows. What is utility news content? Utility news content is service journalism that’s specifically crafted to provide simple and straightforward answers to topline questions. The recent rise of answer engine optimization (AEO) is driven by a similar methodology. Service journalism encourages readers to contemplate: What does this topic mean? Why does this angle connect with my interests and needs? How can I apply this information to my life? When constructing a utility content strategy, we must remember: Simple isn’t stupid. Don’t overcomplicate the process. Listen to the needs of your audience and let those signals guide you to the right places. In terms of execution, the “set it and forget it” days of evergreen content are fading in favor of more proactive audience engagement strategies. To maximize the impact of utility news content, it’s essential to: Map out evergreen targets in advance with trend forecasting around seasonal events and recurring search patterns. Track the breaking news cycle closely to pinpoint new areas of opportunity. Refresh existing explainers when corresponding breakout queries arise. Create new utility posts when content gaps exist. Recirculate related resources across appropriate platforms in timely windows. Track article performance to assess overall impact and share key takeaways with editorial stakeholders. Consolidate related articles in a streamlined content library for easy access and regular review. 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 are traditional utility news content examples? These helpful guides show that simple and straightforward content can serve reader needs by breaking news within a crucial window of time, zoning in on evergreen themes of interest, and connecting with seasonal tentpole event calendars. Checklists – The Denver Gazette, “Know before you have to go: wildfire evacuation checklist” “Everything to know about [insert topic here]” – CBS News, “Everything you need to know about the Texas primaries” FAQs – CNN, “What parents need to know about The President Accounts: An FAQ” “How to [insert topic here]” – The New York Times, “How to Shovel Snow Safely” Localized guides – The Los Angeles Times, “The 70 best hikes in L.A.” Multi-purpose landing pages – ESPN, “MLB spring training 2026: Schedule, highlights, updates” Timelines – The Wall Street Journal, “A Timeline of Key Moments in American Capitalism” “How does [insert topic here] work?” – AP News, “How Social Security works and what to know about its future” “What happens if [insert topic here]?” – ABC News, “What happens if the government shuts down? A lot, history tells us” “What is [insert topic here]?” – People Magazine, “What is Fat Tuesday? All About Mardi Gras’ History and Meaning” ESPN utility news AI Overviews case study During my tenure as SEO Director at ESPN from 2022-2026, I spearheaded a utility content initiative that prioritized fan-forward queries throughout a variety of game and event windows. In managing that workflow, I picked up helpful dos and don’ts for making utility content shine within a newsroom. These examples demonstrate why utility news content can resonate in AI modules if you have a proper editorial strategy in place. Create content that can maintain relevance throughout long-term event cycles When the Indiana Pacers started trending for the “NBA teams that have never won an NBA championship” theme at the end of the 2025-26 NBA season, updating this evergreen piece of content to maintain accuracy secured consistent AI Overview placement through to the championship. Answer breaking news questions with evergreen resources Following his unexpected passing in July 2025, Hulk Hogan’s wrestling titles were a major search topic that translated well into this breakout explainer. Its evergreen potential can resonate with audiences beyond the initial post-demise trending window. Create evergreen lists in advance that can spike off of breaking news Candace Parker’s 2025 jersey retirement gave this previously published evergreen roundup a fresh window to reach new fans and drive traffic. Recirculate guides that can benefit from frequent updates With LeBron and Bronny James frequently in the news, this fun evergreen take reflects their evolving stats and provides a related link to feature complementary content. Lean into your brand Whenever possible, it’s great to showcase in-house talent with breakout posts that spotlight unique elements that are synonymous with your brand. Why is utility news content still relevant? With the rise of zero-click search, some concerns have been raised about investing in service journalism when related SERP modules regularly snatch up topline shelf space in time-sensitive windows. Though declining click-through rates are alarming, service journalism isn’t only about traffic. Publishers have a duty to showcase legitimate sourcing and provide accurate information that serves audience needs across top platforms. Among many recent studies, Ahrefs presented new data in December 2025 that showed how easy it is for LLMs to get confused and present inaccurate information to users. Google AI Overviews can also sometimes produce “predictions” that share outcomes on events that haven’t happened yet. Inaccuracies are especially concerning in breaking news windows, which AI Overviews have been increasingly staking their claim on (as noted by Glenn Gabe). Additionally, innocent online interactions can quickly turn dangerous, which The Guardian emphasized in a 2025 investigation that uncovered how Google’s AI Overviews gave “very dangerous mental health advice” to billions of searchers. Though visibility challenges are frustrating, we can’t sit idly by and let the general public be led astray when seeking timely information. In 2026 (and beyond), AI-friendly utility news content is still worth championing in your newsroom. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. How can publishers pinpoint the best topics for utility news content? An ideal utility content workflow should function under a healthy combination of breaking news reaction and evergreen trend forecasting. A variety of tools and interfaces can help publishers during the ideation process: Google Trends ‘Trending now’ section Toggle upper navigational features to explore trends within different regions, date ranges, and content categories. “Past 4 hours” is ideal for breaking news brainstorming. Use “Search volume” and “Started” filters alongside search interest activity chart to gauge the timing and format of potential pieces. Older trends can be repurposed past the breaking news window in the form of timelines and “bigger picture” explainers. Sift through the “Trend breakdown” section for angles of interest that could translate into breakout explainers. Tap into the “In the news” section for brand performance validation and competitor intel. Standalone topic searches Discover trending questions, people, places, events, and things in “Rising queries” section. Determine essential phrases to target in headlines and subheadlines with the “Top queries” section. Conduct localized research with the “Interest by subregion” module in “Classic Explore” view. Use the comparison bar to narrow down potential topics of interest for breakout articles and establish the most search-friendly phrasing for headlines. Experiment with “YouTube,” “News,” and “Image” search filters to assess how searches on topics of interest may vary by platform. Regularly share related insights with external departments that can incorporate search-friendly angles into their workflows and deliverables (e.g., The video team with “YouTube” search, the photo team with “Image” search). Use “Past hour” filter during breaking news windows to assess urgent audience queries and predict where search behavior may be going next. Use “Past 5 years” and “2004-present” filters to identify seasonal audience trends that can positively influence year-over-year content planning and “all-time highs” in search interest When do search interest spikes occur every single year? What content can you refresh on an annual basis to capitalize on cyclical audience behavior? How should you stagger your content rollout during a recurring event window? Experiment with the “Suggest search terms” Gemini feature for supplementary content research (Note: If you use AI tools in a prominent way during the content creation process, it’s important to be transparent with your audience and include a corresponding disclosure statement within the final deliverable). Curated pages (ad hoc basis) Zone in on trending takeaways around tentpole events with mass interest. Regularly check the Google Trends homepage for featured modules around elections, sporting events, awards shows, etc. Curated newsletter (typically Monday-Friday) Take the guesswork out of daily Google Trends analysis. Receive top trends, breakout queries, data visualizations, and interesting stats from industry experts that can be applied to breakout articles. Sign up on the Google Trends homepage. Competitor research throughout all modules Gauge where you’re winning and pick up on lingering content gaps where other publishers may have an edge. Google News Explore primary topics of interest in the “Top stories” homepage section. Dig into upper navigational bar content categories based off of newsroom beats. Discover regional opportunities in the “Local” section. Access the platform regularly to receive a curated selection of articles in the “For you” section based off of your personal user behavior and interests. “Follow” searches that would benefit from regular monitoring to streamline the daily research process. Press the star button on the upper right-hand side of an individual search to save topic to your “Following” section. Utilize standalone topic searches for targeted content ideation. Explore standalone source searches for validating brand performance and conducting competitor research. People Also Ask Converse with “AI Mode” to uncover topic clusters that extend beyond your initial search. Semrush Pinpoint high-volume Q&A angles that maintain long-term relevance in seasonal windows. Alternative search platforms Identify trends that can spark content with compatibility across a variety of formats, including articles, videos, and social posts: Google Autocomplete: Ideal for research on high-intent long-tail keywords. YouTube search bar: Ideal with topics that can be enhanced by strong visuals and/or a video walk-through approach. TikTok search bar: Ideal for targeting younger demographics. How should utility news content be constructed for success on AI platforms? Once the brainstorming process is complete, search strategists need to adopt the right techniques to make sure that corresponding content serves utility needs. Utility news content can be structured to be more “AI-friendly,” so to speak. Specifically, LLMs are more likely to cite content that contains: Simple and straightforward formatting FAQ styling Easily extractable answers Fresh updates Objective stats that lean into substance Include AI-friendly tactics like bullet point lists, numbered steps, tables, keyword-targeted subheadings, and snackable paragraphs to better position your content for LLMs. Don’ bury the lead Answer the most search-friendly questions in the top half of the article using the five journalism staples: Who, what, where, when, why, how? Break out the buzziest angles from live blogs, rolling roundups, and extensive features into standalone articles. Quick-hit explainers and deep dive analyses can cover the same general topic and serve different audiences. Important themes can get lost in bigger pieces and fail to surface in related external searches, whereas separate articles with targeted headlines can increase search potential. Highlight E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) Promote need-to-know information that can appeal to the masses while elevating the unique value your brand can offer: Quotes from brand experts. In-house data. Original reporting. Regional angles. Historical context. Be sure to create author pages to consolidate content from in-house experts, make articles more discoverable, and encourage ongoing followership. Utilize timestamps to your advantage Implement a “Last updated” marker to produce the freshest search signal possible to readers and crawlers. Refresh articles with new and noticeable updates, such as content, headlines, photos, videos, and links. Tweak and recirculate content across a variety of related news windows to get articles back into feeds and provide readers with related context. Small-scale updates can build up to substantial traffic and AI Overview placements throughout a calendar year. You should also be adding new links to supplementary stories as news cycles evolve. These updated links send a fresh signal to Google, provide essential context to readers, and reinforce your E-E-A-T on top priority topics for your brand. Create short, concise titles and headlines that prioritize search-friendly entities When crafting headlines, avoid conversational fluff (including quotes, which are better utilized elsewhere) and instead zone in on people, places, events, etc. Try to keep your headlines within 60 characters or less to stay on the safe side with Google’s roulette of SERP formatting. Google is increasingly randomizing the appearance of search results with the influx of multimodal sources flooding the scene. For instance, “Top stories” carousels have been disappearing on more newsy searches, which can shift SERPs back to their traditional title tag structure (which can sometimes cut off titles and headlines at less than 60 characters) vs. a headline structure (which tends to have more wiggle room with character count). Though frontloading keywords isn’t a requirement in titles and headlines (variety and readability are helpful for UX), you should keep top-priority themes away from the 60-character cutoff point as a precaution. Remember, it’s okay to tweak titles and headlines if readers aren’t connecting with them. Fresh angles can provide a late traffic surge, especially when paired with homepage and/or app placement. If SERPs lag in reflecting your latest updates, re-index articles in Google Search Console. Be strategic with keyword placement As Google tests out AI-generated headline rewrites, it’s increasingly important to optimize original headlines with essential terms that readers are searching for. You’ll also want to showcase supplementary keywords in meta descriptions. Utilize a call to action when appropriate, especially with guides in urgent windows like natural disasters, shootings, etc. Mirror top keywords from titles and headlines into URLs, but tread carefully with years and specific numbers in URLs to maintain evergreen status as news cycles evolve. Don’t forget to optimize your images! Include keyword-rich alt text and captions on any images in your news content, which help AI models better understand visuals within your content and improve your odds of discoverability. Implement sitemaps and structured data Enable a news-specific sitemap to optimize delivery of timely content. This will emphasize freshness, streamline indexing, and boost overall search visibility. Additionally, employ schema markup to help ensure the proper indexation of articles. “NewsArticle,” “LiveBlogPosting,” and “FAQPage” are especially relevant for surfacing utility news content. How can you recirculate utility news content effectively? Once publishers have established a productive utility content workflow, it’s essential to employ a strategic recirculation strategy to maximize visibility in all appropriate channels. “SEO is dead” messaging has been spreading over the past year. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but I believe that as long as people are searching for the information they need online, traditional search best practices are still very much alive. However, certain old-school SEO ideologies are dying off, chief among them being that search performance lives and dies with the first page of SERPs. With ongoing AI visibility challenges, search strategies must extend beyond Google’s digital walls. We must recirculate always, in all ways In 2026, search strategists need to be audience strategists to surface content across all the places people visit online. Collaborate and find common ground with departments across your organization to be able to quickly elevate search-friendly angles and content within crucial news windows. A strong strategy is essential to ensure your brand stays top of mind across platforms when timely audience needs arise. Channels that can benefit from cross-departmental search and distribution strategies include: Your website/homepage Apps Alerts Newsletters Podcasts Instagram/Threads Facebook X Bluesky Reddit TikTok Linkedin YouTube Google Discover News aggregators (Apple News, Smart News, etc.) How should newsrooms assess the performance of utility news content? With a growing list of platforms in the content recirculation mix, performance tracking is evolving with additional nuances for publishers to consider. Prior to Google’s Search Generative Experience and AI Overviews, utility news content was primed for placement in knowledge panels, featured snippets, and “Top stories” carousels. Google started to take up more of that top shelf space with its own bespoke charts and modules over time, minimizing publisher activity during top priority events. The public rollout of AI Overviews in May 2024 changed the playing field in a big way, but the development didn’t come out of nowhere. As AI Overviews have become increasingly prominent in search results, respected institutions such as the Pew Research Center have noted declining click-through rates across the news industry. This development has pushed publishers to place greater emphasis on overall brand visibility alongside their traditional prioritization of page views and clicks. Though standard metrics remain important, publishers should rethink what “successful content” means as audience engagement shifts. In 2026 (and beyond), search strategists should pay extra attention to: AI Overview placements. Featured snippet placements. People Also Ask placements. “Top stories” placements. Percentage of traffic from chatbots. Overall search impressions. Organic search traffic across multiple utility pieces under one general topic. Year-over-year growth of evergreen SEO content. Other metrics that can indicate a positive editorial experience and encourage long-term brand loyalty include: Scroll depth. Time spent on site. Return visits on evergreen content. Bookmarked entry pages. Newsletter, app, and other subscription signups from individual pages. Dedicated AI platforms from companies like Profound, Semrush, Similarweb, Ahrefs, and other industry vendors can help demystify the performance tracking process. Though every AI interaction may not lead to a click or page view, consistent placements in related modules can psychologically trigger trust and encourage long-term reader loyalty, as pointed out by Go Fish Digital. Since this performance ideology may differ from what some stakeholders are accustomed to, ongoing newsroom search training is critical to ensure that leadership understands the broader industry implications. For instance, positive performance snapshots should be regularly shared with editorial partners to reinforce the impact of the content investment. Postmortem reports can also provide performance insights following tentpole events, driving home key takeaways and reinforcing best practices for the future. How does personalization play a role in surfacing utility news content? The recent rise in personalization features underscores the growing need for publishers to adopt brand-first editorial strategies. To maximize brand reach despite decreased visibility in traditional SERPs, it’s critical for publishers to leverage features that can strengthen brand loyalty. Preferred sources in Google “Top stories” carousels and new follow capabilities in Google Discover can increase the value of everyday interactions that are likely to trigger needs utility content can address. For example, Google shared that when someone picks a preferred source in “Top stories,” they click that site twice as often on average. With such benefits, publishers should demystify these offerings and encourage readers to curate their content consumption habits in their favor. Instructions to guide your readers to choose your brand as a preferred source in Google’s “Top stories” carousel: Log into your Google account. Search for a trending topic that would populate a “Top stories” carousel. Click on the star icon next to “Top stories.” Enter [source name] in the search bar and check the corresponding box. Reload results and watch the content shift based on your new selection. Once you pick your favorite sources, they’ll appear more frequently in “Top stories” carousels or in a dedicated “From your sources” section on search results pages. Instructions to guide your readers to enable the “Follow” feature in Google Discover: Log into your Google account. Scroll through your Google Discover feed. Find a story from your favorite source. Click the “Follow” button in the upper right-hand corner. Once you track sources, you’ll see more of their content in your feed. To maximize visibility around these new features and simplify the signup process, publishers can install related buttons on their article pages and create standalone documentation that illustrates implementation. How can utility news content benefit a newsroom and the industry at large? We know that readers benefit from personalized strategies, but there are also advantages to sharing the utility content ideation and creation process with more colleagues in your newsroom. Service journalism can have a positive internal impact by creating a pathway for more colleagues to participate in the content creation process. Opening up the utility workflow within your organization can encourage colleagues across the following departments to showcase unique expertise and encourage a culture of inclusivity that can elevate search-friendly coverage: Editorial sections: In-house experts to loop in during the research process and support with content gap coverage. Audience engagement: Trend trackers who pinpoint which emerging topics are worth creating content around and featuring on the website, apps, and other spaces. Social media: Cross-platform collaborators to link up with on shared trends that can maximize brand visibility in multimodal search. Data and analytics: Methodical minds who can explain how performance insights should influence future content roadmaps. Design: Visual visionaries who can create bold new environments for search stats to live on, including maps and infographics. Product: Technical talents who can build proprietary tools that address reader needs in unique ways during timely windows. Features: Outside-the-box thinkers with strong sourcing who can highlight newsy angles in a narrative and/or investigative fashion. Copy editors: Streamlined strategists who ensure maximum accuracy in explainers, guides, and other objective resources. Freelance writers: External partners who can bolster internal efforts with outside expertise and supplemental bandwidth. PR and communications: Internal partners who can spotlight brand priorities that can be elevated through search-friendly content. 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 Visibility, trust, and why utility content still wins Though the SEO industry faces unique challenges in 2026, publishers can still benefit from creating utility content. Amid LLM inaccuracies and AI growing pains, we must continue to serve our readers with accurate, authoritative articles in digestible formats that align with evolving content preferences. With Google testing out adding more links in AI Overviews, I remain cautiously optimistic that publishers and AI platforms can work in tandem to provide optimal editorial experiences to audiences in the future. In the meantime, keep these fundamental best practices in mind: Prioritize audience needs. Elevate newsroom expertise. Forge a path forward that champions evolution while honoring lasting fundamentals. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...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. The My Arcade Atari Gamestation Go is down to $124.99 on Woot, compared to its usual $179.99, and still below the $148.99 it’s currently listed for on Amazon. Price-trackers show this is the lowest it has dropped so far. Shipping is free for Prime members, and the deal is expected to run for about 12 days, though it could end sooner if the stock runs out. My Arcade Atari Gamestation Go Handheld Retro Gaming Console $124.99 at Woot $180.06 Save $55.07 Get Deal Get Deal $124.99 at Woot $180.06 Save $55.07 Atari is no longer the dominant force it was in the 1980s, but its catalog still defines early gaming history. The Gamestation Go tries to package that legacy into a single portable device, both in how it looks and how it plays. The main draw is the library. You get more than 200 built-in games, including recognizable titles like Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Missile Command, Tempest, and Yar’s Revenge. Most of the collection comes from the Atari 2600, with smaller selections from the 5200 and arcade releases. There are also a few licensed additions like PAC-MAN and games from Jaleco and PIKO Interactive. If that is not enough, you can expand the library further using a microSD card. The hardware is also designed to match the games. There is a 7-inch color display, and instead of relying on one control scheme, it includes a paddle, d-pad, trackball, numeric keypad, and standard buttons. You’ll also find a “SmartGlow” feature that lights up the controls you need for each game, which helps when switching between very different input styles. As for connectivity, it connects to a TV through HDMI, includes wifi for updates, and runs on a built-in rechargeable battery. On the downside, the build quality feels basic, and the layout is not very comfortable for long sessions. Also, the controls are accurate to the era, but that does not always translate to modern ergonomics. Still, if the goal is nostalgia and variety, the Gamestation Go does a lot, especially at this price. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.99 (List Price $249.00) Apple iPad 11" A16 128GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Silver, 2025) — $299.00 (List Price $349.00) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $299.00 (List Price $399.00) Amazon Fire TV Soundbar — $99.99 (List Price $119.99) Blink Video Doorbell Wireless (Newest Model) + Sync Module Core — $35.99 (List Price $69.99) Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Gen, 2-pack, White) — $59.98 (List Price $79.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Elon Musk has been summoned to Paris on Monday, where investigators are looking into allegations of misconduct related to the social media platform X, including the spread of child sexual abuse material and deepfake content. The world’s richest man and Linda Yaccarino — the former CEO of X — have been summoned for “voluntary interviews,” while other employees of the platform are scheduled to be heard as witnesses throughout this week, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. It remains unclear whether Musk and Yaccarino will travel to Paris. A spokesperson for X did not respond to questions from The Associated Press and Yaccarino’s current company, eMed, did not answer a request sent to the press email. French prosecutors also suspect that controversy around the platform’s AI system Grok’s deepfakes was concocted to boost the value of Musk-owned companies ahead of a key market listing, and alerted U.S. authorities. Musk welcomed a report that U.S. justice officials refused to help French investigators, posting on X, “This needs to stop.” The reason for summoning Musk Musk was summoned after a search took place in February at the French premises of X as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Musk and Yaccarino have been invited in their capacities as managers of X at the time of the events investigated. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025. “These voluntary interviews with the executives are intended to allow them to present their position regarding the facts and, where appropriate, the compliance measures they plan to implement,” prosecutors said. “At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that platform X complies with French law, insofar as it operates within the national territory.” The Paris prosecutor’s office said Musk and Yaccarino’s potential no-show on Monday “is not an obstacle for investigations to continue.” What is being investigated French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X likely distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system. It expanded after the AI system, Grok, generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes. It’s looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group, among other charges. Grok, which was built by xAI and is available through X, sparked global outrage this year after it pumped out a torrent of sexualized nonconsensual deepfake images in response to requests from X users. Grok also wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder — language long associated with Holocaust denial. In later posts on X, the chatbot reversed itself and acknowledged that its earlier reply was wrong, saying it had been deleted, and pointed to historical evidence that Zyklon B was used to kill more than 1 million people in Auschwitz gas chambers. French prosecutors alert U.S. authorities In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — the U.S. federal agency responsible for regulating and overseeing financial markets — suggesting “that the controversy surrounding sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially boost the value of the companies X and xAI — potentially constituting criminal offenses,” prosecutors said. The Paris prosecutor’s office said this could have been done “ahead of the planned June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity formed by the merger of Space X and xAI, at a time when company X was clearly losing momentum.” Justice Department brushes off French call According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department told French law enforcement authorities it wouldn’t facilitate their efforts to investigate Musk’s X. The newspaper reported that the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, in a two-page letter last week, accused the French of inappropriately using its justice system to interfere with an American business. The letter also said France’s requests for U.S. assistance “constitute an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.” French judicial authorities didn’t respond to requests for comments. Investigations launched into several internet platforms The cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office has launched in recent years a series of investigations focusing on internet platforms’ suspected illegal activities. French-language website Coco, which was cited in the landmark trial that turned Gisèle Pelicot into a global icon against sexual violence, closed in 2024 as its manager is accused of complicity in spreading child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes, among other things. Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, was handed preliminary charges and placed under judicial supervision for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the platform, including child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking. The Paris prosecutor’s office opened last year an investigation into TikTok over allegations that the platform allows content promoting suicide and that its algorithms may encourage vulnerable young people to take their own lives. Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it has lodged a new complaint against X with the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office targeting “the platform’s policies that allow disinformation to flourish.” Associated Press reporter Kelvin Chan contributed to this story. —Samuel Petrequin, Associated Press View the full article

Back in December, Google began showing read more links on some of the search result snippets within Google Search. Today, Google published new documentation around best practices on how to show Read more links in the Google search results. The best practices. The new documentation was posted over here in the snippets section and it lists three best practices: Make sure content is immediately visible on the page to a human (and not hidden behind an expandable section or tabbed interface, for example). Avoid using JavaScript to control the user’s scroll position on page load (for example, don’t force the user’s scroll position to the top of the page). If you make history API calls or window.location.hash modifications on page load, make sure you don’t remove the hash fragment from the URL, as this breaks deep linking behavior. What it looks like. Google also posted an illustration of these links, here it is: Here is an example of how they look: Why we care. These read more links do add an additional eye-catching link to the search result snippets. Hopefully, this leads to encouraging more clicks to websites and no less. More clicks to websites is a good thing, so make sure to review the best practices to encourage more clicks to your site. View the full article

Watch this video on YouTube Rand Fishkin didn’t get into SEO because he saw the future. He got into it because he had no choice. In the early 2000s, Fishkin helped run a small web business with his mom in Seattle. They hired another company to do SEO until they couldn’t afford to pay them anymore. That moment pushed him into search marketing. More than 20 years later, Fishkin has become one of the best-known voices in SEO — and one of Google’s biggest critics. In this interview, he looks back at how search has changed, what went wrong, and what may happen next. Early SEO was wild SEO today can feel messy. But in the early days, it was even more chaotic. “There was no social media,” is how Fishkin described that era, where forums like WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch were the center of the industry. People shared tactics openly. Many of those tactics were risky. Buying links was common — and effective. Fishkin did it, too. Then Google’s Matt Cutts called him out in public. That moment changed how he approached SEO. He spent years focusing on “white hat” practices and following Google’s guidelines. Looking back, though, Fishkin now questions whether that shift went too far. He believes Google’s own behavior over time has made those guidelines harder to trust. The early industry wasn’t just chaotic — it was also full of strange and memorable moments. Fishkin recalled massive conference parties with huge budgets and over-the-top ideas, including a staged “retirement” of the Ask Jeeves mascot. But what stood out most to him wasn’t the tactics or the parties. “My favorite thing… is people,” he said, pointing to the relationships and friendships built over decades in search. When Google stopped sending traffic Many people think AI is the big turning point in search. Fishkin says the shift started much earlier — around 2011. That’s when the idea of “zero-click search” first appeared. Google began answering more queries directly on the results page instead of sending users to websites. At first, it was small features like weather boxes and calculators. Then it grew: Around 2016–2017: nearly half of searches ended without a click By 2018: more than half Today: more than two-thirds Fishkin emphasized that this trend didn’t start with AI — it has been building for more than a decade. Publishers had a chance — and missed it Fishkin believes publishers could have taken action early — but didn’t. “The time to fight back… was 15 or 20 years ago,” he said. In his view, large media companies should have worked together to push back against Google’s growing control. They could have demanded payment for content or limited how Google used it. Instead, they allowed Google to crawl and use their content freely. At the same time, Google expanded its influence through lobbying and policy. “Publishers just missed that opportunity,” Fishkin said. Now, he argues, the focus has to shift to adapting: Build subscription businesses Monetize attention, not just traffic Learn how to operate within platform ecosystems Some companies have already made that shift. Fishkin pointed to The New York Times as an example of a business evolving beyond traditional news consumption. Did Google change? Fishkin does not believe Google has become worse for users. “If it was easier or better to search on Bing… people would go to those places,” he said. But he does believe Google has become much harder for publishers and creators. The change, he said, was gradual. As Google grew, went public, and aligned with investor expectations, its priorities shifted toward growth and revenue. “They became the people that they spent time with,” Fishkin said. The biggest AI mistake people make Fishkin says most people misunderstand how AI works. They treat AI answers like search results — consistent and reliable. But they aren’t. If you ask the same question multiple times, the answers can vary widely. “You will get completely different answers. And if you do that 10 times, you will get 10 incredibly unique different answers,” he said. His advice is simple: don’t rely on a single response. Ask multiple times and look for patterns. If the same answer shows up consistently, it’s more likely to be trustworthy. This matters most for important decisions, like health or finance, where relying on one answer could be risky. What he misses about the early days of SEO Fishkin doesn’t miss a specific tactic or tool. He misses the level of opportunity that existed in the early web. Back then, smaller creators and independent sites had a better chance to succeed. Traffic was more evenly distributed. “The world of clicks and traffic… was so… flat compared to… today,” he said. What’s next? Fishkin believes the future of media and search may look more like the past. He expects a smaller number of powerful platforms to control most of the flow of information. At the same time, individual creators will still produce much of the content — but within those systems. Still, he hopes the web can evolve again. View the full article

A refund system for businesses that paid tariffs which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Donald The President imposed without the constitutional authority to do so is scheduled to launch Monday. Importers and their brokers will be able to begin claiming refunds through an online portal beginning at 8 a.m., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency administering the system. It’s the first step in a complicated process that also might eventually lead to refunds for consumers who were billed for some or all of the tariffs on products shipped to them from outside the United States. Companies must submit declarations listing the goods on which they collectively put billions of dollars toward the import taxes the court subsequently struck down. If CBP approves a claim, it will take 60-90 days for a refund to be issued, the agency said. The government expects to process refunds in phases, however, focusing first on more recent tariff payments. Any number of technical factors and procedural issues could delay an importer’s application, so any reimbursements businesses plan to make to customers likely would trickled down slowly. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court on Feb. 20 found that The President usurped Congress’ tax-setting role last April when he set new import tax rates on products from almost every other country, citing the U.S. trade deficit as a national emergency that warranted his invoking of a 1977 emergency powers law. Although the court majority did not address refunds in its ruling, a judge at the U.S. Court of International Trade determined last month that companies subjected to IEEPA tariffs were entitled to money back. Not all taxed imports immediately eligible Customs and Border Protection said in court filings that over 330,000 importers paid a total of about $166 billion on over 53 million shipments. Not all of those orders qualify for the first phase of the refund system’s rollout, which is limited to cases in which tariffs were estimated but not finalized or within 80 days of a final accounting. To receive refunds, importers have to register for the CPB’s electronic payment system. As of April 14, 56,497 importers had completed registration and were eligible for refunds totaling $127 billion, including interest, the agency said. System requires accuracy Meghann Supino, a partner at Ice Miller, said the law firm has advised clients to carefully list in their declarations all of the document numbers for forms that went to CBP to describe imported goods and their value. “If there is an entry on that file that does not qualify, it may cause the entire entry to be rejected or that line item might be rejected by Customs,” she said. Supino thinks the portal going live will require composure as well as diligence. “Like any electronic online program that goes live with a lot of interest, I would expect that there might be some hiccups with the program on Monday,” she said. “So we continue to ask everyone to be patient, because we think that patience will pay off.” Nghi Huynh, the partner-in-charge of transfer pricing at accounting and consulting firm Armanino, said most companies claiming refunds will have imported a mix of items, and not all will qualify right away. “It’s about having a clear process in place and keeping track of what’s been submitted and what’s been paid, so nothing falls through the cracks,” she said. “Each file can include thousands of entries, but accuracy is critical, as submissions can be rejected if formatting or data is incorrect.” Patience with the process Small businesses have eagerly awaited the chance to apply for refunds. Brad Jackson, co-founder of After Action Cigars in Rochester, Minnesota, said he starting compiling records and preparing to enter information into the system the minute CPB announced the launch date. The company imports cigars and accessories from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Last year, it paid $34,000 in tariffs and absorbed much of the cost instead of raising customer prices, Jackson said. Last spring, he had a two-week delay in a shipment due to a missing document, so he is being more careful with refund documents, he said. “My main concern is the turnaround time,” Jackson said. “A refund process that takes several months to complete doesn’t solve the cash flow problem that it is supposed to fix.” Will consumers see refunds? Tariffs are paid by importers, and some companies pass on the tax costs to consumers via higher prices. The system starting up Monday will refund tariffs directly to the businesses that paid them, which are not obligated to share the proceeds with customers. However, class-action lawsuits that aim to force companies, ranging from Costco to Ray-Ban maker Essilor Luxottica, to reimburse shoppers are winding their way through the U.S. legal system. Individuals may be more likely to receive refunds from delivery companies like FedEx and UPS, which collected tariffs on imports directly from consumers. FedEx has said it would return tariff refunds to customers when it receives them from the CPB. “Supporting our customers as they navigate regulatory changes remains our top priority,” FedEx said in a statement. “We are working with our customers as CBP begins processing refunds and plan to begin filing claims on April 20.” —Mae Anderson, AP Business Writer 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. The CRKD Nitro Deck is down to $34.99 on Woot, which is a noticeable drop from its usual $59.99 and lower than its current price on Amazon. Price-trackers also suggest this is the lowest it has gone so far. Shipping is free with Prime, or $6 otherwise, and the deal is expected to run for about 12 days unless it sells out sooner. That said, Woot does not ship to Alaska, Hawaii, or PO box addresses. CRKD Nitro Deck Handheld Deck for Nintendo Switch and Switch OLED $34.99 at Woot $59.99 Save $25.00 Get Deal Get Deal $34.99 at Woot $59.99 Save $25.00 At its core, the Nitro Deck is trying to solve one of the Nintendo Switch’s most persistent problems: Joy-Con stick drift. But it is not a traditional controller—it is a full shell that your Nintendo Switch slides into and locks in with a simple latch system that feels secure without being annoying to use. Once it is in place, it feels more like holding a proper controller with a screen attached—the grips are thicker and shaped more like what you would find on a standard console controller, so your hands have something to rest on instead of flattening out against the Joy-Cons. The sticks are full-sized, the triggers have more travel, and there are four back buttons you can map if you like customizing controls. You still get motion controls and rumble, and there is also a USB-C passthrough for charging or video output. That said, the right stick sits a bit too far out, so using it for camera control or aiming can feel cramped and slightly awkward. It is manageable for short bursts, but it can get uncomfortable over time. The kickstand is also limited—it works, but you do not get much flexibility in how you prop the system up. And because everything is built into one shell, you lose the option to detach the controllers entirely, which is part of what makes the Switch unique in the first place. And while the added bulk improves grip, it makes the system less portable. Still, if you mostly play in handheld mode and want something sturdier with drift-resistant sticks, the Nitro Deck feels great, especially at this discounted price. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.99 (List Price $249.00) Apple iPad 11" A16 128GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Silver, 2025) — $299.00 (List Price $349.00) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $299.00 (List Price $399.00) Amazon Fire TV Soundbar — $99.99 (List Price $119.99) Blink Video Doorbell Wireless (Newest Model) + Sync Module Core — $35.99 (List Price $69.99) Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Gen, 2-pack, White) — $59.98 (List Price $79.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

AI search exists on a spectrum. At one end: a human asks an AI a question and gets a fast, generated response. At the other: an AI receives a goal and browses the web on a human’s behalf. It evaluates your brand, makes a decision, and leaves no trace in your analytics. That’s agentic search. And it’s already emerging. ChatGPT’s deep research, Gemini’s agentic mode, and Perplexity’s research features are early expressions of it. Shopping within ChatGPT and booking tables without ever visiting a website are where it’s heading. AI systems are already running multi-step evaluations with less human direction at each step. The brands that show up in those evaluations aren’t waiting to see how this develops. They’re optimizing for it now. By the end of this guide, you’ll know what agentic search is, how it differs from typical AI search, and how you can prepare your brand for it. What Agentic Search Actually Is Agentic search is AI that searches and acts on your behalf — not just composing an answer from its training data, but going out to find information, use tools, and complete tasks. At the simpler end of the agentic search spectrum, the AI retrieves sources and synthesizes a response. At the more complex end, the AI agent receives a search goal, breaks it into sub-tasks, searches across multiple sources, cross-references what it finds, and takes action, without waiting for your input at each stage. Examples of Agentic Search in Action At the simpler end of the agentic search spectrum, you give an AI tool a prompt like “Which project management software is best for a remote team of ten?” It won’t just produce an answer from its training data. It’ll go online, search for comparison articles, pull pricing and feature information from review platforms, and synthesize a recommendation. Move further along the AI search spectrum and the behavior gets more complex. For instance, imagine you ask the AI to research the competitive landscape in your market. It formulates a plan, then runs multiple searches across different source types — news coverage, review platforms, company pages, industry analysis. It cross-references what it finds, and you get a structured report. You’re still the one taking action based on this report, but this is a step up from the fairly simple, synthesized response we’re now used to. Further still: some agents don’t need a prompt at all. Configured with a recurring search task, like monitoring competitor pricing, flagging new entrants, or summarizing industry news weekly, they run on a schedule. And at the furthest end of the agentic search spectrum, the AI finds the right option, evaluates it against alternatives, and completes a transaction on your behalf. You asked for a recommendation. It booked the table. Both OpenAI and Google have published open protocols specifically designed to make this possible (more on them soon). Why This Is Different from What SEOs Already Know Agentic search challenges some of the core assumptions SEO has operated on for years. Here are the three that matter most. Rankings Matter Less Than Before for Overall Visibility AI tools are built to pull from a deliberately diverse range of sources, not just the highest-ranking pages. A single search query triggers retrieval across multiple source types: editorial content, review platforms, community forums, company pages. No single ranking position dominates that process. AI tools also heavily weigh up content and brand relevance when forming responses, versus factors like website authority, which is more important for SEO. That doesn’t mean backlinks don’t matter — they do. But topical depth and relevance to the searcher’s intent are the focus in these tools. Finally, when an AI tool processes a search, it generates multiple related sub-queries, pulling from the results of each. This is called query fan-out. Your ranking for the original keyword is just one input into a much wider retrieval process. This makes broader topical coverage a key component of AI search in general. This is how you show AI agents that you’re worth citing, recommending, and taking action on. Your Content Depth Is Now a Competitive Advantage As Crystal Carter, Head of AI Search & SEO at Wix, puts it: “LLMs don’t get tired of reading 45 pages about your business.” The average user won’t read countless pages of product documentation. But an agent will — and it’ll use what it finds to make a recommendation. FAQs, knowledge base articles, documentation, case studies — content that might rarely surface in a standard browsing session becomes evidence in an agentic evaluation. Crystal gives Levi’s sustainability documentation as an example. A human visitor might not find it. If you were wondering if Levi’s were sustainable, you’d probably look them up on a single trusted site. Compare that with what Perplexity AI does to answer the question “Are Levi’s sustainable?” It conducts a deep dive into Levi’s site. It evaluates evidence from 15 different sources. It reads multiple pages from Levi’s own site, including their sustainability report, details on the sustainability of their fibers, their stance on human rights, and a page on slavery from a domain in a separate geography (Levi’s UK). To succeed in agentic search, you need to make sure agents can answer any questions about your brand your users may have. For more information on all things AI search, watch our full interview with Crystal Carter. Breadth Now Matters Just as Much as Depth AI systems don’t simply retrieve results. They actively research, compare, and filter brands before a human ever sees a recommendation. Your brand isn’t being ranked once. It’s being audited across sources. If we take the Levi’s example again, ChatGPT doesn’t just look at Levi’s own content to answer the sustainability question. It also looks at official rating bodies, third-party research, and media publications. It acts more like a professional researcher than a human conducting a low-stakes product search question. An agentic system evaluates brands through layered filters like: Can it find you clearly? Does it understand you correctly? Are you validated elsewhere? Does it trust you enough to recommend you? If you fail any of those layers, you can disappear entirely from the final answer. Your Site Needs to Be Usable By Agents, Not Just People Increasingly, AI agents interact with businesses through structured agentic protocols designed for machine-to-machine communication. Instead of just relying on what’s in a page’s HTML, AI agents are moving toward standardized protocols, like the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) and Natural Language Web (NLWeb). This changes what “being accessible” actually means. Content that only exists inside a visual interface — FAQs that expand on click, pricing tables rendered dynamically, product comparisons loaded via JavaScript — may never exist in the structured layer agents rely on to retrieve and execute actions. And if they can’t access it, they can’t use it. That matters because AI agents are increasingly the ones deciding what to include in their recommendations and what to ignore. The human only sees your site if you’re in those recommendations. So the question is no longer just: “Can people find my website?” It’s: “Can AI systems clearly understand and use my business information without friction?” Because in this new system, if your business isn’t easy for AI to access and act on, you may not show up at all. Further reading: The agentic web: How AI agents decide which brands make the cut What Agents Actually Look At An agent evaluating your brand might find everything it needs on a single page of your website. But when it does go looking further, it’s not just gathering information. It’s also checking whether the rest of its sources agree. An agent corroborates, actively checking whether the picture is consistent across everything it finds. Here are some of the key places agents look: Your Website Agents are likely to prioritize sites that are easy to parse and extract from. They look for: Clear, up-to-date pricing in plain HTML (not hidden behind interactions). Feature descriptions that explain capabilities — not just marketing claims. Positioning that makes it obvious who the product is for (and who it isn’t). Review Platforms (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot) Agents read review content for specificity, covering things like use case, company size, outcomes, and integrations. Community Signals (Reddit & Other Forums) Agents look at user sentiment on community platforms to cross-check vendor claims. A brand that talks about itself one way and gets discussed differently in communities creates a consistency gap that leaves agents hesitant to recommend your brand (at least without caveats). Third-Party Editorial Agents also look at comparison articles, analyst coverage, and industry endorsements. Appearing consistently in credible “best X for Y” content is a positive signal. 6 Things to Do Before Agentic Search Goes Mainstream Agentic search isn’t fully mainstream yet, but the infrastructure is being built now. The brands that will be well-positioned are the ones that start taking action before their rivals are even aware of what agentic search is. Here’s how to make sure you’re one of those brands. 1. Run a Cross-Source Consistency Audit Check your pricing, features, and positioning across your own site, your G2 and Capterra profiles (or any other platforms your target audience users), and comparison articles where your brand appears. Flag and correct every contradiction. Make this a recurring part of your workflow. Old positioning language lingers in third-party content long after you’ve updated your own pages. 2. Build Hub Pages for Your Highest-Value Queries If you don’t have them already, create new standalone pages that fully answer the key questions: what you do, who it’s for, how it compares to other solutions, what it costs, and what customers say. 3. Pressure-Test Your Declared Audience Pull up your homepage, pricing page, and top comparison content. Ask: can an agent clearly extract who this is for, what problem it solves, and what makes it right for a specific profile? To make this concrete, paste the content into an AI tool and use this prompt: “You are an AI agent evaluating this company. Based only on the content provided, extract: (1) who this product is for, (2) what problem it solves, (3) key use cases, and (4) what differentiates it from alternatives. Then highlight any ambiguity or contradictions.” If the output is vague or generic, your positioning is too. 4. Ask Customers for More Detailed Reviews Most reviews are vague: “Great product, really helpful team.” That doesn’t help AI systems understand when your product is actually a good fit. Instead, ask customers to be more specific about how they use it and what changed. For example, in your review requests, you can say: “If you’re happy to leave a review, it would be really helpful if you could include: What you use the product for Your company size or team type The problem you were trying to solve The outcome or result you saw Any tools you integrate with” 5. Check Your Accessibility Make sure your pricing, FAQs, and feature comparisons are in plain HTML. Also check your forms and CTAs. If an agent needs to book, enquire, or transact on a user’s behalf, it needs to be able to find and use the form. So don’t hide them behind JavaScript. 6. Implement Agentic Search Protocols While agentic search protocols are still new and being actively developed, understanding how they work and implementing them on your site can help you prepare for wider rollouts. For more information on which protocols matter and what they do, read our guide to agentic search protocols. 7. Monitor Your AI Footprint Right now, here are two things you can actually track to monitor your AI footprint: Run Regular Brand Queries Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode, and search for your brand by name. Then search for the category queries a buyer would use — “best [product type] for [your target audience].” In both cases, document what comes back. Is your brand mentioned? Is what’s being said accurate? Is it consistent with your current positioning? Do this monthly and track how things change over time. If your positioning is wrong or outdated, update your homepage, pricing, and comparison pages first (these are usually the sources AI systems rely on most). If competitors are being favoured, strengthen your comparison content and aim to get more third-party reviews. If you’re missing entirely, check whether your key pages are crawlable, indexable, and clearly describe your use case. Further reading: How to Optimize Content for AI Search Engines Check Your Server Logs for AI Crawler Activity Your server logs record the bots that visit your site, including AI crawlers. The ones to track include: GPTBot: OpenAI’s training crawler OAI-SearchBot: Powers real-time ChatGPT search results ClaudeBot: Anthropic’s crawler PerplexityBot: Perplexity’s crawler Google-Extended: Google’s AI training crawler Look for: How often they’re visiting Which pages they’re accessing Whether those pages return clean 200 responses (successful loads) If key pages are returning errors (404s), that’s a signal those pages may not be properly accessible to AI systems. This won’t tell you whether an agent recommended you or ruled you out. But it’s one of the earliest available signals of how AI systems are interacting with your site. Further reading: What Is a Log File Analysis? & How to Do It for SEO Get Your Site Ready for Agentic Search Agentic search is already here. And as time goes on, complex agentic tasks — like signing up for a tool or buying on behalf of the user — will only become more common. That’s why it’s worth preparing for full agentic search right now. Start by figuring out where you stand currently. Tools like Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit show you how AI systems currently perceive your brand across platforms. That’s your baseline before you tackle anything else. Learn how to use it in our Semrush AI visibility guide. The post What Is Agentic Search? (And Why SEOs Need to Pay Attention) appeared first on Backlinko. View the full article

I’m not one for binaries, but it’s likely you’re either aware of Gap’s 2025 comeback tour, or you have a healthy amount of screen time. For those of us who aren’t full luddite teen (aspirational), I’m here to tell you that Gap is continuing its play to cement its place among the fashion set—and cultural domination—in 2026. We’re seeing this with Gap’s announcement today of a new Spring collection kicking off a multi-season partnership with Victoria Beckham, bringing clean lines and refined classics that harken from the designer’s British sensibilities to the eponymous American brand. The 38-piece line of wardrobe staples will be available online and in select global Gap stores beginning April 24 at 9am ET, with prices that range between $34 to $328. This isn’t Gap’s first partnership of the year. It previously launched collaborations with Harlem’s Fashion Row and Awake, as well as a keystone campaign for the brand’s sweatpants with rapper Young Mikko. (And let’s not forget last year’s sell-out Sandy Liang collaboration.) The Victoria Beckham collaboration is its latest in an ongoing story of reinvention the brand wants to convey to the public. “We always are looking for new, interesting, cool, unexpected-for-our-customer collabs, and Victoria Beckham is a real natural for us,” says Gap CEO Mark Breitbard of the pairing, noting that her design sensibilities bring an elevated level of polish and refinement to Gap’s casual everyday wear. The partnership was the result of a conversation Breitbard had with celebrity stylist Alastair McKimm, who he considers to be part of the Gap creative team, about his other clients. “When he brought up Victoria, we both just kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Wait, could this be interesting for us?’” Breitbard recalled. And Beckham, for her part, was game. The design results apply subtle degrees of difference from Gap classics like its Arc denim and matching jacket, pull-over denim quarter zips with a tent-like shape, dark wash capris (having a moment this spring), pleated khaki shorts, white button-downs, jersey tank dresses, and a classic trench coat. The difference from Gap pieces may not be detectable to the non-fashion obsessive’s human eye, but the simplicity of lines and the appeal of the Victoria Beckham brand ID could subconsciously appeal to the same discerning shopper who gets neutral manicures and wears La Ligne. “You’ll see really modern lines and elegance that still has Gap casual in it,” says Breitbard. “So it’s very versatile. Dress up, dress down. Look incredibly chic, but also don’t look like you tried too hard. It’s just a really great balance, but clean lines and a fine aesthetic.” The cerulean blue pullover anorak adds a bright pop of color to staples like white, khaki, olive, and denim, which have enough wearability that could toss on a piece and head out the door. There is some overlap between the positioning of this line and Gap Studio as an elevated take to Gap classics, but Breitbard splices Gap Studio as more of a play for red carpet caché, with some looks they then commercialize. The multi-season partnership also points to the brand’s broader partnerships strategy, which aims to reestablish relevancy through brand partners with caché. Gap is extending these partnerships through marketing that’s less sales-y and more shareable content (“brandtainment” is the linguistic ligature du jour). By doing so, it’s goal is to drive cultural conversation. In short: organically become part of the chatter in the elusive group chat. At this point, the brand is building on the momentum of the previous year-and-a-half. (Its financial gains are still playing out: net sales were up 2% and store sales up 1% year over year, respectively.) Where Gap gets luxury fashion bonafides from Beckham, Beckham gets to capitalize on her existing growth and expand her reach. Victoria Beckham posted $170 million in group sales resulting in 19% growth in 2025, which includes fashion and beauty, (Breitbard noted her success in beauty in particular). Beckham told WWD last fall that she plans to open more stores in the U.S., which is the brand’s biggest market—this collab could be a preview for a lot of new consumers. Ultimately a collaboration is successful if it’s multidimensional. “[The Victoria Beckham collaboration] is going to hit new consumers who are paying attention to fashion and existing consumers, and consumers who have been with us for a while,” says Breitbard. While I can’t say that the Victoria Beckham brand has been in my group chats lately (that’s been dominated by fashion brands like Khaite, the Row, Still Here, and quests for vintage Prada and Manolo Blahniks, and even Gap itself), it does have a major online fan base: 3 million TikTok followers compared to Gap’s one million, and 33.4 million Instagram followers compared to Gap’s 3.7 million. “One of the things that I think we’re doing well when we do a remix, [is] there might be dimensions that the younger consumer really appreciates, and then there is also just artistry and creative that is very accessible and easy,” says Breitbard, which translates to online traction and cultural interest that are bigger than sales KPIs. He points to the Katseye campaign as an example. “They’re young. They have a young demographic. They have a huge fan base, but tens of thousands of people reposted that dance. We had 600 million views, and it wasn’t just from young [people]. It was so accessible and so uplifting to a very broad audience. That’s what we’ve done well,“ he says. “Victoria has younger consumers, but also consumers who have known her and followed her throughout her career and I think that’ll be inspiring very broadly.” He adds that Beckham’s cultural impact and personal relationship with her brand also fit with Gap’s story telling sensibilities. The story they plan together was too big for one drop. And a multi-season collaboration has to have a different business strategy. “The strategy for us here is to bring in the right amount to have excitement and energy and have it be accessible, but not bought with such depth that it’s meant to live for months and months in the store,” says Breitbard. “These things are meant to be moments of high heat, to draw attention, to have fun, to drive business. And so we are intending to do that for this drop and then another drop later in the year, versus it’s going to launch and it’s going to be in the store.” Beckham’s designer bonafides are another lens for potential Gap customers who haven’t thought of the brand yet to tap in. “Gap made new,” says Breitbard concisely of the brand’s strategy. “We want to continue to make Gap new and this is a great way to do that.” View the full article

For years, premium credit cards competed on points, perks, and airport lounge access. Now the lounge itself is becoming the strategy. Chase is the latest to double down. With new Sapphire Lounge locations planned—starting with one at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and another at Los Angeles International Airport—the company is expanding its footprint at a moment when airport lounges have become one of the most competitive battlegrounds in consumer finance. The move follows a wave of recent openings that show how Chase is trying to differentiate not just on access, but on experience. “We’re really excited,” Dana Pouwels, head of airport lounge benefits at JPMorgan Chase, told Fast Company in an interview. “Dallas is opening this year, and Los Angeles will be opening within the next 12 months.” Specific details of those lounges are still under wraps, but the broader strategy is already visible, and it’s less about square footage and more about turning the airport into part of the destination. The lounge arms race is splitting in two directions To understand what Chase is doing, it helps to look at its biggest rival. American Express, which helped define the modern airport lounge with its Centurion network, is expanding in two directions at once. The company is building larger flagship lounges in key hubs like Boston and Dallas Fort Worth, while also rolling out smaller “Sidecar” spaces designed for travelers with limited time. That split reflects a simple reality. Not all travelers use lounges the same way. Some want a place to settle in for hours. Others want something closer to a high-end restaurant that they can move through more quickly, such as Capital One’s recently launched LGA lounge with José Andrés. Chase, at least for now, is leaning harder into the first camp, but with a twist. Designing for the destination, not just the delay If there is a defining feature of Chase’s lounges, it’s how much they try to feel like the city in which they’re located. The Las Vegas lounge, opened at the end of 2025, pushes that idea to its limit, leaning into theatrical design and playful details. “We went for bold and shimmering finishes, and it’s really just inspired by that city’s nightlife,” Pouwels said. The lounge includes a champagne parlor, a menu created with Momofuku founder David Chang, and cocktails that nod to the city’s history, like a jet-black libation topped with edible gummy dice. The Philadelphia lounge takes a different approach. There, Chase built a 20,000-square-foot space centered on the city’s beer culture, complete with a beer garden and a beer flight program that proved so popular it’s already been replicated by Chase in its Boston lounge. Beyond the food and drink offerings, the Philadelphia lounge also includes sports memorabilia, retro arcade machines, and one of the lounge network’s only TV-equipped spaces, a deliberate nod to local fan culture. The goal is consistency in quality, but not in sameness. Data decides where to go next Behind the scenes, Chase’s expansion is driven as much by data as design. “We’re always looking at the top places where our card members travel to and through, and also where they live,” Pouwels said. Los Angeles stands out as a priority, ranking as the second-most-booked destination for Chase cardholders in 2025. Dallas checks multiple boxes, serving as both a major travel hub and a city with a large Chase employee base. Still, demand alone is not enough. “The location has to be right in terms of the airport, but it also has to be right in terms of the terminal and the amount of space that’s available,” Pouwels said. That constraint helps explain why lounge growth, across the industry, has been steady but uneven. The post-pandemic traveler wants something different What is changing fastest is not where lounges are built, but what travelers expect from them. According to Pouwels, that shift started during the pandemic, when people grew accustomed to highly personalized environments at home and began expecting the same from travel. “Our lounges really have evolved to be more personalized experiences,” she said. That means more than just comfortable seating. Travelers are looking for discovery, whether that is a local chef, a regional drink, or a design element tied to the city. “They want to see something or learn something different every time they’re on a travel journey,” Pouwels said. American Express is responding to that demand by segmenting its lounge experience into multiple formats. Chase, meanwhile, is trying to build a sense of discovery into every location. Lounges as a loyalty engine The bigger play is not the lounge itself. It’s what the lounge represents. Chase sees these spaces as part of a broader travel ecosystem that starts before a trip is booked and continues through the airport and beyond. “We’re really focused on the end-to-end travel journey,” Pouwels said. That includes everything from trip planning to the airport experience itself, which has become a central touchpoint. “We really want to ensure that we’re bringing the local element of the city into the airport experience. . . . and really, the lounges are a natural extension of that, right? Enhancing every step of the card member’s travel journey,” Pouwels added. In other words, the airport is no longer just a stop along the way. It’s part of the product. What comes next With the Dallas lounge set to open this year and the one at LAX expected within the next 12 months, Chase’s new wave of lounges will test how far that strategy can go. The competitive pressure is only increasing. American Express continues to scale both larger and smaller formats. Other issuers, like Capital One, are experimenting with their own concepts. Travelers are gaining more access and, in turn, becoming more selective. For Chase, the bet is that the future of loyalty isn’t just about getting people to travel. It’s about owning more of the journey once they do. View the full article

If you know anything about Google Ads Asset Studio, you’ve heard the hype: “Google just killed every excuse for not running video ads.” “Total game changer! You don’t need a production budget anymore.” “Upload a few product images and get campaign-ready video in minutes.” From Google Ads > Tools > Asset Studio, you can build, manage, and scale images and videos across ad formats. The recent addition of Veo (Google’s AI video generation model) and Nano Banana Pro means you can now turn a handful of product images into full-motion video ads, for free, in no time. Apparently, video creative is no longer a constraint. But does Asset Studio actually change the game? Read on to find out if it’s worth your time. A tale of two Veos Google is its own biggest cheerleader for the power of its AI images and video. A recent Think with Google article showcases AI-generated ads for Cosmorama, a Greek travel agency. The videos are genuinely imaginative: think a flamenco dancer in the clouds, not just close-ups of headphones and sneakers. As part of learning Asset Studio, I set out to reverse-engineer their approach. I wasn’t trying to match the quality. I just wanted a proof of concept using Nano Banana and Veo. What I got instead was a series of dead ends. No scene-level control: I’d read that prompting plays a major role in video output. But there’s actually no prompt function for scenes in Asset Studio. You select an image from your Asset Library, and that’s it. Google decides how to animate it. There’s no way to direct motion, pacing, or narrative. Human performer restrictions: Video generation repeatedly failed with errors about “specific individuals.” I assumed that meant celebrities or real people. In practice, anything that resembled a human face — even AI-generated — triggered issues. The only assets that consistently worked were tightly cropped: hands, partial torsos, and abstract scenes. No real audio control: The Cosmorama video featured cinematic music. In Asset Studio, you’re limited to a small set of preloaded audio. There’s no way to upload custom music or meaningfully shape the sound layer. After so many false starts, I returned to the article. It mentioned Nano Banana and Veo by name. It never said they were used inside Asset Studio. When Veo 3 became available in Asset Studio, I didn’t realize how many limitations it would have, resulting in a completely different experience from the stand-alone version. CapabilityVeo (Full Version)Veo (Asset Studio)Control levelAdvanced control (API, model tiers, audio support)Simplified UI with fixed constraintsText-to-video promptingFull prompt control: – Scene – Camera movement – Lighting – Style – Subject/actionNoneUse casesProduction-ready pipelinesLightweight asset generationScene stitchingMulti-scene / narrative workflows (stitching and extensions)NoneHuman generationSupport (with policy constraints)Limited / often restricted What’s available may still help you create some great 10-second motion ads, but don’t go into it expecting flamenco dancing. 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 Does Asset Studio actually save time and effort? That depends: Whose time? Whose effort? For years, paid search managers had one move for visual assets: push back. “I need a vertical version.” “The first five seconds need to be more engaging.” “Can you remove the text overlay?” Creative’s been a constraint, but always someone else’s constraint to solve. Asset Studio changes that. You can edit, adapt, and post YouTube video ads, even without access to the brand’s YouTube channel. But the constraint doesn’t disappear. It just changes hands. Managing creative strategy and production — even within Asset Studio — takes more time than not owning that role. Using Asset Studio, I’ve manually adapted logos to new aspect ratios, generated variations that need further edits, and written voiceover scripts I never would have been involved in creating before. And since production can’t exist without a strategy, I’m spending more time on that too. This is definitely game-changer territory, but maybe not the way you’d hoped: If you’re a brand that would otherwise need a production team: This is likely faster and more affordable than the alternative, satisfying the velocity mandate. If you’re an agency absorbing this work on top of an existing scope: You’re likely taking on a new responsibility that wasn’t priced in. It removes a bottleneck and replaces it with ownership. If that shifts what your role actually covers, it’s worth revisiting your contract scope. Will this get me in trouble? AI ad compliance explained No federal laws in the U.S. prohibit the use of AI in ads. But that’s starting to change. New York recently passed a law requiring advertisers to clearly disclose when an ad includes a “synthetic performer,” and it’s set to take effect in June 2026. (Hat tip to Sam Tomlinson for his LinkedIn post flagging this.) Asset Studio doesn’t generate a visible watermark (such as the Gemini sparkle), and there’s no way to add an AI disclosure in Google Ads. A couple of things worth knowing if you’re using Asset Studio specifically: You’re likely covered for now. Asset Studio can’t generate content with human performers. As mentioned above, anything resembling a face consistently triggers errors. That means the New York law’s “synthetic performer” provision wouldn’t apply to what Asset Studio actually produces today. There’s a watermarking layer. Google uses SynthID to invisibly tag AI-generated images. If disclosure requirements become more explicit, that infrastructure already exists to support it. Asset Studio’s limitations may actually insulate you from the most immediate compliance concerns, but if you want to proactively disclose AI use for ethical reasons, there’s no built-in way to do that. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. AI without the slop Josh Spanier, Google’s VP of AI and Marketing Strategy, has this advice for marketers running AI-generated ads: “Stop fearing ‘AI slop.’ Humans made bad ads long before robots.” Interesting suggestion, but not all of our clients and stakeholders will be quite so enthusiastic about paying to run AI slop ads. Fortunately, tight control of Asset Studio images and video is easier than you might think. Unlike AI Max, where AI-generated assets can run before you’ve reviewed them, Asset Studio output isn’t automatically published. From your Asset Library, you choose which assets to run. The rest never see the light of day. What you can produce in Asset Studio is somewhat limited, but here are some of the non-sloppy features I’m most excited about. Image fidelity: Product images that actually look like your product Asset Studio’s Nano Banana 2 is built specifically for product integrity. Unlike general-purpose AI image tools like Midjourney, it lets you add up to five reference images and effectively “locks” the product. Only the surrounding environment is up for reinterpretation. Trim: Cut right to the action Client-produced video is rarely built for YouTube. Long intros and slow builds lose viewers before the message lands. Trim lets you jump straight to the action, without going back to the client for a new cut. Voiceovers and templates: Sleeper tools For a tool suite that promises to replace a production department, Asset Studio’s constrained voiceover and template options may seem underwhelming. Voiceover only works with audio ads or pre-existing video, and templates feel like glorified slide decks. But the more I reviewed the landscape of YouTube video ads, the more I realized: most companies struggle with messaging more than production quality. Low budget isn’t limiting sales, but bad scripts and concepts are. Templates and voice-overs let you test the right words faster than waiting for a new creative brief and a published video. In one campaign I’m running, an Asset Studio video I built in under 30 minutes using a template is already showing 10x the CTR of the client’s best-performing video. Beating the control may not be the highest bar to clear, but it’s a start. 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 The output isn’t the outcome Is Asset Studio a game changer? Not yet. But I’m not sure it needs to be. Positioning it as real competition against global creative brands sets everyone up for disappointment. The more useful frame: it’s a tool suite that makes creative faster and more accessible for accounts that couldn’t justify a production budget before. It does shift some of that strategy and production work onto the paid search manager who didn’t traditionally live in that role. But the bigger question is: what does any of this actually lead to? The point of digital marketing creative isn’t to produce more assets. It’s to drive conversions and sales. That’s still what needs to be proven. Tests are running now. I’ll share what holds up, and what doesn’t. View the full article

The United States attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship it said had tried to evade its naval blockade near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, and Iran’s joint military command vowed to respond, throwing a fragile ceasefire into question days before it expires. It was the first interception since the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports began last week. Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a ceasefire violation, the state broadcaster said. With the U.S.-Iran standoff over the strait sharpening and the ceasefire expiring by Wednesday, it was not clear where President Donald The President’s earlier announcement on new talks with Iran now stood. He had said U.S. negotiators would head to Pakistan on Monday. The uncertainty sent oil prices rising again. One of the worst global energy crises in decades threatened to deepen. The President on social media said a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer in the Gulf of Oman warned the Iranian-flagged ship, the Touska, to stop and then “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom.” U.S. Marines had custody of the U.S.-sanctioned vessel and were “seeing what’s on board!” It was not clear whether anyone was hurt. The U.S. Central Command, which didn’t answer questions, said the destroyer had issued “repeated warnings over a six-hour period.” Iranian state media suggest new talks won’t take place There was no comment from Iranian officials directly addressing The President’s announcement of talks. However, Iranian state media, without citing anyone beyond unnamed sources, issued brief reports suggesting that they would not happen. Minutes after the ship seizure was announced, Iranian state media reported on President Masoud Pezeshkian’s phone conversation with Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, earlier Sunday. U.S. actions, including bullying and unreasonable behavior, have led to increased suspicion that the U.S. will repeat previous patterns and “betray diplomacy,” the reports cited Pezeshkian as saying. Two previous attempts at talks — last June and earlier this year — were interrupted by Israeli and U.S. attacks. On another phone call, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, that recent U.S. actions, rhetoric and contradictions were signs of “bad intentions and lack of seriousness in diplomacy,” Iran’s state broadcaster said. Pakistan did not confirm a second round of talks, but authorities had begun tightening security in Islamabad. A regional official involved in the efforts said mediators were finalizing preparations and U.S. advance security teams were on the ground. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss preparations with the media. The White House had said Vice President JD Vance, who led the first round of historic face-to-face talks over 21 hours last weekend, would lead the U.S. delegation to Pakistan with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Iran on Saturday said it had received new proposals from the United States. While Iran’s chief negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, late Saturday said “there will be no retreat in the field of diplomacy,” he acknowledged a wide gap remained between the sides. It was unclear whether either side had shifted stances on issues that derailed the last round of negotiations, including Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the Strait of Hormuz. The President’s announcement on talks repeated his threats against Iranian infrastructure that have drawn widespread criticism and warnings of war crimes. If Iran doesn’t agree to the U.S.-proposed deal, “the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” he wrote. Iran wants to control strait until ‘war fully ends’ Iran early Monday warned it could keep up the global economic pain as ships remained unable to transit the strait, with hundreds of vessels waiting at each end for clearance. Security of the strait is not free and “the choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone,” Mohammad Reza Aref, first vice president of Iran, said in a social media post calling for a lasting end to military and economic pressure on Tehran. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil trade normally passes through the strait, along with critical supplies of fertilizer for the world’s farmers, natural gas and humanitarian supplies for places in dire need like Afghanistan and Sudan. Iran had announced the strait’s reopening after a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon took hold on Friday. But then The President said the U.S. blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the United States. Iran said it would again enforce restrictions it imposed early in the war. On Saturday, Iran fired at ships trying to transit. For the Islamic Republic, the strait’s closure is perhaps its most powerful weapon, inflicting political pain on The President. For the United States, the blockade squeezes Iran’s already weakened economy. Each side has accused the other of violating the ceasefire. Since most supplies to U.S. military bases in the Gulf region come through the strait, “Iran is determined to maintain oversight and control over traffic through the strait until the war fully ends,” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said late Saturday. That means Iran-designated routes, payment of fees and issuance of transit certificates. The council has recently acted as Iran’s de facto top decision-making body. The war is now in its eighth week after the U.S. and Israel launched it on Feb. 28 during talks over Tehran’s nuclear program. At least 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this report. An earlier version of this story corrected the name of the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson to Esmail Baghaei. —Michelle L. Price, Samy Magdy and Sam Metz, Associated Press View the full article

The European Commission proposed Google share data with rival search engines and qualifying AI chatbots in the EU/EEA. The post Google May Have To Share Search Data With Rivals appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Many ecommerce brands misapply Meta-style thinking to Google Ads, leading to wasted spend and weak performance from poorly structured accounts. The post Winning Google Ads Campaign Structures For DTC Ecommerce appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Shares in the space-based internet provider AST SpaceMobile Inc (Nasdaq: ASTS) are sinking this morning after a major mishap occurred with the deployment of its latest satellite from Blue Origin’s most advanced rocket, the New Glenn. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? On Sunday, April 19, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space company launched its flagship rocket, the New Glenn, for the third time. The New Glenn is a partially reusable heavy-lift rocket aimed at directly competing with archrival SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. (This rivalry pits two of the world’s richest people against each other: Bezos, founder of Amazon, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.) All three of these rockets are designed to deliver payloads into space and for their boosters to safely land back on Earth after launch, for reuse in future missions. The New Glenn, named after the U.S. astronaut John Glenn, is much larger than SpaceX’s rockets, allowing it to carry larger payloads. However, despite this benefit, Blue Origin still plays second fiddle to SpaceX, the premier private spaceflight firm that governments and companies rely on to launch their satellites. Blue Origin had hoped that the third launch of the New Glenn would begin to change this perception. For that launch, the New Glenn carried AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite into space. And while the New Glenn did successfully launch, and its booster did safely touch back down on Earth, the rest of the mission—the part that AST SpaceMobile was relying on—did not go as planned. BlueBird 7 satellite was misplaced in orbit The New Glenn’s payload was AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite, which is part of a constellation the space-based internet provider is building to deliver broadband internet to smartphones on Earth. When it launches later this year, AST SpaceMobile’s satellite internet service will have the advantage of working with existing, unmodified mobile devices. In other words, you won’t need a special satellite internet-capable smartphone to get satellite internet service. But before AST SpaceMobile can bring that service back to people on Earth, it needs to put about 45 satellites into space. While Blue Origin’s New Glenn successfully launched the BlueBird 7 into space, the satellite decoupled from the launch vehicle and powered on, but it was placed in an incorrect orbit, making it unusable. In a statement after the failed deployment, AST confirmed the New Glenn placed the BlueBird 7 “into a lower than planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle,” adding that “the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology.” As a result, the BlueBird 7 will be “de-orbited.” Deorbiting is the process by which a satellite is brought back into Earth’s atmosphere in a controlled reentry so that it can burn up. AST says the cost of the satellite, which is estimated to be in the tens of millions, should be recoverable by the company’s insurance policy. What went wrong? For now, it’s too early to tell what went wrong with the BlueBird 7’s deployment. Yet the fact that something did go wrong will serve as a stain on Blue Origin’s capabilities, especially just at the time when the company was hoping to start stealing some of the thunder from its main rival, SpaceX. AST SpaceMobile has not given any explanation for why the BlueBird 7 was deployed into an incorrect orbit. As for Blue Origin, in a social media post, the company confirmed that “The payload was placed into an off-nominal orbit,” while noting it was “currently assessing and will update when we have more detailed information.” Fast Company has reached out to AST SpaceMobile and Blue Origin for comment. ASTS stock drops after failed deployment After news of the failed deployment broke, AST SpaceMobile’s stock price plunged. As of the time of this writing, ASTS shares are currently down nearly 15% in premarket trading to $72.75 each. Blue Origin is a private company, so its stock is not publicly traded on any market. Until last week, AST SpaceMobile’s stock price had seen notable growth for the year. As of Friday’s closing price, ASTS shares were up nearly 18% year to date, far outperforming the Nasdaq Composite’s 5.31%. Over the past 12 months, ASTS shares have surged more than 265%. Investors have high hopes for AST SpaceMobile. If it can successfully deploy its full constellation of satellites, it could bring space-based broadband internet to billions of existing mobile devices across the world. But in order for the company to do that, its satellites will need successful launches and deployments—and not a repeat of yesterday’s mishap. The company says it is continuing with its plans, with BlueBird satellites 8 to 10 scheduled to launch in the next 30 days. It says it expects to have approximately 45 satellites in orbit by the end of the year. View the full article

Google has outlined best practices that can increase the likelihood of "Read more" deep links appearing. The post Google Lists Best Practices For Read More Deep Links appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Trust in search is now dynamic, requiring ongoing authority building, content maintenance, and structured delivery to remain visible. The post What Search Engines Trust Now: Authority, Freshness & First-Party Signals appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

When we lift weights, do yoga, or perform exercises of any kind, there’s often an instructor chiming in to tell us to “engage our core.” But what does that really mean? It turns out there are two different ways of doing it and they produce opposite results, so it’s important to know which one you need to work on to accomplish your fitness goals. Here are the two ways, why they're different, and how to know which one you should do. Method 1: Pull your belly button to your spineThis one is probably familiar if you’ve ever done pilates or physical therapy. You’re told to pull your belly button toward your spine, or to think of “hollowing” or “drawing in” your stomach muscles. In this motion, you are still allowing yourself to breathe; you’re not sucking in your stomach, but rather, tightening it with your muscles. (If you watch in the mirror, you’ll notice your waist appears smaller when you do this. Sometimes people will also do it to pose for a picture or to create a leaner look while performing as a dancer.) The reason this is a common practice in many physical therapy, yoga, and pilates classes is that doing so activates your transverse abdominis, one of the lesser-known ab muscles. A study in 1999 found that people with low back pain were less likely to contract this muscle while moving their bodies, so physical therapists began to instruct people to contract this muscle to protect their backs from strain. Unfortunately, it turns out this move may not actually do much to protect your back after all, but it’s still popular advice. If you’re performing yoga or pilates moves this way, you’re in good company, and many physical therapists still favor this approach. But there's another way to engage your core, one that's more popular in activities like weightlifting. Method 2: Brace before lifting something heavyNow let’s talk about what to do if you’re lifting a heavy weight or preparing to perform some kind of forceful feat of strength. First, you’ll need to brace. (Bracing may also be a good alternative to hollowing your belly in physical therapy, but I’m not your PT, so talk it over with them.) When you brace for a lift, you’ll do something much like if you were expecting to get punched in the gut. If that's not an instinctive movement to you, imagine that you're lying relaxed on a bed, and you notice your cat or toddler about to jump on your belly. Try that now: you’ll probably hold your breath, contract your abs, and feel the muscles all around your waist tighten up. Rather than sucking in your belly, it may seem like you’re pulling your ribcage down toward your pelvis. This activates your transverse abdominis along with everything else. (If it feels a little like you’re bearing down for a bowel movement, you’re on the right track.) This is what powerlifters and other weight lifters mean when they talk about bracing for a lift. If you are wearing a belt, bracing will push the muscles of your midsection against the belt (not just in front, but all around). This process turns your torso into a solid, stable, pressurized column that can support a lot of weight (as in a squat), or hold its position steady as you apply force to it in another direction (as in a deadlift, where your torso is the link between your back, your leg muscles applying force, and your arms, which are supporting the barbell in your hands). Holding your breath and locking it in with a valsalva maneuver is typically part of this process. In some cases—for example, if you are pregnant or if you have certain medical conditions—your doctor may advise you not to hold your breath under pressure. You can still do your best to brace; just exhale slowly during the lift rather than holding your breath. (If you have health concerns, talk to your healthcare provider about whether this is appropriate for you.) When you’re trying to do a heavy lift in the gym, remember the distinction between these two ways of engaging your core, and do not try to hollow your belly or pull your navel to your spine, since that will have an effect opposite of the one you want. Save that motion for pilates class; when you’re under a barbell, make sure you brace. View the full article

When people discuss climate innovation, they often picture technology. Better batteries. Smarter grids. Carbon capture at scale. Those breakthroughs matter and are happening every day. But on this World Creativity and Innovation Day, I want to make a case for a different kind of innovation. One that is structural rather than technical, already underway, and quietly accelerating climate progress. It is, in a word, trust. A SYSTEM BUILT FOR FRAGMENTATION The social impact sector is filled with brilliant, committed people working on the climate crisis. It is also organized in a way almost perfectly designed to prevent the scale of impact the crisis demands. Many organizations undertaking critical work compete for the same funding. They guard their methodologies, protect their data, and duplicate efforts. They differentiate their missions so precisely that a funder reading a dozen can be forgiven for wondering whether any of them are solving the same problem. None of this is driven by bad faith. It is driven by survival. For decades, philanthropic funding has rewarded differentiation over collaboration and proprietary impact over shared learning. The result is a fragmented ecosystem applying fragmented resources to a problem that is anything but fragmented. The climate crisis does not respect organizational boundaries, and those of us working to solve it must stop acting as if it does. DESIGN FOR TRUST, NOT COMPETITION So what would it look like to redesign the system itself, not just the solutions within it? In 2023, my organization, Pyxera Global, joined an unusual experiment: the Collaborative for Systemic Climate Action. We did not know where it would lead, but something fundamental had to change. We began with 15 organizations with a combined 250+ years of experience. Three years later, the Collaborative has grown to 29 organizations, including Climate KIC, the Club of Rome, the B Team, the Green Africa Youth Organization, and the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance. All are united by a shared dedication to break down the silos that have long limited what any one of them could accomplish alone. Each organization committed to driving the systems change needed to build inclusive and regenerative societies. That meant leaving organizational ego at the door. It meant rethinking power dynamics and stepping away from traditional partnership models. Most importantly, it meant sharing what is usually protected: intellectual property, business models, and even funder relationships. This level of openness carries real risk. For any single organization, it could be destabilizing. But the members of the Collaborative believe that the scale of the climate crisis outweighs institutional self-protection, and that meaningful progress requires taking risks together. PROOF THAT IT WORKS And the results are beginning to speak for themselves. Together, the Collaborative has secured significant funding from major institutional donors, including the Oak Foundation, Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, and Quadrature Climate Foundation—partners that individual organizations might not have reached on their own. It has hosted joint thought leadership and fundraising events at global convenings such as the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and Climate Week, creating a unified platform that amplifies collective knowledge and impact. It has also seeded more than a dozen systems-change initiatives across geographies as varied as Ghana, India, Ireland, New Mexico, and Brazil. Many of these efforts would have struggled to get off the ground independently, but through the Collaborative they are now positioned to attract the additional funding needed to scale. Just as important is the infrastructure behind them. Partners convene twice a year for deep sensemaking and portfolio review, and meet weekly in virtual sessions to stay aligned, build trust, and continuously learn from one another. I have spent more than two decades working on partnerships and 38 years in the social impact sector. I thought I understood collaboration. What I have seen in the Collaborative for Systemic Climate Action is something different. The level of trust, and the results already emerging from it, go beyond anything I have experienced before. This does not mean it is frictionless. Conflicts arise. Old habits resurface. Egos occasionally reenter the room. But even with those tensions, the trajectory is clear: Something fundamentally different is taking shape. This is what structural innovation looks like. It is as disruptive in its domain as any new technology. World Creativity and Innovation Day exists to celebrate creativity in all its forms. Redesigning how climate philanthropy operates, how knowledge is shared, and how trust is built at scale is creative work. It is not a new invention. It is a new way of organizing human effort. WHY THIS MATTERS NOW That shift is becoming urgent. Public sector climate funding is shrinking. Multilateral institutions are under increasing political pressure. Corporate ESG commitments are being quietly scaled back. In this environment, the traditional nonprofit response will not close the gap. What is needed is not just more funding, but better alignment of existing resources. That is where trust becomes a force multiplier. The Collaborative’s approach is simple in concept and radical in practice: Reduce the friction between organizations that should be natural allies, so that existing resources can move faster and go further. THE REAL BOTTLENECK The Collaborative is one proof point, but the model itself is replicable. We describe it as “mycelium,” a networked system that connects and strengthens everything it touches. It requires a convener willing to do the unglamorous work of building relationships and holding space for shared ownership. It requires funders willing to invest in connective tissue, not just individual projects. And it requires leaders willing to believe that their impact will be greater within a strong ecosystem than within a weaker one they control. For companies and philanthropists looking to maximize their climate commitment impact, this is where the leverage lies. Not in funding a single organization, but in enabling many organizations to operate as one. The hardest material in climate action is not carbon. It is the institutional ego and competitive reflex that keep aligned actors apart. Building the conditions for trust at scale may be one of the most important challenges, and opportunities, in climate action today. Deirdre White is the CEO of Pyxera Global. View the full article

You’ve audited your client’s website and compiled performance data. You’ve identified what’s working, what can be improved, and your recommendations for future strategies. But how do you turn that data into a presentation that’s easy to explain and builds trust? Start with stories. Storytelling isn’t just for entertainment. It’s how people make sense of information. That’s what makes it so effective for data presentation. One of the simplest ways to structure that story is the three-act structure. It’s a familiar framework used everywhere, from Aristotle’s Poetics to Star Wars. What is the three-act structure? The three-act structure is a simple framework that shows how a story moves from beginning to middle to end. It shows how a protagonist moves from their starting point to a meaningful change. Applied to data storytelling, it helps you organize your insights, position your client as the main character (the protagonist), and clearly show what happens next. While similar to the five-point narrative arc, this framework is organized into three manageable sections: what the story is about, what happens when the main character is introduced to conflict, and how that conflict is resolved. 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 Act 1: The beginning This is where the protagonist’s norm and conflict — the issue the main character is meant to face, also known as the antagonist — are established. The protagonist wants something, and the conflict is holding them back from what they want. An event or circumstance occurs that incites the protagonist into action. The background is established, the goals are defined, and the audience is invested in the protagonist’s success. Act 2: The middle The story is developed, and tension builds. The protagonist experiences roadblocks caused by the conflict/antagonist that hinder them from their ultimate goal. Conflict arises until it can no longer be ignored, causing a pivotal moment that leads into the final act. Act 3: The end The narrative is affected by the change in Act 2, bringing the story to a final showdown between the protagonist and the conflict/antagonist, ultimately resulting in a resolution. The protagonist may find closure or know what path lies ahead (this may set the stage for a sequel). The three-act structure helps you understand website data on a deeper level. It also prepares the data to be presented to your client in a way that places them at the center of the story. Using the three-act structure to identify your data’s narrative Why bother using the three-act structure as a framework for strategy analysis? It builds trust, showing your client that you’re going on a journey alongside them. You and your client are on the same team, with the same destination in mind: their success, even if the data isn’t communicating immediate results. The application of the three-act structure to data storytelling happens in three steps. Step 1: Briefly recap the existing strategies, establish previous wins, and identify the challenge currently affecting performance. This sets the baseline of Act 1. Step 2: Explain the roadblocks and how they stand in the way of the overall strategy’s success. This parallels the growing conflict found in the structure’s Act 2. Step 3: Recommend the next steps and how you plan to address the conflict. Show what success looks like by providing examples of how your recommendations fit the narrative of your client’s goals. This is Act 3, the resolution of the structure. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Where is your client’s story in the three-act structure? Your client is the protagonist of their story. To work more effectively together, you need to communicate to your client that you’re invested in the story of their success. At the heart of each data set is the story of how your client is impacted. When you communicate what the data is saying, position yourself as the guide who helps the main character get where they need to go. An example of applying the three-act structure framework to data analysis and presenting the data’s narrative would look like this: ActGoalScenarioApproach1Set the stage, center your client as the protagonist while introducing the challenge as the antagonist.Your client’s website has received a substantial increase in organic traffic as a result of your most recent strategy, but is experiencing a high bounce rate on select pages.Recap the strategy that led to the traffic increase and summarize the outcome from a high-level perspective.2Identify the conflict, potential roadblocks, and related stakes.The high bounce rate is preventing your website from experiencing consistent traffic flow. Explain why a high bounce rate is detrimental to overall performance, and connect the affected pages to the overall strategy.3Recommend strategies and outline next steps.Your client’s high bounce rate indicates low page speed due to large images that take a long time to load.Help the client visualize how best practices lead to better outcomes. Recommend image compression as a next step. The conclusion doesn’t always mean the end of the story Finding the story in your data — and communicating it clearly — is how you build trust with clients. Clients don’t want industry jargon. They want to feel seen, understood, and that they’ve entrusted their digital marketing success to the right person. Stories, and the connections they form, get them there. Reaching the conclusion of your data’s narrative isn’t the end, but the beginning: the start of strategy implementation, of collaborative partnerships, and of greater results. When looking at data, you and your client are on a journey together. A downward trend in your data doesn’t mean your story is over, and an upward trend doesn’t mean there’s no hope for a sequel. In either case, a new journey (your next strategy) can begin. View the full article

Google is reportedly testing opening search results in a new window. Yes, there is a setting to turn this on or off, but the setting is turned off and Google is testing opening these clicks in a new window.View the full article