Glenn Gabe

I missed this earlier in the week from @rustybrick. More AI content in ads via Gemini. This time AdSense ad intents -> Google AdSense Ad Intents To Add AI-Gemini-Generated Content Google announced, "When a user interacts with an ad intent on your page, the dialog contains

"Replacing people with AI doesn’t seem to be that easy to do, if Meta can be seen as an example" -> At a town hall, Mark Zuckerberg said Meta's AI agent development has not accelerated as expected and its reorganization was not as “clean” as it could have been Soul-crushing gulag?? Oof. "He also apparently said that the perceived upside of the new AI-focused company structure hadn’t “come to ​fruition yet,” although he said that he believed the company would begin to see improvements from its AI investments during the next three to six months. Several other investigative reports have depicted Meta’s months-old AI unit as a soul-crushing gulag, according to some of the engineers assigned to it."

Yikes, $4.7B -> Google loses fight over record $4.7 billion EU antitrust fine *Europe’s top court has upheld Google’s fine of around 4.1 billion euros ($4.67 billion) over alleged anti-competitive practices. *In 2018, the European Commission slapped Google with the record-breaking penalty on the grounds that it abused Android’s mobile dominance. *Google has been appealing the ruling through the EU court system. But the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Europe’s top court, dismissed Google’s appeal.

It's back now, but what a pain in the butt. Press Gazette hit with another BS DMCA takedown -> Spurious copyright claim sees second Press Gazette story removed from Google search And the "original" article on Reddit has now been removed. There have been many reports of DMCA negative SEO examples... I think Google needs to get this under control, and soon.

The impact of vibe coding. The # of games released surge like crazy as job losses also surge -> AI and vibe coding fuel a surge in game releases; ATTN Economy says 181K mobile games launched in six months to May, up 118% on iOS and 73% on Android YoY "Global data from research company ATTN Economy shows that 181,000 games were released in the six months to May, 43,500 on iOS and 137,000 on Android — increases of 118 per cent and 73 per cent respectively year on year. This increase has come alongside some significant job losses in the gaming industry."

Personal Intelligence + Nano Banana is now available to all eligible Gemini users in the US (via Personal Intelligence and connecting Google Photos) "Starting today, all eligible users in the U.S. can experience deeply personalized image generation in Gemini for free. We’re connecting Personal Intelligence with Nano Banana and Google Photos, so your creations can easily reflect your taste and lifestyle, gleaned from your connected Google apps."

Agent Bill. Strange times ahead :) -> Sen. Mark Warner to Unveil AI Agent Bill "His new bill incorporates the duty of loyalty principle, which aims to enable fair marketplaces for users, according to the legislative aide. For example, the bill would prevent a travel booking agent from directing a user to book at Hilton hotels because of a hidden partnership with that chain. Similarly, it would prevent large platforms like Amazon and Airbnb from blocking outside agents from accessing their websites, though it allows them to set privacy and security standards."

Still a smaller volume of traffic, but conversion numbers were very strong. Also, sounds like the rendering situation is not good across sites -> Amazon Prime Day: AI plays a bigger role this year and yielded 40% better conversion "While AI still generates a modest volume of online traffic compared to other channels, the new figures show AI is “shortening the time it takes for consumers to confidently get the information they need,” Adobe reported." "But, Pandya noted, a big problem for retailers is that “sizable portions of retailer’s websites, up to 46 percent in some cases, are not readable by machines. That problem, Pandya said, “limits their visibility across AI surfaces and will push brands to invest in more AI-friendly content such as tutorials, how-to guides, customer service pages, and more.”

Google VP of Security Engineering Heather Adkins warns the EU's DMA proposals to open Android and Search could lead to a significant rise in fraud within weeks "Google’s top privacy and security staff have warned that plans in Europe, designed to get it to open up its search data and Android operating system to competitors, could lead to people’s search queries being hacked and an increase in cybercrime across the content, according to multiple interviews and documents shared with WIRED." "Meanwhile, Adkins also claims the proposed changes to Google Search could result in people’s search queries being de-anonymized by bad actors and search data shared with small companies being a target for criminal hackers."