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The GRADIENT: Why Taste Is the New Moat

Robert Alice’s 700 page celebration of NFTs is a rousing education on misconstrued technology

Alongside Rutherford Chang, Leander Herzog, Kim Asendorf, Shl0ms, Roope Rainisto and Jack Butcher, the book also includes 60s computer compositions by A. Michael Noll, Rafael Rozendaal’s trippy patchwork art recently shown in MoMa, generative WebGL artworks, and Anna Ridler’s early and important NFTs, all of which share unique relationships with the digital medium and the

Google Adds AI Shopping Tools Across Search, Gemini

Google is rolling out AI shopping updates across Search and the Gemini app, introducing conversational shopping and agentic features that automate price tracking and local inventory checks. The updates begin rolling out today in the United States. What’s New AI Mode Shopping Upgrade AI Mode in Search now pairs Gemini models with Google’s Shopping Graph

Conversational AI is growing rapidly, but consumers have a few concerns

MarTechCharts regularly highlights data of interest to marketers and marketing operations professionals. Source: “Inside the Conversational AI Revolution,” from Twilio. The use of conversational AI for customer service and sales is rapidly increasing, according to a new report from Twilio, which found 63% of organizations in either the final or complete stages of development, and

I’m addicted to watching this logo unfurl

You may or may not have heard of Furl, a British company that designs and makes high-end things to sit/lie on with storage in them – that’s sofa beds, storage beds and storage sofas. But you’ll be more likely to pay attention if you do come across them as Furl now have a revamped new

Google Defends Parasite SEO Crackdown As EU Opens Investigation

Google has defended its enforcement of site reputation abuse policies after the European Commission announced an investigation into whether the company unfairly demotes news publishers in search results. The company published a blog post stating the investigation “is misguided and risks harming millions of European users” and that it “risks rewarding bad actors and degrading

Center Parcs strengthens marketing leadership with three senior hires

Center Parcs has completed an overhaul of its marketing leadership team with three senior appointments, as the business ramps up investment in brand, digital and guest experience. Source

The Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute proves that subcultures are thriving more than ever

How does Cari identify aesthetics? Cari attempts to keep the process of identifying and categorising aesthetics “as democratic as possible.” Members typically carry out independent research, looking into colour schemes, iconography, materiality, themes, production techniques, etc. “It’s also helpful if those proposing a newly discovered style are able to also identify some social, cultural and

The Web’s Next Great Idea, Or Its Next Spam Magnet

At a recent conference, I was asked if llms.txt mattered. I’m personally not a fan, and we’ll get into why below. I listened to a friend who told me I needed to learn more about it as she believed I didn’t fully understand the proposal, and I have to admit that she was right. After

Programmatic’ next act arrives in microseconds

Back in June, Patrick Hann, the ad tech manager at the IAB U.K., was walking a room of ad ops execs through the basics of agentic AI. When he asked who had even heard the term, only about 20% raised their hands. That number would look very different now. The acceleration since that meeting has

Hideo Kojima surprises us again with Death Stranding anime for Disney+

Since release in 2019, Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding video game has attracted over 20 million players with its blend of cinematic ambition, metaphysical mystery, lingering existential dread and lots and lots of walking. And now the franchise is spinning off in directions we never imagined. A second game, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was

Is Google About To Go Full AI Mode?

AI search is rapidly changing the way people discover content and engage with brands. Logan Kilpatrick, Google’s lead product manager for AI products, suggested in an X (formerly Twitter) post that “AI Mode” will become the default for Google Search “soon” and then reclarified his statements, but if that happens, what could potentially happen to

YouTube and Disney Reach Deal to End Carriage Dispute

YouTube and Disney have reached a deal that will restore Disney’s networks to YouTube TV, ending a blackout that persisted for about two weeks. In a statement released Friday afternoon, YouTube wrote: We’re happy to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Disney that preserves the value of our service for our subscribers and future

Project 3 Agency rebrands the ArtScience Museum, around the concept of convergence

ArtScience Museum’s graphic language of convergence can be distilled into three pillars: intersections, overlays, and dynamic forms. In honouring the museum’s architecture, typography maintains a characterful clarity across exhibition imagery, film and digital content, and more. Ali says the typography needed to feel “identifiable without being overstylised”. The inspiration of the natural lotus flower lends

How To Make Search Console Work Harder For You

TL;DR Search Console has some pretty severe limitations when it comes to storage, anonymized and incomplete data, and API limits. You can bypass a lot of these limitations and make GSC work much harder for you but setting up far more properties at a subfolder level. You can have up to 1,000 properties in your Search Console account.

What AI and agents mean for marketing teams — now and in the future

At the November MarTech Conference, Greg Kihlstrom, principal at The Agile Brand, moderated “What AI and agents mean for marketing teams… Now and in the future,” a forward-looking conversation about how agent-powered organizations will reshape roles, workflows and leadership. He was joined by Jiaxi Zhu, head of analytics at Google; Noah Dinkin, founder and CEO

Preorder the Snapmaker U1 right now and save $150

Want a Snapmaker U1? Me too! And I have good news for anyone yet to preorder this 3D printer, as to coincide with Black Friday, the company is offering $150 off right now. This brings the price of the Snapmaker U1 to just $849, down from $999 over at Snapmaker’s official website (with freebies thrown

PMax Expands, Clarity Now Mandatory & AI Max Data Debate

This week, the paid media world focused less on new tools and more on what’s changing beneath the surface. Google expanded Performance Max into a new channel and offered long-awaited reporting visibility. Microsoft took a firm stance on brand safety by requiring Clarity across its publisher network. And one viral LinkedIn post questioned the effectiveness

Diageo’s new CEO and brand power: Your Marketing Week

At the end of every week, we look at the key stories, offering our view on what they mean for you and the industry. From Diageo’s appointment of Dave Lewis to Waitrose’s rom-com starring Keira Knightley, it’s been a busy week. Here is my take. In good spirits Investors in Diageo will have sounded a

The newest issue of Foam Magazine asks “what makes an image timeless?”

It’s a chewy subject, but this issue delivers on the task of answering these age-old questions in photographs that pack a lot of information into simple, beautiful compositions. In A Glint of Possibility by Tyler Mitchell, a man dangles from a tire swing just close enough to the water to see his own reflection, risking

Translated Sites See 327% More Visibility in AI Overviews

This post was sponsored by Weglot. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. When Google’s AI Overviews launched in 2024, dozens of questions quickly surfaced among SEO professionals, one being: if AI now curates and summarizes search results, how do websites earn visibility, especially across languages? Weglot recently conducted a data-driven study,

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