At the time, traffic to those specialty sites was being effectively siphoned off by big-name publishers that had created their own product review sites monetized by affiliate sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Google pulled the lever back on that category of affiliate sites, too, while tweaking its algo to favor \u201cforums\u201d and \u201cauthentic reviews.\u201d The practical upshot was a huge surge in traffic to Reddit in particular.\u00a0 \n <\/p>\n
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HouseFresh<\/a> is taking aim at Google Search again, this time by examining the quality of its AI Overviews (AIOs) when it recommends and describes air purifiers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n What it finds is a sycophantic AI salesman who describes things glowingly, often in error, and will in fact recommend products that don\u2019t exist if it seems like you might buy it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Funnily enough, writes the air quality review site, Google\u2019s organic searches do a fair job of presenting more reliable reviews and descriptions. But that\u2019s only for the brave souls who scroll past the AIO and the sponsored placements.\u00a0<\/p>\n Upfront, Down Slow<\/b><\/p>\n TV\u2019s upfront negotiations are moving at a crawl this year, Digiday<\/a> reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n One sticking point is the discrepancy between Nielsen ratings and other currencies, along with programmers\u2019 own metrics.\u00a0<\/p>\n Programmers are now DTC streaming companies and possess their own first-party viewership data. But adding this data is surprisingly thorny. NBCUniversal now appends some of this data to some of its own reports<\/a>. But Amazon caused a ruckus when it started reporting its own viewership data<\/a> for Thursday Night NFL games a few years ago, with numbers that vastly exceeded the official Nielsen numbers. The following NFL season, Amazon was going to provide numbers to Nielsen, but rival programmers delayed the move, protesting that whoever moves first will unfairly benefit.<\/p>\n The Nielsen dynamic isn\u2019t new, but a long-running contention for broadcasters who believe their ratings are underestimated. Although, in the past week, a new Adalytics report<\/a> documented millions of total views for illicit live NFL and NCAA football games on YouTube. Those people are watching the linear stream, including the ads, but wouldn\u2019t appear in the ratings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another hangup this year is the number of enterprise brands that have pulled recent agency switcheroos, according to Digiday. The result is confusion over which agency is even responsible for upfront negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so many different dynamics now, it\u2019s difficult to say that there is kind of one trend that\u2019s driving everything,\u201d says one holdco head of investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Software Fortresses<\/b><\/p>\n The biggest ad platforms model themselves as \u201ccontent fortresses\u201d \u2013 souped-up walled gardens built around exclusive media.<\/p>\n But is the same idea coming for mar tech software?<\/p>\n For decades, the mar tech ecosystem has evolved around ideas of open integration. Even if Salesforce has a point solution or product, it might also integrate with a roster of vendors that do the same task. Companies like LiveRamp, Atlassian (which makes Jira, among other software), Docusign and the design and business workflow company Figma all integrate with big mar tech firms.<\/p>\n But the expansion of data-hungry AI startups has API-based mar tech on the defensive, The Information<\/a> reports. The AI startup Glean aims to simplify business tasks and does so partly by drawing on the data of products like Slack, which is owned by Salesforce. Until a month ago, when Salesforce stopped allowing Glean to export or store Slack data, even when customers opted to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven if the moves succeed in slowing down potential AI threats,\u201d writes the Information, \u201cthey could sour customers on traditional enterprise apps and prompt them to seek alternatives \u2013 the very thing these incumbents are trying to prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n But Wait! There\u2019s More<\/b><\/p>\n The IAB released its digital out-of-home measurement guide. [IAB<\/a>]\u00a0<\/p>\n Microsoft and OpenAI are trying to lock in enterprise deals with big ad agencies. [Adweek<\/a>]<\/p>\n The AI boom is forcing data companies to consolidate and prioritize interoperability. [TechCrunch<\/a>]<\/p>\n Amazon Prime Day prices don\u2019t always reflect real discounts \u2013 but publishers are incentivized to promote the deals anyway in order to earn affiliate revenue. [Popular Info<\/a>]<\/p>\n Reinventing the Minnesota Star Tribune. [The Rebooting<\/a>]<\/p>\n After a recent update, xAI\u2019s Grok chatbot is spouting antisemitic conspiracy theories and praising Hitler. [Axios<\/a>]<\/p>\n A federal appeals court has struck down the FTC\u2019s proposed \u201cclick-to-cancel\u201d rule days before it would have taken effect. [The Guardian<\/a>]<\/p>\n You\u2019re Hired!<\/b><\/p>\n Seedtag hired former Criteo President and CRO Brian Gleason as its new CEO. [post<\/a>]<\/p>\n Dave Clark, former head of FreeWheel and CEO of TripleLift, joined Cast Iron Media as CEO. [release<\/a>]<\/p>\n Angela Tangas is the new global CEO of Oliver, the Brandtech Group\u2019s in-housing agency. [release<\/a>]<\/p>\n JWP Connatix hired Kenneth Rona as its first chief AI officer. [release<\/a>]\u00a0<\/p>\n Spectrum Reach promoted Mary Pouliopoulos to SVP, customer experience. [release<\/a>]<\/p>\n