Marvelβs Wolverine is coming to PlayStation 5 this year Sony has officially unveiled their release date for Marvelβs Wolverine, confirming that the game will be coming to PlayStation 5 this year. Along with this announcement comes a new gameplay trailer, embedded below. Marvelβs Wolverine is coming to PlayStation 5 on September 15th, two months ahead [β¦]
HP Inc. and its subsidiaries ("HP") announced fiscal 2026 first quarter net revenue of $14.4 billion, up 6.9% (up 5.2% in constant currency) from the prior-year period.
"We are pleased to report a strong first quarter, highlighted by robust growth in Personal Systems, including the continued momentum in AI PCs. Our performance reflects the strength of our portfolio and our disciplined execution of our Future of Work strategy, even as we navigate industry-wide headwinds," said Bruce Broussard, Interim CEO, HP Inc.
First quarter GAAP diluted net earnings per share ("EPS") of $0.58, down 1.7% from the prior year period
First quarter non-GAAP diluted net EPS of $0.81, up 9.5% from the prior year period
First quarter net revenue of $14.4 billion, up 6.9% from the prior-year period
First quarter net cash provided by operating activities of $383 million, free cash flow of $175 million
First quarter returned $0.6 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends
The popular hardware diagnostics utility HWiNFO launched its latest v8.42 version on February 24th. Interestingly, one of the main features of this release is the improved support for Intel "Nova Lake" processors, despite this CPU generation being months away from commercial launch. This means that the tool can now distinguish between different Intel processors and even run diagnostics on engineering samples of "Nova Lake-S," despite the processor not being commercially available for another few quarters. It is possible that the utility is now raising a flag when detecting "Nova Lake," which has its own unique processor ID, and this could be found in some early compiler patches for GCC and LLVM that are enabling these processors before launch. With the launch of v8.42, the tool also gains NPU stress testing, but only in the Pro version.
Recall is an AI that remembers everyone you meet. Just text it who you met, what you talked about, and every detail is saved. Before a meeting, ask, "What do I know about Sarah?" and get everything you need. Itβs not a search toolβyou have a conversation with Recall, and it knows your world.
Recall also pays attention for you. It notices when you add someone new to your phone and checks in to capture the details. It reminds you about follow-ups, birthdays, and promises before they slip. SMS-first, no app required to startβjust text and go.
A 39-year-old Australian national who was previously employed at U.S. defense contractor L3Harris has been sentenced to a little over seven years in prison for selling eight zero-day exploits to Russian exploit broker Operation Zero in exchange for millions of dollars.
Peter Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of theft of trade secrets in October 2025. In addition to the jail term, Williams
SolarWinds has released updates to address four critical security flaws in its Serv-U file transfer software that, if successfully exploited, could result in remote code execution.
The vulnerabilities, all rated 9.1 on the CVSS scoring system, are listed below -
CVE-2025-40538 - A broken access control vulnerability that allows an attacker to create a system admin user and execute arbitrary
NVIDIA's GTC 2026 keynote plans are looking far beyond Vera Rubin, according to a new report, which says the company could showcase next-gen Feynman chips. NVIDIA's Feynman Chips Might Also Mark the First Instance of the Adoption of Groq's LPU Units We already know that Team Green plans to set the tone for the next decade of computing at this year's GTC, and, according to Jensen himself, the world will see technology "never unveiled before" in his keynote. While we did speculate back then that the showcase would be dedicated to Feynman, it appears the Korean media outlet Chosun Biz [β¦]
The infamous crease has been the subject of attention for the iPhone Fold,Β as there have been countless reports that Apple intends to minimize it through the use of expensive, but cutting-edge components. With the Cupertino firmβs first foldable flagship rumored to enter mass production in July, everything needs to be in order before transitioning to this step, and according to the latest rumor, one production line has already received panel orders for this device. A tipster also claims that the iPhone Foldβs crease will have some extremely tight tolerances as far as specifications go. The crease belonging to the iPhone [β¦]
One of the simpler solutions manufacturers have come up with to mitigate the ubiquitous 12v-2Γ6 GPU power connector meltdowns is colored cable terminations that simply give the user an indication that the GPU power connector is properly connected. According to a recent post on r/MSI_Gaming, those colored connectors are both doing their jobs and causing concerns among MSI PSU users. The original poster shared an image of the stock 12v-2Γ6 power cables of an MSI MPG A1000GS ATX 3.1 PSU that had slowly been creeping out of both the PSU and PNY RTX 5080 GPU connectors over the course of two months, exposing the colored yellow connector end that is meant to serve as a warning against thermal meltdown events.
While the slowly loosening connector had not yet resulted in a meltdown, it had seemingly started causing instability in the user's system during heavy gaming loads. What's more concerning is the multitude of comments in the Reddit thread echoing the OP's story, saying that they had properly connected both ends of the cable until there was a positive click, but despite this, the cable seemed to be creeping out at one or both ends. Some commenters hypothesized that part of the reason for these meltdown events that happen so long after the system was first built is that repeated thermal cycling causes the plastic connector to expand and contract, resulting in the cable slowly coming loose. The redditor was eventually told to request a replacement unit through Amazon, but if the number of similar reports in the same thread are anything to go by, the issue appears to be at least somewhat widespread with MSI's cables.
GPU Per Hour aggregates real-time prices and availability for H100, A100, RTX 4090, and many other GPU instances across major cloud providers. You can browse offers, filter by VRAM, GPU count, region, or provider, compare side by side, and click through to deploy at the best rate. The site tracks stock status and updates pricing hourly, using affiliate links to support the service. Deploy instances from this dashboard instantly, similar to a marketplace, coming soon.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday added a recently disclosed vulnerability in FileZen to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-25108 (CVSS v4 score: 8.7), is a case of operating system (OS) command injection that could allow an authenticated user to execute
Sony's upcoming Horizon Hunters Gathering three-player co-op game was revealed earlier this month, but it seems as though Sony is deeper into development than it let on during the announcement, because the gaming giant is apparently already ready for its first Horizon Hunters Gathering closed beta test. Sony announced the beta test via a post on the game's official X account, linking to a website where you can register to try out the game ahead of its official launch. The Horizon Hunters Gathering closed beta will take place from February 27 to March 1 for both PS5 and PC players (via Steam).
The closed beta will be limited to three playable huntsβAxle, Rem, and Sunβtwo game modesβMachine Incursion and Cauldron Descentβand just one environmentβColorado Springs, and only players from the USA, Canada, and much of Europe will be eligible for the closed beta, and the US play test will be limited to 4 PM-7 PM PST, while EU players will be allowed to play at 7 PM-10 PM CET. Players will also be subject to selection by Sony, so applying via the PlayStation Beta Program will not guarantee access to the beta. PlayStation players will be allowed to bring along two friends, for a full party of three, but PC players looking to test the beta with friends will need to apply separatelyβno free invites for friends on Steam. The play test will also be under strict NDA, which means players will not be able to share any gameplay or opinions outside of Sony's beta tester Discord server, nor will they be allowed to share screenshots or stream gameplay.
Shortly after Discord announced a plan to expand its use of Persona age verification globally as part of its new "teen-by-default" account settings, it has confirmed in a recent FAQ page update that it will not require age verification for "90%+ of users" after facing significant backlash. The social media platform explains that it will be going ahead with its teen-by-default, but that most users just don't access age-restricted content or because the internal age verification systems will be able to automatically determine age without any user action. Discord's CTO, Stanislav Vishnevskiy, said in a blog post that "we knew this rollout was going to be controversial. Any time you introduce something that touches identity and verification, people are going to have strong feelings," but effectively explained that the original announcement was misinterpreted or explained badly. He goes on to say that Discord was evaluating Persona for biometric age verification data in an experiment in January, but has since decided not to proceed with the Persona partnership because it did not meet the bar of requiring on-device verification. He does, however, say that Discord will require age verification via k-ID in countries like Australia, Brazil, and the UK, where laws require it and do not allow Discord's internal estimation system. Discord will also be introducing a new "spoiler" channel option, which will allow communities to stop using age-restricted channels to avoid discussions about spoilers and politics.
At the same time, however, it was revealed in a post on Bluesky that Twitch has adopted Persona as an age verification system for Twitch Partners in order to receive payment. The age verification process required users to submit a selfie along with an image of a government ID card, passport, or driver's license. This report of mandatory Persona age verification on Twitch comes shortly after it was reported that hackers had discovered an exposed frontend for Persona that both demonstrated the platform's lackluster security and revealed ties to the US government and a potential mass-surveillance apparatus, although these were partially explained as an upcoming partnership with the government to verify the identities of remote federal workers. It's unclear how widespread Twitch's use of Persona is at this point in time, but a number of creators have made their voices heard via an open letter in Twitch's User Voices feature in light of the recent controversies surrounding Persona.
WaitlistKit lets you add a waitlist to your site with a single script tag and no backend. It captures emails with a clean widget and gives each user a unique referral link that moves them up the queue when friends join. Use the admin dashboard to see signups, visualize referral chains, and export CSVs to track your launch. You can start free with one waitlist and 100 signups, or upgrade for unlimited projects and viral growth features.
Last Friday, the video game industry changed forever with the reveal that Phil Spencer would be retiring as the chief executive officer of Microsoft's gaming division, leaving the company he had spent 38 years with, while spending the last decade at the forefront of the Xbox brand. His replacement started yesterday. Asha Sharma, formerly the CEO of Microsoft's CoreAI division, was placed at the head of Xbox after joining Microsoft in 2024. Sharma's opening message to players has been all about how she wants to bring about "the return of Xbox," and in a new interview with Windows Central, she [β¦]
The downgrades surrounding the Galaxy S26 Ultra keep getting listed before the official announcement, with the latest one a stringent warning to those who have a tendency to misplace or lose their expensive belongings on a daily basis. In a nutshell, if you decide to take a leap of faith and make Samsungβs upcoming flagship your daily driver, keep it close to you at all times because a fresh leak reveals that you wonβt be able to track it if it gets powered off. Googleβs Find Hub has existed since the Pixel 8, but will be missing from the premium [β¦]
In an exclusive interview, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma reassures fans that console remains the foundation of Xboxβs future strategy and hardware investment.
As former Xbox CEO Phil Spencer prepares to exit, we caught up with incoming CEO Asha Sharma and newly promoted CCO Matt Booty to learn about what the future holds for Microsoft's gaming operation.
With Microsoft Gaming CEO and Xbox head Phil Spencer retiring and Asha Sharma taking his place, she took to social media to celebrate Spencer's legacy.
Apple is preparing a massive refresh cycle for its 2026 MacBook Pro laptops, with the major redesign being at the very center of the laptop. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, one of the most reliable sources of Apple news, the company is preparing to implement its Dynamic Island feature on its MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16 versions, both of which will carry the new feature. Alongside Dynamic Island, which is replacing the traditional notch we have on MacBooks today, Apple is also implementing OLED display technology that will replace the current Mini LED display found on the current generation of MacBooks.
For the Dynamic Island, Apple will bring over much of the functionality from its iPhone models, which includes status updates and a front camera cutout, but in a different shape. As the iPhone uses the Dynamic Island to host Face ID sensors, the MacBook Pro version should only include a camera sensor cutout with software support from the OS. However, the most interesting part of the announcement should be the touchscreen ability with OLED panels. Apple is reportedly optimizing its new operating system to unlock new gestures for touch, where each touch will invoke a new panel or a new interface. This design will reportedly not be similar to the iPad, but just another sensory aid to the current input method with a keyboard and a mouse.
TAT-8 was the eighth Trans-Atlantic Telephone system and the first to replace copper transmission with single-mode optical fiber between the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. The system used 1.3-micrometer single-mode fiber and optoelectronic repeaters operating at roughly 280 Mbit/s.
QuikAuthor lets anyone create interactive elearning and microlearning courses. Upload a video and it automatically transcribes, segments, and generates quizzes and activities from the content. Upload a PDF and it converts the document into a structured course or just describe what you want to teach and the AI builds the whole thing from scratch. Each course comes with over 60 interactive slide types, including games and quizzes, so learners are really engaged. Everything exports as SCORM 1.2 or 2004, working with whatever LMS you're already using. Built for L&D teams, trainers, and educators who need to produce courses quickly without learning complex software.
AIWriteBook is an all-in-one AI book creation platform used by over 15,700 authors to go from idea to published book in hours, not months. The AI learns your writing style and generates chapters that sound like you, not generic AI.
AIWriteBook offers features such as AI outline generation, character builder, voice-matched chapter writing, AI chat editor with a diff view, image and illustration generation, cover designer, KDP keyword research, competitor analysis, audiobook generation, 25 free author tools, and support for over 30 languages.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the companyβs employees have gone all in on AI, going so far as to build a chatbot of him that they use to practice their pitches.
It looks like Nvidia is targeting Linux Gaming, and thatβs bad news for Windows A pair of new job listings (via Videocardz) has been spotted that imply Nvidia has started specifically targeting Linux as a gaming OS. One job listing is searching for a βSenior System Software Engineerβ who specialises in βVulkan Performanceβ. This listing [β¦]
We have discovered a monumental 50% discount for the Razer BlackShark V2 Pro for Xbox, a gaming headset from 2024 that holds today for its superb audio quality, comfortable design, and all-day battery life.
FitRadar connects people with local fitness classes, sports events, and personal trainers on iOS and Android. You can search for nearby activities, filter by distance and favorites, and book in a few taps using secure Stripe payments. Ratings come from real attendees, allowing you to choose with confidence.
Trainers and organizers can host free or paid workouts, build a following, and manage bookings all in one place. You can share classes on social media, reach new clients, and grow your community across multiple languages.
Predator spyware bypasses iOS camera and microphone indicators by hooking system processes, enabling covert surveillance despite standard privacy protections.
Peter Williams, the former head of U.S. hacking tools maker L3Harris Trenchant, was sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing and selling his former companyβs hacking and surveillance tools to a Russian firm.
Automotive marketplace CarGurus was the target of a data breach in which the names, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses of millions of customers were stolen.
The Pentagon has given Anthropic until Friday to loosen AI guardrails or face potential penalties, escalating a high-stakes dispute that raises questions about government leverage, vendor dependence, and investor confidence in defense tech.
An email chain with Instagram head Adam Mosseri indicated the company was aware of teen safety issues in DMs in 2018, but didn't launch its unwanted-nudity filter until 2024.
With exactly a week left before the official launch of World of Warcraft: Midnight, here's a semi-exclusive interview with Blizzard where four members of the development team open up on the key areas of the game's eleventh expansion, such as dungeons, raids, delves, the Zul'aman zone, and the new Prey system. I said semi-exclusive because I shared the remote interview session with Carrie Lambertsen from Screen Rant, so you'll see her name pop up as well throughout the transcript when she was the one asking questions. The following Blizzard developers were involved: Associate Game Director Paul Kubit, Lead Encounter Designer [β¦]
The M5 Pro and M5 Max are expected to arrive next month, but if you cannot muster the patience for the more powerful 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models , or if you think that you have little use for such expensive configurations, we have just the deal for you. The M5 MacBook ProΒ continues to be an exceptional performer in multiple areas, and given that manufacturers have little choice but to charge premiums for increased storage and memory, Apple and Amazon have gone in the opposite direction, with the more capable 24GB unified RAM and 512GB SSD option going for [β¦]
The Windows 11 non-security feature preview update for February just landed, and it's the first Windows update in a long while that includes a number of actually good changes. Here's what you need to know.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is slated to launch on March 19 for PC after almost nine months as a PS5 exclusive, and Nixxes and Kojima Productions just revealed the minimum PC hardware requirements, as well as the supported upscaling and graphical enhancement options, in a PlayStation Blog post. According to the blog post, the absolute minimum spec, which gets you 30 FPS as 1080p with low settings, requires an AMD Ryzen 3 3100 or Intel Core i3-10100, 16 GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8 GB. Medium, or 1080p with medium settings, requires an RTX 3060 12 GB or Radeon RX 6600, and an AMD Ryzen 5 5600 or Intel Core i5-11400. Stepping it up to High (or recommended specs), which gets you 1440p at 60 FPS with high settings, requires an AMD Radeon RX 6800 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 and an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X or Intel Core i7-11700. Very High, or 4K resolution at 60 FPS with very high settings, calls for an upgrade to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 or Radeon RX 9070 XT, while the CPU and memory specs remain the same as for the High tier. All spec tiers require 16 GB of memory, Windows 11 or Windows 10 1909 or up, and at least a 150 GB SSD.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will also offer PC players support for both 21:9 and 32:9 ultrawide aspect ratios, and players with 16:9 displays can simulate a cinematic experience by opting for a 21:9 aspect ratio with black bars on the top and bottom of the displayβthis option will also be introduced for PS5 at the same time as the PC release. PC players will also get support for upscaling tech from all three GPU manufacturers: NVIDIA DLSS 4, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 2, with both frame generation and upscaling options available. These upscaling options can be used in conjunction with Dynamic Resolution Scaling, and players will be able to adjust upscaling quality. The game will also see the debut of PicoβProgressive Image Compositorβon PC. This is the upscaling technology used by Death Stranding 2 on PS5 and developed by Guerrilla Games for the Decima engine, and it can also be used alongside all available frame generation options and on all available graphics card manufacturers. The game will also offer native AA options for those not interested in upscaling.
Marvel's Wolverine has been on Sony's release roster for ages, with Sony having released a brutal trailer for the game as far back as September 2025. Insomniac Games, the Studio at the game's helm, just confirmed on X that Wolverine will launch on September 15, 2026, which is right in the middle of the previously promised "fall 2026" release window. Unfortunately, as expected, Marvel's Wolverine appears to be a console exclusive, at least at launch. There is no mention of a PC or Xbox launch date anywhere on the PlayStation Store or in the release date trailer.
Marvel's Wolverine will follow the titular character as he "searches for answers about his past," and the trailer reveals that players will revisit Logan's complex history as an anti-hero, fighting against and potentially alongside the likes of Sabretooth and Mystique, with scenes from the trailer teasing locations ranging from the American west to Japanese back alleys. The PlayStation Store page also confirms that Marvel's Wolverine will be single-player only and will feature offline play. Marvel's Spider-Man 2, another Marvel game developed by Insomniac for the PS5, initially launched on PS5 in October 2023, but only made it to PC in January 2025; if that game is any indication, it'll be a little over a year after launch before Marvel's Wolverine makes it to PC.
The achievement, confirmed by ASML technologists Michael Purvis and Teun van Gogh, does not involve a proof-of-concept demonstration or a short-lived experiment. The company says the new light source operates under factory-ready conditions and could be deployed in commercial systems later this decade. It represents a strong response to growing...
Permito provides AI-powered mock interviews for US visa applicants. Speak with a realistic AI consular officer who challenges your answers, asks follow-up questions, and flags contradictions and weak ties before the real interview. Choose scenarios for B1/B2, F-1, H-1B, and more, then receive detailed feedback with confidence scores, red flags, and areas for improvement. Start with one free session and use affordable bundles to practice repeatedly, helping you handle 214(b) questions and walk in prepared.
A vulnerability in GitHub Codespaces could have been exploited by bad actors to seize control of repositories by injecting malicious Copilot instructions in a GitHub issue.
The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven vulnerability has been codenamed RoguePilot by Orca Security. It has since been patched by Microsoft following responsible disclosure.
"Attackers can craft hidden instructions inside a
Microsoft warns OpenClawβs design blends automation and persistent credentials, creating structural risks unsuitable for standard personal or enterprise workstations.
AI has brought the startup world the rise of companies that instantly hit multimillion-dollar ARR. Stripe revealed some data that shows how common this has become.
The U.S. Treasury announced it was imposing sanctions against a Russian broker of zero-day exploits, its founder and two affiliates, citing a threat to U.S. national security. Another affiliated zero-day broker in the United Arab Emirates was also sanctioned.
The company said that a new agent being introduced in Opal will allow users to create mini-apps that can let them plan and execute tasks using text prompts.
Ed Skrein, who you might recognize as the main antagonist in the first Deadpool movie or as the antagonist in Zack Snyder's ridiculous Rebel Moon films has been tapped by Amazon and PlayStation Productions to play Baldur in the upcoming God of War TV series. Skrein is the latest to join the cast, taking up one of the last major characters whose casting had yet to be revealed. We know who is playing Kratos, Atreus, Brok, Sindri, Mimir, Thor, Heimdall, Sif, and Odin, and we now know who will be stepping into Baldur's numb feet. Announced in a new report [β¦]
Google Ad Grants accounts can now optimize for real-world foot traffic. If you use the nonprofit program, you can set βshop visitsβ as an account-level goal, allowing your campaigns to optimize for in-person visits.
Driving the news. Previously, if you tried to mark shop visits as a goal in Ad Grants, youβd get an error. That restriction appears to be lifted, allowing eligible accounts to include store visit conversions in their primary goal configuration.
This update lets you align bidding and optimization with physical visits β especially for visibility in Maps placements and location-driven search results.
Why we care. If you run a nonprofit, museum, place of worship, community center, or other location-based organization, digital engagement doesnβt always translate into mission impact. Optimizing for shop visits bridges that gap, tying ad performance directly to foot traffic.
What to do. If you use Ad Grants, review your account-level goals and confirm shop visits are enabled where eligible. Optimizing for foot traffic could materially improve your local impact β especially if you rely on in-person engagement.
Between the lines. As Google continues to emphasize local intent and Maps-based discovery, bringing store visit optimization to Ad Grants expands your ability to compete for nearby audiences. It shifts the focus from clicks and website traffic to measurable offline action.
First seen. Google Ads expert Jason King spotted this update and shared it on LinkedIn.
Googleβs unified video manager in Merchant Center is no longer empty. After months of showing up in accounts without visible content, the Video Assets section is now automatically populating with sourced videos.
Driving the news. Videos are now automatically pulled in, including content from external sources like YouTube.
The feature β first introduced at Google Marketing Live 2025 β was designed to centralize video content inside Google Merchant Center. It began rolling out in September, but many advertisers saw a blank interface with no assets.
Why we care. This confirms Google is moving ahead with its plan to make Merchant Center a central hub for commerce-ready creative β not just product feeds. With videos now auto-populating, you may gain additional visibility across Shopping and Performance Max without extra upload work, but youβll also need to ensure your YouTube and site videos are optimized for commerce. In short, video is becoming embedded in retail ad delivery, and if you manage it proactively, youβll have a competitive edge.
Between the lines. By centralizing videos from your website, social platforms, and potentially AI-generated sources, Google is turning Merchant Center into a more comprehensive creative hubβnot just a product feed manager. That aligns with the broader shift toward video-first shopping experiences across Search, Shopping, and Performance Max.
What to watch. Itβs still unclear how performance reporting, optimization controls, and editing tools will evolve in the Video Assets section. But the shift from an empty placeholder to a populated library shows the infrastructure is now active.
First spotted. PPC News Feed founder Hana KobzovΓ‘ first spotted this update.
NVIDIA has posted multiple job openings, which give us several hints about the company's plans for gaming on Linux and what the possible plan could look like. According to the now-removed listing, NVIDIA is hiring engineers to diagnose CPU and GPU performance bottlenecks on Linux when running the Proton compatibility layer and Vulkan graphics API. This suggests that NVIDIA is either refining its product support for the massive wave of gamers transitioning to Linux or preparing for an entirely new platform. For example, as NVIDIA is currently preparing N1/N1X SoCs for laptops, the company could create dedicated handheld chips for devices like Valve's Steam Deck, which currently runs on AMD's SoC. There are multiple handheld vendors now, and NVIDIA could be powering a new handheld with its laptop N1/N1X chips under Linux.
The job descriptions clearly indicate that the work will cover everything from the game engine and translation layers, such as Proton, to drivers and hardware interaction. This focus suggests that efforts will not be limited to profiling but will also include proposing API usage changes, building repeatable test cases, and collaborating with translation-layer and distribution maintainers to implement fixes. Anyone using NVIDIA graphics under Linux will also be impacted, as the company's polishing of the software stack will bring a definitive quality of life improvement to games. This can include fewer stutters, better frame pacing, and reduced CPU overhead in titles that rely on Vulkan or run under Proton, which translates Windows-specific API calls and optimizes games to run on Linux.
Shortly following the recent announcement that Phil Spencer would be leaving as the head of Xbox Gaming, the division's new CEO, Asha Sharma, released a long statement expressing her distaste for AI slop and her belief that, although "AI has long been part of gaming and will continue to be," games "are and always will be art, crafted by humans and created with the most innovative technology provided by us." Many gamers have been skeptical of these and similar statements now and in the past, but it seems as though industry veteran and founder of Xbox, Seamus Blackley, seems to be convinced that those are empty words, whether Sharma believes it or not. In a recent interview with GamesBeat, Blackley said about Sharma that he believes "her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night," going on to say that assurances like the aforementioned one by Sharma are "just what occurs to people to say when they bring in someone from an outside business into games."
In Blackley's view, Microsoft's bet on AI will result in a lot of the non-AI businesses being sunsetted, and that is what is happening to Xbox under the new CEO. He says that, just like AI has taken over "everything else," it will take over gaming as well, at least at Microsoft, going on to say that "Asha's background is entirely in software as a service and AI. The implicit thing here is that games is going to be AI-driven software as a service." Part of his justification for this belief is that, despite gaming industry veteran, Matt Booty, acting as Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, Sharma is an outsider to the gaming industry and doesn't necessarily understand the industry. His concern is that such an outsider, especially one coming from an AI background, can only see gaming in an abstract way. That said, he does admit that there have been outsiders that have succeeded in gaming, but those that have understood that gaming is a content business. He also jokingly says that her statement about the future of Xbox "reminded me of that meme 'Hello, fellow kids!'" and that she would have to figure out what's interesting about gaming.
Linux 7.0 is officially taking shape with the release of the first release candidate. The new kernel lays the groundwork for upcoming distros like Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Fedora 44, while delivering broad hardware enablement for Intel's next-gen CPUs, AMD Zen 6 and new GPUs, and expanding support for Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms. Beyond hardware, Linux 7.0 brings meaningful file system and performance improvements, continued Rust integration, and a long list of under-the-hood optimizations.
Goldman Sachs analysts have suggested that the impact of AI on the US economy was "basically zero" in 2025. The investment bank argued that large language models, chatbots, and other AI-related technologies did not meaningfully contribute to the country's officially recorded 2.2 percent GDP growth last year. Unsurprisingly, the claim...
Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi has revealed that Capcom was initially "skeptical" about the game's Nintendo Switch 2 performance, but was pleasantly surprised.
There is a lot of talk around AI agents taking over business processes and claiming that "SaaS is dead." While these predictions have moved SaaS stocks at times, they haven't really come true.
With the new GPU sales strategy, we are seeing a sudden shift in popularity for some GPUs and the latest retailer data reveals the most popular cards. AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series Maintains its Dominance on Mindfactory, While NVIDIA RTX 5080 Leads NVIDIA's RTX 50 Lineup The latest GPU sales data for Mindfactory is out, revealing what has changed in the past few weeks. Keep in mind that this doesn't represent the exact global GPU popularity and is specific to Germany. With this retailer's sales data, we still get an idea of what users are buying the most these days. [β¦]
Insomniac Games was done letting us wait, as it announced in a short and to-the-point post on its official social channels that Marvel's Wolverine will release on PS5 this coming September 15, 2026. "Let's cut to the chase" writes Insomniac, before announcing the release date. While it's great to no longer be in the dark on the release date for what is arguably the most anticipated game coming to PS5 for PlayStation players this year, it is a little curious as to why we didn't get this news two weeks ago, when Sony held its first State of Play event [β¦]
Intel's SambaNova acquisition was seen as a way to spearhead the company's AI strategy in inference, but it appears Team Blue has settled for much less. Intel's CEO Now Intends to Invest Directly in SambaNova's Funding Round After Previously Backing It Through Walden Capital When we talk about Intel, the company is one of the only compute providers that hasn't managed to capitalize on the AI frenzy at all, and this has been a persistent problem for several quarters. Intel's former CEO, Pat Gelsinger, has acknowledged the lack of intent in AI, and it appears that missing out on the [β¦]
It's that time of year again, as we're back to yet another Steam Next Fest filled to the brim with demos of upcoming games, some of which could be some of the year's biggest games when they finally arrive. As I have done previously, I've gone through a slew of demos that are available as part of the festival, and curated my findings into a list of a few that I highly recommend you spend some time playing throughout the festival's remaining run time. It's also worth noting that even if you don't catch this list until after the festival [β¦]
Hereβs what you need to run Death Stranding 2 on PC Nixxes has officially released their PC system requirements for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, the formerly PlayStation 5 exclusive gaming hit. When building this PC version, Nixxes has focused on delivering a strong low-end and high-end PC gaming experience, with presets ranging from [β¦]
Blizzard has announced Overwatch Rush, a new top down hero shooter built specifically for mobile. Here is everything revealed so far, including heroes, gameplay details, and platform hints.
Sometimes the simplest Xbox controllers are the best for enjoying games, and the standard Xbox Series X|S controller is one such accessory now that it's on sale for a big 34% discount.
Radical Entertainment has resurfaced as New Radical Games, led by former studio heads, prompting fresh speculation that Prototype could return. A recent Steam update has only added to fan excitement.
Windows 11 now supports MIDI 2.0 alongside enhancements to MIDI 1.0, introducing two-way communication, improved precision, multi-client support, and better compatibility for music creators.
Microsoft says a bug in Outlook causes the mouse pointer to vanish. It's investigating the issue and has already offered temporary workarounds, including restarting your PC.
The KAMRUI Mini PC E3B 11 Pro is a well-designed workhorse Mini-PC with fast performance rates, a compact design, 4K display support, and many more features that are now 31% more affordable at Amazon.
ARC Raidersβ Shrouded Sky update adds long-requested facial hair customization, a Hurricane map condition in the Rust Belt, two new ARC enemies, a free Surgeon Raider Deck, and updates to Dam Battlegrounds.
Xbox partners with Sung Kang of Tokyo Drift fame to give away a supercharged trip to Japan to experience the best of the country's thriving car culture (with lots of snacks) for ten lucky winners.
Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced two new colorways for its nextβgeneration creator webcams, the Razer Kiyo V2 and Razer Kiyo V2 X. Now available in Quartz and White, the stunning new finishes join classic Black to give creators more ways to build a setup that reflects their personal style.
Razer Kiyo V2 gets smarter with AI Face Retouching
Alongside the new color options, the Kiyo V2 introduces AI Face Retouching via Camo Studio for instant, studio-ready polish. Designed to look natural on camera, the adjustable feature subtly smooths imperfections, while adapting to lighting and environmental changes in real time. Users can enable this new AI tool by updating to the latest version of Camo Studio.
We previously covered how enterprising gamers managed to bypass AMD's FSR 4 restrictions to get Redstone frame generation tech working on older RDNA GPUs with OptiScaler. Now, it seems as though OptiScaler has managed bypass another one of AMD's limitations that restricted FSR 4 implementations to DirectX 12 games. According to the build notes uncovered by a Reddit user u/eduhfx, OptiScaler is testing adding Vulkan support in a new test build v0.9.0-pre10. Notably, OptiScaler is using a compatibility tool to work around FSR 4's lack of Vulkan support, similarly to how Linux translates DirectX, calls to Vulkan with DXVK or VKD3D. This also means that FSR 4 on Vulkan should work on Linux systems, as well, where games often run better under Vulkan than DX12βalthough at the time of writing, FSR 4 w/DX12 currently has issues running on Linux due to a Mesa issue that seemingly cannot be solved by the OptiScaler team.
Currently, known issues:
FSR 4 VK w/DX12 has issues on Linux due to missing Mesa extensions
Not interested in reports as nothing we can fix on our side as far as we know
ORIGIN PC today announced the launch of the new NEURON, marking the most dramatic evolution of the platform since its debut and redefining what a showcase desktop can look like. The new NEURON introduces a fully panoramic glass design and advanced airflow engineering that elevates both presentation and performance for gamers, creators, and hardware enthusiasts. First unveiled at CES 2026, the NEURON is now available for customers who want high-end components to be seen and kept cool under demanding workloads.
The updated NEURON features a wraparound single piece glass panel that provides near 360-degree visibility of the interior. A spacious modular layout, improved routing channels, and compatibility with today's largest GPUs allow users to create clean, presentation ready systems that highlight every component.
The "Block AI Enhancements" toggle was originally introduced in Firefox 148 Nightly in January following significant community backlash after Mozilla's new CEO, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, announced plans to add AI features to Firefox. With Firefox 148 now rolling out to the stable channel, the feature is available to users across all release channels.
The San Francisco β based company's new venture is designed to serve as a comprehensive support hub for commercial self-driving fleets. The division will offer a range of services, including insurance coverage, roadside assistance, and "AV mission control" β a software layer that enables fleet operators to monitor vehicles and...
MirrorMask is a native macOS app that lets you take control of your algorithmic identity. It scrapes your actual Google ad profile, including the interests and demographics built on you, and then automatically browses as a different persona overnight using your real Chrome browser.
Choose from personas like Fisherman, Home Chef, or Fitness Pro, and MirrorMask runs searches, watches YouTube, and visits sites that appear to be normal browsing. Over time, your ad profile shifts to reflect the persona instead of the real you. Everything runs locally on your Mac, with no accounts, no cloud, and no subscriptions.
A Russia-aligned threat actor has been observed targeting a European financial institution as part of a social engineering attack to likely facilitate intelligence gathering or financial theft, signaling a possible expansion of the threat actor's targeting beyond Ukraine and into entities supporting the war-torn nation.
The activity, which targeted an unnamed entity involved in regional
The ThunderX3 Core gaming chair is an excellent ergonomic seat that adapts to your awkward positioning and ensures you're comfy and supported while you game.
Fintech giant Marquis is suing its firewall provider SonicWall, claiming that an earlier breach with SonicWall allowed hackers to deploy ransomware on Marquis' network.
In the four years since Russiaβs full-scale invasion of their country, Ukrainian startups have done more than survive: they are still building and growing.
Guerrilla Games has announced that it will host the first closed playtest for its recently announced Horizon-based co-op multiplayer game, Horizon Hunters Gathering. Curiously, it's the second playtest being run this week for a PlayStation Studios title, since Bungie's open server slam test for Marathon is also taking place this weekend. But at least in the case of Horizon Hunters Gathering, it's a closed-beta test you have to be invited into, so they theoretically won't cannibalize each other. That said, it still feels odd that Sony would opt to have them on the same weekend. Regardless, if you head to [β¦]
That Steve Jobs was a titan among tech visionaries of his day remains an uncontested fact. What is somewhat aberrant, however, is his larger-than-life persona that still retains immense sway within Apple's evolving corporate heft. And, had he managed to survive his joust with cancer back in 2011, Steve Jobs would have turned 71 today. Steve Jobs and Apple are synonymous with each other It is common knowledge that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in a garage in 1976. However, by 1985, Jobs was in a precarious position within Apple, courtesy of one of his own hires: the [β¦]
Blizzard has revealed a new Overwatch game, and no, it's not 'Overwatch 2' again. It's a new 4v4, free-to-play, top-down Hero shooter called Overwatch Rush, and it's a brand new game built for mobile players. The game was announced with a look at some early in-development gameplay, which you can see in the trailer below. It's being developed by a "dedicated team at Blizzard, separate from Team 4, all of whom have deep mobile experience," according to a blog post on Blizzard's official website, which is followed by Blizzard reiterating that Team 4 is "fully focused on Overwatch," as if [β¦]
Although the system has only been out for less than a year, the Nintendo Switch 2 has already received some impressive third-party ports such as Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Outlaws, and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, which have been highly optimized to deliver great experiences in both docked and handheld modes. The next multiplatform game that is likely to leave most users impressed is Resident Evil Requiem, which runs so well on the Switch 2 that the development team almost couldn't believe it. In a new Creator's Voice video released today, Game Director Koshi Nakanishi revealed how the team was [β¦]
Fortnite gamers have acquired computing power that rivals that of some of the world's largest hyperscalers, and that is just from gaming PCs and consoles. Fortnite Gamers Have Contributed Significantly Towards Modern-Day Hardware Advancements In today's world, computing power is a major bottleneck, which is why hyperscalers are investing "hundreds of billions" in the AI frenzy to build their capabilities. One recent deal we discussed was the AMD-Meta agreement, which involved compute commitments worth up to 6 gigawatts. Interestingly, when talking about the deal, Epic Games' CEO Tim Sweeney revealed that Fortnite gamers alone consume up to 30 gigawatts of [β¦]
Nixxes Software has just shared the full PC system requirements for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Powered by the Decima Engine just like its predecessor (and the Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West games), the game appears to have reasonable specs. Nixxes has also introduced a Portable preset that will be aimed at handheld gaming devices, such as the Steam Deck and the ASUS ROG Ally. Category Minimum Medium High (Recommended) Very High Graphics Preset Low Medium High Very High Avg Performance 1080p @ 30 FPS 1080p @ 60 FPS 1440p @ 60 FPS 4K @ 60 FPS GPU NVIDIA GeForce [β¦]
After years of rumors and leaks, something feels different in the air as multiple reports are now pointing toward an actual, official launch for Nvidia's N1/N1X SoCs. These highly elusive chips have been in the works for years, have faced multiple delays, but the excitement for their release never died down.
A new investigative report from The New York Times reveals that, in July 2023, senior US intelligence officials privately briefed some of the tech industry's most powerful executives on classified assessments regarding China and Taiwan.
The U.S. economy isn't being propped up by AI investment, despite the common narrative. According to Goldman Sachs, despite hundreds of billions in investment announcements, AI has done little to uplift American financial interests.
AI has made publishing faster and easier than ever. And the result is saturation.
As AI lowers the barrier to production, the web is filling with content that is technically sound, reasonably optimized, and increasingly indistinguishable. When everything looks polished and competent, standing out becomes harder.
AI has changed content output, but users still arrive with intent. They scan headlines, page titles, and descriptions before choosing what to click. They reward clarity, relevance, and usefulness. On a saturated results page, those fundamentals matter more than ever.
Keeping content fresh in the age of AI isnβt about chasing novelty or abandoning proven practices. Itβs about returning to what makes content distinct: clear messaging, thoughtful structure, and a strong understanding of what your audience wants.
The real problem with AI content
The biggest issue with AI-generated content isnβt accuracy. Itβs sameness.
Because AI models train on vast amounts of existing material, they reproduce familiar patterns: similar phrasing, predictable structures, and safe conclusions. On their own, these outputs read as competent and coherent. In aggregate, they become indistinguishable.
This is why so much content today feels interchangeable. Even when the topic is relevant, the experience of reading it rarely is.
Search engines and users are reacting accordingly. When every result looks and sounds the same, differentiation matters. Freshness still ensures relevance and credibility, but itβs no longer a competitive advantage in itself. What separates one result from another is voice, perspective, and lived experience.
Ironically, AI has made originality more valuable, not less. As automated content floods the web, signals like specificity, usefulness, and intent alignment become stronger indicators of quality. Content that communicates clearly and answers peopleβs real questions rises above, regardless of whether AI assisted in its creation.
This is where many teams go wrong. In an attempt to compete with AI, they focus on output volume or trendy formats instead of fixing the fundamentals.
Freshness isnβt created by novelty alone. Itβs created when content feels unmistakably helpful and unmistakably human.
Fresh, unique content is still built on classic SEO principles
Despite the evolution of content creation tools, the way people use search engines has remained remarkably consistent. Users still arrive with a problem to solve, scan results quickly, and choose the option that feels most relevant to them.
That behavior hasnβt changed because AI exists.
Page titles, headings, and meta descriptions continue to act as the first point of contact between a piece of content and its audience. In search results, they function less like technical fields and more like ad copy.
Yet many organizations assume these elements are outdated or that AI-generated content will somehow compensate for vague or generic positioning. In reality, the opposite is true. As more content competes for attention, clarity becomes a differentiator.
Classic SEO principles still underpin freshness:
Clear alignment with search intent.
Descriptive, specific language.
A logical structure that helps users scan.
Messaging that sets accurate expectations before the click.
None of these concepts is new. Whatβs changed is their importance.
When search results are crowded with similar-looking pages, small improvements in clarity can produce incremental gains. A more descriptive title doesnβt just help search engines understand a page. It helps users recognize that it answers their question.
AI may assist in generating drafts or variations, but it doesnβt replace the need for human judgment in deciding what information matters most or how it should be framed. Fresh content still starts with understanding intent and communicating clearly.
Small SEO changes can lead to a strong impact
To understand why traditional SEO still matters, consider a recent experiment conducted on our website focused on service-based search terms.
The hypothesis was straightforward: If page titles were more descriptive and more clearly aligned with search intent or user pain points, would users be more likely to click? Could visibility and engagement improve without rewriting content or making technical changes?
Before this test, titles followed a familiar format: the service name followed by the company name. While accurate, these titles were vague and did little to communicate value or differentiate the page in search results.
After the update, titles were rewritten to be more specific and benefit-oriented. Instead of simply naming a service, the new titles clarified what the service helped users achieve and reflected the intent behind the search.
One page, for example, shifted from a generic service title to a more descriptive version focused on optimization and lead generation. The result was a 247% increase in clicks on that page alone.
Encouraged by this early signal, similar title updates were rolled out across multiple service pages and allowed to run for approximately one month. The aggregated results were as follows.
As the table above shows, average position didnβt improve on every page. But several key services moved closer to the top of the results, reflected in a lower average position, while earning more clicks and impressions. This suggests clearer, intent-aligned titles helped the right pages surface more prominently and perform better once they did.
Not every page saw improvements, which is precisely the point of testing. There were no dramatic rewrites and no reliance on AI-driven optimization tactics. The improvement came from clearer communication.
The takeaway is simple: This wasnβt an example of AI SEO outperforming traditional methods. It demonstrated that when content aligns more closely with human intent, performance follows.
Strategies for keeping content fresh in an AI-saturated world
Staying fresh in the age of AI doesnβt require abandoning proven practices or chasing every new tool. It requires greater intentionality in how content is created, positioned, and maintained. The strategies below focus on what works, even as the volume of content online continues to grow.
1. Treat intent at the strategy
Traditional SEO is often mischaracterized as keyword stuffing or mechanical optimization. In reality, its foundation has always been search intent.
Before creating or updating content, ask:
What problem is the searcher trying to solve?
What does a βgoodβ answer look like in their context?
What would make this page immediately feel relevant?
AI tools can suggest keywords, but they canβt fully interpret intent. That requires understanding audience behavior, industry nuance, and real-world constraints. When content is shaped around intent first, optimization becomes a byproduct, not the goal.
Freshness emerges when a page answers the right question clearly, not when it targets more variations of the same term.
2. Use page titles and headlines as tools
In an AI-driven content environment, page titles still matter. Search results are crowded with pages that look nearly identical at a quick glance in the SERP.
A well-written title is often the deciding factor in whether a user clicks or scrolls past. This is where traditional SEO fundamentals quietly outperform more complex tactics.
Effective titles:
Clearly state what the page offers.
Reflect the language users search with.
Set accurate expectations instead of teasing vague benefits.
Small improvements in specificity can produce meaningful gains.
3. Refresh before you create
One of the most overlooked ways to keep content fresh is to improve what already exists.
In many cases, underperforming content doesnβt fail because itβs outdated or incorrect. It fails because itβs unclear. Updating introductions, tightening headlines, improving structure, and clarifying takeaways can have a greater impact than publishing something new.
A practical approach:
Identify pages with impressions but low click-through rates.
Review whether titles and descriptions match intent.
Adjust framing before expanding content.
This strategy is particularly effective in an AI-heavy environment, where new content is abundant but thoughtful updates can deliver stronger results.
4. Lean into specificity and constraints
AI excels at general advice. Humans excel at context.
Content becomes fresh when it reflects specific scenarios, limitations, or trade-offs. Rather than aiming for universal coverage, focus on clearly defined use cases, audiences, or situations.
Specificity might include:
Addressing common misconceptions.
Explaining why a tactic works in one context but not another.
Acknowledging constraints like budget, time, or expertise.
This level of nuance signals credibility and separates genuinely helpful content from generic summaries.
5. Use AI as an accelerator
AI is most effective when it accelerates tasks that donβt require decision-making. Drafting outlines, summarizing research, or generating alternative phrasing can save time. Choosing the angle, defining the message, and interpreting results remain human responsibilities.
A healthy AI-assisted workflow includes:
Editorial oversight.
Performance review and iteration.
Clear ownership of voice and perspective.
When AI is used as a support tool rather than a substitute, content remains intentional and aligned with business goals.
6. Measure freshness by behavior
Publishing more content doesnβt make it fresherβ¦ engagement does.
Instead of tracking success by volume, pay attention to signals that reflect real interest:
Click-through rates
Time on page
Scroll depth
Return visits
These metrics reveal whether content resonates. Fresh content earns attention because it feels useful.
7. Accept that βtraditionalβ doesnβt mean outdated
The temptation in any technological shift is to assume that what came before no longer applies. But AI hasnβt replaced the need for clarity, structure, and relevance. It has made those qualities more valuable.
Traditional SEO works because it aligns with how people search, decide, and engage. When those fundamentals are executed well, they break through regardless of how content is produced.
AI has changed how some content is produced. It has increased speed, lowered costs, and removed many of the barriers that once limited who could publish and how often. What hasnβt changed is how people decide what to read, click, and ultimately trust.
Fresh content wins because it is clear and relevant when someone is looking for an answer β not just because it was generated faster.
The growing presence of AI has exposed a hard truth: Much of what passes for fresh content was never truly differentiated. When similar ideas are repeated at scale, fundamentals like intent alignment, descriptive titles, thoughtful structure, and honest messaging become the strongest signals of quality.
So whatβs the path forward? Being more disciplined about how content is framed, maintained, and measured. Successful brands and publishers will treat freshness as a function of usefulness, not output.
Search engine optimization (SEO) β be found. Answer engine optimization (AEO) β be the answer. AI engine optimization (AIEO) β be the recommendation. Assistive agent optimization (AAO) β be chosen when no human is in the loop. Four stages where each clearly absorbs the last.
The word that stays constant across the last two is βassistive,β and thatβs important because it names the purpose: what the system does for the user. The word that changes is just one: engine becomes agent β a single pivot that tracks the real shift in our industry, from systems that recommend to systems that act.
For me, everything else in the naming debate is a distraction. The SEO industry is fractured across at least six competing terms for whatβs functionally the same discipline. Each term has a constituency, each constituency is spending energy defending its label, and while we argue about what to call the work, weβre not doing the work.
So skip a step with me: Iβll explain in the next few paragraphs why AAO is a good solution β then we can all get back to our jobs.
Every competing acronym covers part of the job, none covers all of it
Every AI system that makes recommendations or takes autonomous action β Google, Bing, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and any other engine that glides into view β runs on three components: large language models, knowledge graphs, and traditional search. I call this the algorithmic trinity.Β
The balance differs by platform (ChatGPT leans LLM-heavy, Google leans on its knowledge graph), but the trinity itself is universal. Even Google team members Iβve spoken with agree on this architecture.
SEO also described the purpose the engine served, which Iβve always liked. So hereβs a quick look at the competing acronyms against those three components.
GEO describes mechanism, not purpose. It covers the LLM layer, includes search by necessity, but misses the knowledge graph entirely. Because βgenerativeβ is a technology label, the term expires when the technology evolves. βGenerative agent optimizationβ describes nothing, which tells you the term wasnβt built to scale.
Entity SEO covers the knowledge graph layer (entities live there), treats search as the delivery mechanism, and tangentially acknowledges LLMs. The term also fails the glossary test, which I now try my best to apply to my own writing. If a non-specialist canβt understand a term on first encounter, it was named for the speaker, not the listener. Every time I use the word βentityβ to describe βbrandβ in conversations with business leaders, I have to explain myself.
LLM optimization is honest about its scope, but thatβs one-third of the job, ignoring the knowledge graph and search entirely.
AI SEO bolts βAIβ onto the old term, which makes it easy access for outsiders, but it doesnβt have long-term legs. Already in 2026, people arenβt searching, theyβre researching, and some have agents researching for them.
All of them are incomplete, and Iβd argue that incomplete terminology produces incomplete strategy because practitioners naturally optimize for the leg their acronym covers and neglect the others.
Assistive agent optimization (AAO) evolves neatly from answer engine optimization and covers everything we need to build a meaningful, complete strategy:Β
βAssistiveβ names the purpose across the full algorithmic trinity.Β
βAgentβ names the actor that uses all three components to make a decision.Β
βOptimizationβ is what we do.Β
Thatβs a three-legged stool with all three legs the same length, which, if youβve ever sat on one, is the only stool that doesnβt wobble.
The glossary test says AAO isnβt perfect, but itβs the closest weβve got
Generative engine optimization requires the listener to know what a generative engine is, entity SEO requires them to know what an entity means in a technical context, and LLM optimization requires them to know what an LLM is β all three fail the glossary test.
Assistive agent optimization doesnβt pass perfectly either because βassistiveβ requires half a second to process. But βagentβ is mainstream vocabulary now (every tech company on earth is selling us agents), and βoptimizationβ is self-explanatory. Two out of three words land with zero friction, and the third doesnβt need explaining after half a secondβs thought.
If you have a better term that covers the full algorithmic trinity β pull and push (see below) β and passes the glossary test more cleanly, Iβm open, because the discipline matters more than the term.
More importantly, AAO describes a role (optimize so the assistive agent chooses your brand), not a technology, and roles outlast technologies. The term that names what you do is the one youβll still be using in five years, regardless of which model architecture or retrieval method is fashionable.
Hereβs what changes when you adopt the AAO frame
Your brand identity becomes the foundation, not a nice-to-have. When an agent books a hotel, selects a supplier, or recommends a consultant, it doesnβt scan a list of pages and pick the one with the best title tag. It evaluates what it knows about the brand itself: who this company is, what it does, who it serves, why it would be a reliable solution, and how confident the agent is in those facts.Β
That confidence starts at the entity home β the one page you control that anchors everything the algorithmic trinity knows about you β and cascades outward through every corroborating source. If the agent doesnβt understand your brand clearly, it will pick a brand it does confidently understand.
The funnel moves inside the agent. The traditional acquisition funnel (awareness, consideration, decision) used to happen with a bouncing on-and-off-your-website dance, where the search engine was one traffic source that sent people to you.Β
Under AAO, the entire funnel happens inside the AI, without the user ever seeing a list of options. The agent becomes aware of you, considers you against alternatives, and decides β all before delivering the result. Your role is no longer to attract visitors to a funnel on your site, itβs to be the answer when the agent runs its own funnel internally.
You might be thinking, βWeβre not there yet.β Youβre right. Weβre not, for most people.
But the funnel is already in the assistive engine (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode), and they bring people to the perfect click β the zero-sum moment in AI where they present one single solution to the user. Most people take the solution theyβre offered. The only thing missing is the agent clicking the buy button.
The web index is losing its monopoly as the source of truth. For two decades, the crawled web was effectively the only dataset that mattered: if Google hadnβt indexed it, it didnβt exist. That monopoly is breaking on two fronts.Β
Proprietary datasets are feeding agents directly as search evolves into what Iβd call ambient research, where in-app push recommendations surface your brand inside the tools people are already using, without anyone typing a query.Β
Agents and engines already pull from APIs, booking systems, internal databases, and structured feeds that never touch a traditional web index. The web index doesnβt disappear (your website is still the entity home β the anchor), but itβs no longer the sole gatekeeper, and you should already be building your strategy on that basis.
The push layer is back, too. For 20 years, we got lazy: Google and Bing crawled our sites, rendered our JavaScript, figured out what our pages meant even when we made it hard, and we published and waited. That will continue, but youβll need to account for multiple additions.Β
IndexNow (Fabrice Canel has been building this at Bing for years), MCP, and whatever Google eventually ships all do the same thing: they let you push structured information to the systems that act, rather than waiting for those systems to come and find it. Itβs the 1990s again β submitting URLs and actively feeding the ecosystem.Β
My guess on why Google hasnβt adopted IndexNow isnβt because itβs a bad idea β itβs a brilliant idea β but because it wasnβt Googleβs idea, and Google would rather ship a proprietary version.Β
The technical generosity weβd been leaning on comes back to bite us, too: JavaScript rendering was a favor Google extended, not a standard the industry can rely on, because most AI agent bots donβt render JavaScript. If your content sits behind client-side rendering, a growing number of agents simply never see it.
(All of this maps to the 10-gate DSCRI-ARGDW pipeline Iβll lay out next in this series.)
Your SEO skills still apply. The target moves from the engine to the agent.
You donβt need to master every intermediate stage before adopting the AAO frame, because AAO contains AIEO contains AEO contains SEO β the skills stack β and only the target changes: be chosen when the agent acts, recommended when the user researches, and mentioned when the user asks.
People who adopt this frame will be able to reliably build pipeline confidence while everyone else argues about acronyms β and the gap will widen over time.
The discipline has a name, the agents are already acting, the push layer is here, and the lazy days are over.
The first two articles were the βwhatβ and the βwhy.β Next week, the how begins. Iβll open up the 10-gate pipeline Iβve been referencing, DSCRI-ARGDW, which stands between your content and a conversion from an AI engine.
Discovered: The bot finds you exist.
Selected: The bot decides youβre worth fetching.
Crawled: The bot retrieves your content.
Rendered: The bot translates what it fetched into what it can read.
Indexed: The algorithm commits your content to memory.
Annotated: The algorithm classifies what your content means across 24+ dimensions.
Recruited: The algorithm pulls your content to use.
Grounded: The engine verifies your content against other sources.
Displayed: The engine presents you to the user.
Won: The engine gives you the perfect click at the zero-sum moment in AI.
Modders have transformed Need for Speed Carbon with a new path tracing mod xoxor4d, renowned RTX Remix modder and creator of GTA 4 RTX Remix has released a new RTX Remix path tracing mod for Need for Speed Carbon. This mod builds upon an older RTX Remix mod from the modder hopelessness, and transforms the [β¦]
There have been rumors surrounding Intel's switch back to a Unified Core design, and those rumors just got more credible as the company hopes to hire a senior CPU verification engineer for its "Unified Core" team.
Marathon has revealed its Xbox exclusive charms, confirming two Minecraft-themed cosmetics for players ahead of launch. The studio also detailed its March 5, 2026, release date, upcoming server slam, permanent bans for cheaters, dedicated servers, and a reconnect feature.
Endorfy is expanding portfolio with its first-ever microATX computer cases. Inspired by the popular Signum 300 series, the Signum M30 line is designed for users who want the full functionality of a modern PC in a compact mini-tower form factor.
The lineup includes two models - Signum M30 ARGB and Signum M30 Air - striking an ideal balance between compact dimensions and extensive configuration options. Both cases support graphics cards up to 345 mm in length, radiators up to 240 mm, and up to seven fans. As a result, they provide a versatile foundation for powerful gaming rigs, modern workstations, or office PCs built around microATX, Mini-ITX, or Flex ATX motherboards.
Each week, new games and apps integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players.
DLSS 4.5 is our latest upgrade to the ever-improving DLSS Super Resolution, adding a second generation transformer model that further enhances image quality. Via the NVIDIA app, you can apply DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution to your game library on all GeForce RTX PCs and laptops, instantly upgrading clarity and quality.
Just last week, we reported on the closure of Spliced, a newly formed NetEase game studio that suffered layoffs even before it had announced or released any games. Now, that same misfortune has come for TiMi Montreal, a division of TiMi founded in mid-2021 to create AAA, open-world, multi-platform games. The studio's closure was revealed in a now-removed LinkedIn post (via Game File) by a programmer at the studio, who said that "Today, TiMi Montreal is officially closing its doors," and goes on to lament the fact that the "the public will never get to experience what this team was capable of producing."
While TiMi Studio Group has been responsible for a number of high-profile mobile and cross-platform titles, including Call of Duty Mobile, Delta Force, Arena of Valor, and Age of Empires Mobile, among others, TiMi Montreal had not even announced any projects. The studio and its parent company, Tencent, also have yet to address the alleged closure, but several other employees sounded off in the comments of the original LinkedIn post, suggesting that the news of the closure is more than just hearsay. This news also comes shortly after Sony shuttered Bluepoint games, serving as yet another indication of an ailing gaming industry. Of course, without an official statement or more information, it's difficult to know how many employees were affected by the closure or how many will go on to work internally at Tencent or other TiMi studios, for example.
Rise of Piracy is now available in Early Access on Steam. Developed as a passion-driven project, Rise of Piracy blends action, exploration, and real-time strategy into a sandbox pirate experience where players carve their own path across a fully hand-crafted world of open seas, rival factions, and large-scale warfare.
Starting their journey at sea and growing into the commander of a formidable fleet, players can trade, explore, conquer islands, engage in diplomacy, or dominate through naval firepower and coordinated land assaults. The Early Access launch delivers a complete and replayable campaign foundation, designed to expand further with community feedback.
ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) is proud to announce a collaboration with world-renowned game studio KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS, as well as the launch of the ROG Flow Z13-KJP along with a new lineup of KJP peripherals. ROG and KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS are driven to create products and experiences tailored for gamers.
Cutting-edge gaming hardware meets visionary storytelling
At the heart of this collaboration is 'Ludens'βthe belief that humans are not only thinkers, but also players and creators. The collaboration combines the spirit of the ROG motto For Those Who Dare with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS' vision From Sapiens to Ludens. Ludens are the ones who experiment, mod, create, and challenge what gamesβand gaming hardwareβcan be. By uniting cutting-edge ROG hardware with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS' visionary storytelling, this partnership is a tribute to that spirit: everything we build, every detail we design, is for gamers everywhereβFor Ludens Who Dare.
The MIPI Alliance, an international organization that develops specifications that standardize wired interfaces for mobile and other connected ecosystems, today announced major updates to two of its foundational specifications. MIPI UniPro v3.0 and MIPI M-PHY v6.0 offer significant performance, latency and power-efficiency improvements for next-generation JEDEC Universal Flash Storage (UFS 5.0) solutions to support greater edge AI workloads in smartphones, tablets, PCs, gaming consoles, automotive and industrial applications.
"For more than a decade, M-PHY and UniPro have served as the interconnect layer for JEDEC UFS, enabling highβperformance, lowβpower flash storage across a broad range of devices," said Hezi Saar, chair of MIPI Alliance. "These latest releases build on that foundation with advances in speed and efficiency to enable emerging edge AI workloads where lowβlatency, highβbandwidth and powerβefficient data access, processing and storage are increasingly essential."
Under the new arrangement, Skyworth takes full responsibility for manufacturing, sales, and logistics across North America and Europe. Panasonic will remain involved in product design, image processing, and quality assurance β areas where it still claims deep expertise β but physical production and go-to-market execution shift entirely to Shenzhen.
Sources recently informed Windows Central that Xbox Insiders who own Asus ROG Xbox Ally handheld gaming PCs can test a feature that uses the system's embedded NPU to capture notable gaming moments. The functionality works without interrupting gameplay.
The Clear Wi-Fi History feature debuts in Windscribeβs Windows, Mac, and Linux VPN apps, adding a new layer of privacy on desktop. Here's all you need to know.
Ubisoft has named three experienced Assassin's Creed developers to lead the franchise at the company's newly formed Tencent-funded subsidiary, Vantage Studios.
Meta is buying billions of dollars in AMD AI chips in a multiyear deal tied to a 160 million-share warrant, deepening its push to diversify beyond Nvidia and expand data center capacity.
Just 4 days left before savings of up to $680 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass end on February 27 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Register to save at one of the most anticipated tech events of the year.
It's a major opportunity to grow Anthropicβs enterprise client base β and a significant threat to SaaS products currently performing those functions.Β
The number of people affected by a data breach at government contractor giant Conduent is growing, as millions of people continue to receive notices warning them that hackers stole their personal data.
Embark Studio's new Shrouded Sky update for ARC Raiders isn't a major expansion or anything, but it almost feels close to that kind of update, because it includes more than a few significant changes. A slew of weapons have been given nerfs to try and better balance PvP play, an element of progression that wasn't benefiting half of the player base is now gone, there are two new ARC threats to take down, and that's before getting to the fact that there's a whole hurricane for players to deal with now. The update is now live, with the full patch [β¦]
AMD has signed a major agreement with Meta, which involves the deployment of customized infrastructure that could be worth 'hundreds of billions'. AMD To Provide Next-Gen Venice & Verano CPUs to Meta, Alongside MI450 GPUs In a 6GW Commitment The race for next-gen AI infrastructure is more competitive than ever, with manufacturers like AMD/NVIDIA rushing to enter exclusive partnerships to secure customer capacity for their upcoming product lineups. A few days ago, we reported on NVIDIA's agreement with Meta for Vera Rubin AI racks, and the headline then was that Team Green snagged one of AMD's biggest customers. However, AMD [β¦]
The new PSU hub will be convenient for enthusiasts and modders who want fine-grained control over multiple PSUs without complex wiring. Singularity Computers Debut PSU Penta-Node for Controlling Several PSUs From a Single Central System As far as we can check, there are only Dual-PSU adapters that allow two PSUs to power a single system. However, the latest PSU hub by Singularity Computers is probably the first one to add more than two power supply units to a single system. This Australian cooler maker has introduced a PSU hub called "Penta-Node" that allows connecting multiple power supply units to the [β¦]
While it left something to be desired at launch, the PlayStation 5 Pro PSSR upscaler is still very notable tech as it is the first AI-powered upscaler to be available on a home console. In the months since the system's release, the upscaler has been consistently improved to deliver better image quality, and a future version could introduce some significant changes that would prevent frame rate drops in essentially every game. As spotted by Tech4Gamers, Sony Interactive Entertainment filed a new patent on February 4 detailing some new features that could be part of the upcoming PSSR 2.0. Chief among [β¦]
Apple is very clearly ramping up its US-based manufacturing footprint, as evidenced by its soaring server production capacity at its Houston plant, coupled with plans to relocate the manufacturing of Mac mini devices to that same Texas-based facility. These moves not only serve to broadcast Apple's commitment to the pledges that it gave to the Trump administration in the past few months to win tariff-related reprieve, but also now form the bedrock of a dedicated risk-mitigating strategy for tail-end geopolitical shocks, including a possible invasion of Taiwan by China. Apple's Houston facility is rapidly becoming its 'make in America' manufacturing [β¦]
Leaked marketing materials revealed that the Galaxy S26 Ultra isnβt going to increase the battery capacity compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra and will stick to the same 5,000mAh limit that it has had for the past six years. Even though a tipster claims that the runtimes will be better with Samsungβs upcoming flagship, EU labels reveal charge cycles have been substantially reduced, meaning that your Galaxy S26 Ultra cannot hold the same runtime after a couple of years. Information present on EU labels states that Galaxy S26 Ultraβs charge cycles have been reduced by 800 compared to the Galaxy [β¦]
Save $408 on this AM5 combo featuring the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, 32GB DDR5-6400, and MSI X870 Tomahawk motherboardβyours for only $849.99 at Newegg while the deal lasts.
When you hear the term βcontact page,β you probably think of a simple page containing contact info and maybe a form.Β
Iβm here to tell you why thatβs a big miss from a local SEO perspective and show you how to build a contact page that builds your prominence with Google and helps you convert more leads.
Google pays special attention to your contact page
The former head of Google Business Profile Support, Joel Headley, once told me that Google specifically crawls and parses your contact page to gather information about your business.
This led me to realize that most businesses have awful contact pages. They list their name, address, and phone number (NAP), embed a contact form, and call it a day.
Google is saying, βGive me data about your business,β and youβre saying, βNo data for you.β
What you need to do instead is give your contact page the same level of care and attention as a multi-location landing page.
Here are the must-haves for a contact page that converts site visitors into paying customers:
Business identity.
Contact information.
Trust factors and social proof.
Location-specific content.
Amenities.
Call to action.
1. Business identity
Just like every other page on your site, your contact page should reflect your brand. This means you should include:
Your business logo (that matches all your other marketing materials and real-world signage).
Your slogan (bonus points if you can work some keywords into it for added SEO value).
A short introduction that explains what your business does, where itβs located, and what your unique value proposition (UVP) is.
You wonβt believe how many businesses forget to include their contact information on their contact page. Hereβs what you absolutely have to include:
Full business name.
Contact form and an email address people can write to (I recommend both).
Complete address.
Phone and text numbers.
Social media links.
Hours of operation (including any holiday, seasonal, or special hours).
A common mistake businesses make is embedding a map of their business address on Google Maps instead of their actual Google Business Profile.
Make sure you embed a map in your business listing on Maps so that whenever someone clicks it, they send engagement signals to your profile. Practically, this means:
Search for your business name on Google Maps.
Bring up your profile.
Click the Share button.
Click the Embed a map tab.
Copy and paste the code into your contact page.
A link to your Google Maps listing.
A few years ago, Holly Starks conducted a case study to test whether driving directions affected local rankings. She set up Google Maps driving directions on 100 cell phones, put them in her car, and drove to the business. The results were dramatic. The businessβs rankings jumped from the 20s to number 1.
In the past, I recommended writing driving and walking directions on your contact page. Now, with Starksβ findings in mind, adding a link to your Google Maps listing with anchor text like βGet driving directionsβ is even better. It encourages people to use Google Maps driving directions and can increase engagement signals to your Business Profile.
Accepted payments.
Parking details.
Including detailed business information helps customers contact and visit you and signals to traditional search engines and AI search tools that your business is legitimate and credible.
Bonus tips for your contact form:
Add a compelling call to action (you can use the same CTA throughout your page).
Set up form conversion tracking.
Avoid spam by including reCAPTCHA, using a plugin, requiring double opt-in, and formatting your email address so bots canβt read it (e.g., hello (at) domain (dot) com).
Make sure your contact section matches your Google Business Profile as a signal of legitimacy.
Include any awards your business has received or mentions in the press, and link each one to the relevant article or website. If youβve been mentioned frequently in the press, you can create a dedicated media section on the page.
Reviews and testimonials
Embed reviews from other sites and include testimonials on your contact page to build trust. You can increase reviewersβ credibility by including their photos, names, cities, and a link to their websites or directly to the review platform they used.
Be sure to include your overall review rating and total number of reviews.
Remember, customers donβt expect your business to have a perfect 5-star rating. A rating around 4.7-4.9 signals youβre a real business, not one thatβs purchased all its reviews.
Customer reviews not only build trust and increase conversions, they also add unique, locally relevant content to the page, which is great for traditional and AI search performance.
Tip: This section is also great for requesting reviews, since repeat customers might visit your contact page. Add a Google review request link with a call to action to generate more reviews for your Google Business Profile.Β
Create content that references local information and explains exactly what your business does, where itβs located, and why prospects should choose you.
Here are some ideas for local content:
Include photos and descriptions of your team members.
Tell visitors about the customers you serve and your areas of expertise.
If youβre located in a popular neighborhood or area, mention that in your content.
Highlight any customer satisfaction guarantees or price-match policies.
Mention any upcoming events, volunteer efforts, or relevant partnerships.
Start by reviewing your Google Business Profileβs attributes section and consider listing those attributes on your contact page, such as whether the business is family- or women-owned, neurodivergent-friendly, or offers outdoor seating or home delivery.Β
Then list any other attributes your business has that Google doesnβt provide as options. Detailed business attributes help search engines, LLMs, and customers understand that you meet specific needs.
This can be especially useful for AI search, where people use more conversational queries, such as βGive me a list of cafes in Seattle that are wheelchair accessible and have free WiFi.β
6. A clear CTA button
If youβre going to do all this work to make a killer contact page, donβt forget to put the cherry on top. Sprinkle strategically placed calls to action throughout the page to encourage visitors to contact you. Make them bright, animated, eye-catching, and convincing.
Treat your contact page like a local SEO asset
If you want a contact page that helps people reach out to you, informs search engines and LLMs about your business, and converts visitors into customers, treat it like a multi-location landing page. Save this list so you remember every section your contact page needs.
Do this, and your contact page will outperform 99% of your competitorsβ contact pages, because most businesses do a terrible job with them.
AMD has struck a $100 billion deal with Meta to power their AI infrastructure AMD and Meta have announced a multi-year chip deal that will see AMD deploy 6 Gigawatts of AMD Instinct AI GPUs. Shipments for Metaβs first Gigawatt installation will start in the second half of this year, with Meta using AMDβs Helios [β¦]
The Razer Wolverine V3 Pro is one of Razer's best premium-grade controllers for Xbox and PC with responsive controls, wireless support, and a durable build.
AIDA64 8.25 continues refining the modern 64-bit foundation introduced in the 8.xx generation. This update focuses on deeper hardware integration, more flexible display customization, and improved automation tools. With revamped SensorPanel monitor pinning, native NVMe support, new PSU monitoring capabilities, and expanded LCD compatibility, AIDA64 becomes even more precise and adaptable across enthusiast setups and enterprise environments.
We are also introducing the new AIDA64 Command Line Builder, an online utility that helps generate correct command line switches quickly and easily for our business line products. Whether you automate reports, deploy AIDA64 across networks, or integrate it into scripts, the builder reduces configuration errors and simplifies setup. It is accessible directly from our website. Please note, that command line options are available exclusively in our business product line.
Sandisk today announced the next generation of its portable SSD portfolio, introducing a three-tier lineup designed to support larger file sizes, AI content, and the increasingly demanding digital workflows of everyday users, creators, and professionals. The portfolio includes the Sandisk Portable SSD, Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD, and Sandisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD. Delivering nearly twice the speed of its predecessor and enhanced durability, the Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD is available today, with the full portfolio of products rolling out later this year.
"Whether at home, in the office, or on the go, this new generation of portable SSDs support customers across their storage needs," said Heidi Arkinstall, Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Sandisk. "From everyday users, to creative enthusiasts, to production professionals, the Sandisk portable SSD portfolio balances performance, portability, and durability to give people storage they can depend on as their needs evolve."
Apple today announced a significant expansion of factory operations in Houston, bringing the future production of Mac mini to the U.S. for the first time. The company will also expand advanced AI server manufacturing at the factory and provide hands-on training at its new Advanced Manufacturing Center beginning later this year. Altogether, Apple's Houston operations will create thousands of jobs.
"Apple is deeply committed to the future of American manufacturing, and we're proud to significantly expand our footprint in Houston with the production of Mac mini starting later this year," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We began shipping advanced AI servers from Houston ahead of schedule, and we're excited to accelerate that work even further."
The decision comes after internal debate stretching more than a year, according to CEO Stephan Winkelmann. Market testing and dealer consultations showed that Lamborghini's core buyers, many of whom collect combustion-powered models for their mechanical character and sensory appeal, had little enthusiasm for a sleek grand tourer without a V8...
Intel is looking for a new Senior CPU Verification Engineer, a highly skilled position that could introduce some massive changes in the company's upcoming CPUs. The new hire is expected to work together with the "Unified Core" team, a group that has not officially been introduced. Regardless, Intel is working...
Last week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that the company's CoreAI Product president, Asha Sharma, had become the head of Xbox, replacing the retiring Phil Spencer. The news came as a surprise: former Xbox president Sarah Bond, who has now resigned from Microsoft, was expected to be the 38-year veteran's...
Xmagnet is an AI sales agent that automates your entire outbound workflow from finding and enriching B2B contacts to sending personalized sequences, replying to prospects with AI, and booking meetings using your real calendar. It includes a built-in CRM, domain warmup, and smart deliverability for small sales teams.
RansomLeak delivers interactive cybersecurity awareness training through hands-on, 3D simulations that mirror real attacks. Teams practice phishing detection, ransomware response, social engineering defense, vishing, smishing, BEC, and more to build a human firewall. The platform integrates with existing LMSs via SCORM 1.2/2004 and provides analytics, multi-tenant deployments, SSO/MFA, and white-label options. Access a free exercise library and tailor content by industry and role while tracking completion, scores, and risk trends.
A growing number of people are turning to AI for mental health support due to cost and accessibility β but charities warn itβs risky and are offering safer, free alternatives
The original Xbox console designer, Seamus Blackley, says Microsoft will eventually sunset its gaming business following the retirement of Xbox Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and the replacement of CoreAI division executive Asha Sharma.
Summer Game Fest 2026 officially kicks off this summer, followed by the invite-only Play Days event and The Game Business conference, and its host, Geoff Keighley, has promised all-new game announcements.
Nimble uses AI agents to search the web, verify and validate the results, and then clean and structure the information into neat tables that can then be queried like a database.
Exactly two weeks ago, The Verge's Tom Warren revealed that sources inside Microsoft pointed to an early plan to potentially add more third-party services to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, in a bid to make it more appealing. After the shocking price increase to $30 that went live on October 1, 2025, many Xbox gamers feel it isn't worth it anymore, even with the inclusion of Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics, hence why Microsoft might be looking to add value. Interestingly, a new rumor comes from WindowsCentral's Jez Corden. In a YouTube livestream, he mentioned Warren's report while adding that he [β¦]
What's the point of using the Wireview if you are going to ignore the warning? Well, the user just found that his device connector got melted. User Flashes 1000W BIOS and Shunt Mods His Astral RTX 5090; Wireview GPU PRO and Cable Melted Due to High Temperatures Shunt-modding is a risky business, and in the case of RTX 5090, it increases the risk of connector melting immensely. We have been seeing users overclocking to extremes by shunt-modding their GPUs and flashing with BIOSes that aren't meant for the regular RTX 5090 edition. While ROG Astral RTX 5090 is a premium [β¦]
The proverbial stars seem to have aligned with a perfect symmetry for Apple in China, where the iPhone 17 Pro Max has hit a home run on the back of a compelling design refresh, coupled with a color option that literally exudes luxury. Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max China sales surge past 10 million units in just around 150 days We recently noted that a quirky reason why Apple's iPhone 17 Pro Max was doing so well in China lately had a lot to do with its 'Cosmic Orange' color, which is the signature color of the French luxury brand [β¦]
Apple announced that it will begin producing the Mac Mini in Houston, Texas later this year, marking the first time that the compact desktop has ever been manufactured in the United States.
Another brilliant Newegg combo deal has combined the eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D with 32GB of V-Color DDR5-6400 RAM, all for just $650, saving you a whopping $348.99 in the process.
ASML to use a new CO2 laser system and tin droplet generator to increase EUV light source performance to 1000W and lithography tool productivity to 330 wafers per hour in 2030 and beyond.
How often do you review your PPC ad copy? Not just analyzing the performance of each asset within the ad platform, but also reviewing your ads in the context of how they appear next to competitor ads?
Are you using the exact same messaging as your competitors? Does your offer stand out from theirs? Which ads are bland and generic, and which provide concrete calls to action and compelling selling points?
Letβs walk through several tips for writing paid search copy that stands out in search results and converts customers for your brand.
1. Think about how assets will appear together, not just individually
When youβre writing Responsive Search Ads, itβs easy to fall into the trap of simply filling in all 15 headline options and all four descriptions.Β
However, if each headline essentially says the same thing with slightly different wording, your ad copy will appear bland and repetitive in the SERP when two or three headlines are shown together.
For instance, if this example ad showed the following, it would be less helpful:
βProject Management Software β Trusted by 3 Million Usersβ
If you want to test multiple headlines with slightly different wording, pin them to the same position so the ad platform can rotate between them, but not show both at the same time. Zoho appears to be doing this by using both βPreferred by 3 Million Usersβ and βTrusted by 3 Million Usersβ as options.
The visibility of the ad strength rating looms over every Google Ads account. Donβt let chasing an Excellent score consume your focus.
Focus more on making sure each headline and description speaks accurately to your benefit points than on including the maximum number of each. Pinning may negatively impact ad strength, but as discussed above, it can help make your messaging cleaner.
3. Use AI as a partner, but donβt blindly outsource all your copy to AI
Google and Microsoft make ad writing easy, generating text for all your ad assets with a single click. Your LLM of choice can also spin out halfway acceptable copy with the right prompt.
These tools can provide a helpful starting point, but they shouldnβt be the final result you use without careful review. Donβt skip the human touch when reviewing the copy you get back.
Problems can range from copy that doesnβt reflect your brand voice to flat-out inaccuracies. In industries such as finance and healthcare, where legal guidelines matter, AI-generated copy may not be compliance-friendly.
Itβs not enough to claim that youβre the βBest Local Contractorβ in your area. Think of concrete ways to reinforce superlative statements like this.
For instance, βVoted Best Local Contractor by [News Outlet]β provides a tangible source for the claim. Mention awards or rankings from organizations your prospective customers are likely to recognize.
Incorporating numbers, where possible, also helps bring credibility to your messaging claims.
Years in business. If youβve been around a long time, stating this positions you well against newer players in the market.
Number of customers served.
Number of locations for physical businesses.
Number of connectors for a software product.
Number of active users.
Number of trips booked.
Number of properties managed.
One word of caution: If you include numbers that are likely to change over time, such as how many customers you serve, revisit them periodically and update them for accuracy. Ranges are fine, too, for example, βOver 500 Locations.β
5. Highlight ease of effort
In todayβs busy culture, saving time and hassle can be one of your biggest selling points. Think about where the product or service youβre promoting can reduce effort for your target audience.
Open an account in 10 minutes.
Complete your application online.
Schedule a same-day appointment.
Conduct your consultation remotely.
Repairs done while you wait.
Make sure you can back up what you promise here, and consider whether current customer reviews reflect the experience your claims describe.
Just like free samples at Trader Joeβs, mentions of βfreeβ in ad copy immediately draw a userβs attention. What can you offer as a free entry point for potential customers?
Free demo.
Free trial.
Bonus for new customers.
Free college application.
Free quote.
Free content, such as ebooks, whitepapers, or webinars.
Whether itβs a trial of a software product or a free visit to your home to assess whatβs needed for pest control, this type of offer can be what convinces prospects to fill out a form and enter your sales funnel.
For instance, Strayer University highlights, βPass 3 Bachelorβs Courses, Earn 1 Tuition Free.β In an age of skyrocketing college costs, thatβs an attractive reason to click and learn more.
7. Turn off automated assets
If youβre not careful with your account settings, Google and Microsoft can automatically generate assets, from ad copy to sitelinks, without your review. That can create concerns for compliance and for overall messaging accuracy.
Make sure you turn off this option at the account level to avoid issues with unwanted copy or unexpected links to irrelevant pages.
8. Highlight pricing where it makes sense for your brand
When people are comparison shopping, they usually want quick visibility into cost. Of course, providing pricing may be more or less straightforward depending on your business, and price isnβt always a primary selling point for every brand.
If youβre in an industry where showing a cost is simple, including it in your ad copy can help. When your pricing is competitive, mentioning it helps you stand out.
If your pricing is higher than most competitors, showing that cost may help filter out people you donβt want clicking your ads. For example, lower-priced competitors may cater to small businesses, while your company serves enterprise-level organizations that need more robust solutions.Β
If you offer multiple price tiers or clearly defined costs for different services, consider using price assets to highlight them. For example, you might break out cost by number of users for a SaaS product.
9. Mention locations in regional campaigns
If your business serves a particular region, mention locations in your ad copy to create a local connection.
For example, if you just opened a new store in Buckwheat County, including βNow Open in Buckwheat Countyβ can help appeal to users in that area. Your ad will likely stand out against national brands running generic messaging.
You can set up ad groups based on regional keywords and tweak your headlines to reference those locations. Also consider using location insertion to dynamically include regions in your copy.
Now that weβve covered ways to improve your paid search copy, take a moment to review your current ads.
Where can you better think through how assets combine?
What value propositions arenβt you mentioning yet?
How can you tailor your wording more directly to customersβ concerns, such as by highlighting pricing or regions?
Start creating new copy variants and testing them to improve your PPC performance.
Your ad doesnβt compete in isolation β it competes in the SERP
Paid search success isnβt about filling every field or chasing an Excellent ad strength score. Itβs about how your messaging appears next to competitors in the SERP.
Review your ads in context. Look at how assets combine. Strengthen value propositions, highlight what makes you different, and test new variations.
If your ad sounds like everyone elseβs, it wonβt stand out. Make sure it does.
Crimson Desert will include FSR Upscaling, Frame Generation, and Ray Regeneration at launch Crimson Desert is coming to PC next month and is set to be AMDβs second βFSR Redstoneβ game. Currently, the game is part of an AMD game bundle for select Ryzen CPUs and Radeon GPUs, so it makes sense for this game [β¦]
Asha Sharma responds to accusations that she is a fake gamer or AI, clarifying her gamertag situation and outlining her vision to strengthen Xboxβs future.
SambaNova today introduced their SN50 AI chip, which boasts a max speed that's 5X faster than competitive chips. The company also announced a planned collaboration with Intel to deliver highβperformance, costβefficient AI inference solutions, and more than $350M in investment from new and existing investors.
Positioned as the most efficient chip for agentic AI, the SN50 chip offers enterprises a 3X lower total cost of ownership - a powerful foundation to scale fast inference and bring autonomous AI agents into full production. The SN50 will be shipping to customers later this year.
AMD and Meta today announced a 6-gigawatt agreement to power Meta's next generation of AI infrastructure across multiple generations of AMD Instinct GPUs. This agreement expands on the companies' existing strategic partnership and aligns roadmaps across silicon, systems and software to deliver AI platforms purpose-built for Meta's workloads. The first deployment will use a custom AMD Instinct GPU based on the MI450 architecture to deliver AI platforms that are optimized for Meta's workloads at gigawatt-scale. Shipments supporting the first gigawatt deployment are scheduled to begin in the second half of 2026 powered by the custom AMD Instinct MI450-based GPU and 6th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs, codenamed "Venice," running ROCm software and built on the AMD Helios rack-scale architecture. AMD Helios was developed jointly by AMD and Meta through the Open Compute Project to enable scalable, rack-level AI infrastructure.
"We are proud to expand our strategic partnership with Meta as they push the boundaries of AI at unprecedented scale," said Dr. Lisa Su, chair and CEO, AMD. "This multi-year, multi-generation collaboration across Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs and rack-scale AI systems aligns our roadmaps to deliver high-performance, energy-efficient infrastructure optimized for Meta's workloads, accelerating one of the industry's largest AI deployments and placing AMD at the center of the global AI buildout."
NVIDIA is reportedly preparing its long-awaited new consumer laptop processor for launch in the first half of 2026, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The chip uses a system-on-chip approach integrating CPU, GPU, and NPU into a single package. Systems based on those chips could first ship from OEMs such as Dell and Lenovo within months of launch, though no products have been confirmed. These systems are expected to focus on thin-and-light designs with an emphasis on efficiency and battery life. The report says NVIDIA is working with MediaTek on the processor, which will use the Arm architecture rather than x86. Internal names mentioned include N1 and N1X. The report also references a separate project involving Intel. That design would combine an Intel x86 CPU with NVIDIA graphics and neural processing technology, targeting improved graphics in slimmer laptops without a discrete GPU.
NVIDIA has not formally announced either chip, meaning specifications, pricing, and final configurations remain undisclosed. However, we reported in January that NVIDIA's Arm-based N1 and N1X laptop chips were getting closer to launch, with Lenovo accidentally confirming several upcoming models, including Yoga and Legion designs, through a since-deleted support page listing. Dell was also spotted testing the N1X, with a November 2025 shipping manifest surfacing a "Dell 16 Premium" powered by an N1X engineering sample. According to initial leaks, both chips are based on the same GB10 Superchip found in NVIDIA's DGX Spark AI mini PC, with the N1X reportedly packing 20 Arm CPU cores and a 48-unit iGPU. Despite expectations, NVIDIA skipped CES without any official announcement, and earlier rumors of delays pushing the launch to late 2026 hadn't been fully ruled out at the time. With NVIDIA GTC 2026 just a few weeks ahead (March 16-19), that's likely the event where those new mobile processors could be announced.
An AI strategist recently demonstrated to The Verge how he accidentally gained sweeping control over thousands of DJI robot vacuums and other connected devices scattered across the globe. A remote-control app he had vibe-coded gave him visibility into strangers' homes, revealed their locations, and allowed him to command their vacuums...
The announcement came from Sabih Khan, Apple's chief operating officer. During a tour of the Foxconn facility in North Houston, Khan told The Wall Street Journal, "We're very excited to tell you that later this year we will be beginning Mac mini manufacturing right here in this space."
The research shows that the main driver behind this growth was subscription-based gaming. Non-mobile subscription services generated $596 million in revenue during the month, up 23% year-over-year.
Boundeal VDR is a Virtual Data Room platform enhancing high-stakes business transactions through advanced AI-powered solutions. The platform features specialized AI agents trained for specific deal types, such as M&A, IPOs, and fundraising, to provide intelligent insights and document analysis that significantly accelerate decision-making. Boundeal VDR centralizes the entire deal lifecycle within a single, high-performance environment and offers a three-level isolation model, dynamic watermarking, and legally binding confidentiality agreements to ensure total data integrity.
Most identity programs still prioritize work the way they prioritize IT tickets: by volume, loudness, or βwhat failed a control check.β That approach breaks the moment your environment stops being mostly-human and mostly-onboarded.
In modern enterprises, identity risk is created by a compound of factors: control posture, hygiene, business context, and intent. Any one of these can perhaps be
The North Korea-linked Lazarus Group (aka Diamond Sleet and Pompilus) has been observed using Medusa ransomware in an attack targeting an unnamed entity in the Middle East, according to a new report by the Symantec and Carbon Black Threat Hunter Team.
Broadcom's threat intelligence division said it also identified the same threat actors mounting an unsuccessful attack against a healthcare
Website CzechCrunch has revealed that Kingdom Come: Deliverance creator Daniel VΓ‘vra, who co-founded Warhorse Studios and served as the Game Director and Lead Writer for the franchise's two released installments, will focus on bringing the IP to cinema or television rather than working on a third entry. The news was shared by Warhorse CEO Martin FrΓ½valdskΓ½, who explained: Dan has a new role. That's the creation of the Kingdom Come movie. We have been moving the Kingdom Come brand away from video games for some time now. So far, we have been in comics, concerts, and tourism, but the film [β¦]
Xbox founder and creator Seamus Blackley has just released an explosive interview to GamesBeat, in which he doesn't mince words against Microsoft's current strategy and also shares his opinion of the newly appointed Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma. According to Blackley, who first came up with the idea of a Microsoft console back in 1999, her mandate will be the same as a palliative doctor, ultimately sunsetting the whole division as Microsoft refocuses on its new core AI business. Xbox, like a lot of businesses that arenβt the core AI business, is being sunsetted. They donβt say that, but thatβs whatβs [β¦]
The Taara Beam offers a fiber-like connection without the hassle of acquiring right-of-way and laying cable. It delivers up 25 Gbps of throughput with ultra-low latency at a range of up to 10 km.
A thief in South Korea fled with two RTX 5090s and an RTX 5080 when he broke into a local computer shop. Instead of going for maximum potential gains and picking up RAM, he valued high-ticket items that would sell quickly. The police are already looking for the suspect, but the shop owner promises to show leniency if the items are simply returned.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chip was used to communicate with the Ingenuity Mars helicopter. But now that it's been retired from service, NASA engineers found another use for this relatively powerful chip.
Optiscaler brings FSR 4 support to Vulkan API games ahead of AMD With the new v0.9.0-pre10 Test Build of Optiscaler, game modders can now enable support for AMDβs AI-powered FSR 4 upscaler in games using the Vulkan API. This is a first for AMDβs FSR 4 technology and addresses one of the primary weaknesses of [β¦]
GXTrust puts high-quality sound at the forefront with the Emita II microphones, featuring a premium 16 mm condenser capsule, delivering studio-quality sound that brings every word to life. With a cardioid recording pattern, they're perfectly tuned to pick up the user's voice while minimizing background noise, making these microphones ideal for any kind of streaming setup.
The Emita II includes pop and wind filters reduce plosives and distortion, ensuring clean vocals and a smooth, polished result every time. A robust metal alloy casing offers improved acoustics, while its external shock mounts block unwanted vibrations to enhance sound quality even further.
Innodisk, a leading provider of industrial-grade memory solutions, announced the CXL Add-in Card (AIC), a major addition to its CXL product portfolio. Innodisk developed this CXL-based expansion card in response to rising memory demands in next-generation computing and the limited scalability of current motherboard designs. Connecting via the widespread and mature PCIe interface, the CXL AIC delivers fast memory access without occupying system DIMM slots. It also provides greater flexibility in memory usage and allocation. Its HHHL form factor, paired with Innodisk's compact DDR5 RDIMM/RDIMM VLP, unlocks new possibilities for microdata centers and edge systems, especially in latency-critical scenarios such as 5G networking, high-frequency trading, and smart medical imaging.
Flexible Memory Expansion Up to 256 GB
The Innodisk CXL AIC features two onboard RDIMM sockets that provide flexible memory expansion up to 256 GB (128 GB x2), allowing easy capacity adjustment by swapping RDIMM modules based on system needs. By connecting through PCIe slots, it not only preserves the system's native DIMM slots but also delivers an additional 32 GB/s of bandwidth via its PCIe Gen 5 x8 interface. This minimizes latency when the CPU accesses shared memory, enabling faster data flow for bandwidth-intensive applications such as AI inference and edge processing.
It may not be the best year to upgrade your PC, but 2026 is packed with games worth the wait. From long-awaited reboots to bold new IP, here are the PC titles we can't stop watching this year.
The threat activity cluster known as UnsolicitedBooker has been observed targeting telecommunications companies in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, marking a shift from prior attacks aimed at Saudi Arabian entities.
The attacks involve the deployment of two distinct backdoors codenamed LuciDoor and MarsSnake, according to a report published by Positive Technologies last week.
"The group used several
The first base Apple Silicon Macs with 8GB of unified memory would have been sufficient for light tasks, but as soon as you open a boatload of apps or start something taxing, RAM swapping kicks in, and the machineβs SSD begins to be used, dropping fluidity and performance. Fortunately, the Cupertino firm addressed this problem by shipping all of its current-generation Apple Silicon Macs with 16GB of unified memory. However, thereβs an entirely new issue that needs to be tackled and quickly: gaming. A new video showing some Cronos: The New Dawn gameplay on various Macs, and after a while, [β¦]
South Korean developer and publisher KRAFTON announced another step toward expanding its AI R&D framework: the appointment of Kangwook Lee as the company's new Chief AI Officer (CAIO). Lee has actually been at Krafton since 2022 in the role of Head of KRAFTON AI; the promotion is a sign of the company's continued investment in AI research and development. As a reminder, the company has been calling itself "AI First" for a while now. Lee has already led major initiatives, including the collaboration with NVIDIA to develop CPCs (Co-Playable Characters), AI-driven companions designed to enable real-time interaction between players and [β¦]
Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced that it has begun shipping evaluation samples of embedded flash memory compatible with the next-generation UFS standard, UFS 5.0, which is currently being standardized by JEDEC.
UFS 5.0 is a new standard for embedded flash storage currently being developed by JEDEC to meet the performance requirements of next-generation mobile devices such as high-end smartphones equipped with on-device AI functions. It utilizes MIPI M-PHY version 6.0 for the physical layer and UniPro version 3.0 for the protocol. M-PHY version 6.0 introduces the new HS-GEAR6 mode, theoretically supporting an interface speed of up to 46.6 Gbps per lane; with 2 lanes, UFS 5.0 can achieve approximately 10.8 GB/s of effective read/write performance.
ASUS today announced ASUS Optimized Liquid-Cooling Solutions and a strategic partner framework designed to address the escalating thermal, power, and density challenges of next-generation AI and high-performance computing data centers.
ASUS Optimized Liquid-Cooling Solutions for next-generation AI compute density
As AI and HPC workloads push compute density and power consumption beyond the capabilities of traditional air cooling, optimized liquid-cooling solutions by ASUS will provide the critical thermal management required for the next-generation NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 system based data centers. By efficiently dissipating heat from high-performance CPUs, GPUs, and accelerator-dense racks, ASUS significantly reduces energy consumption, lowers PUE, and optimizes TCO while supporting unprecedented rack density.
WaitlistKit helps you create viral waitlists in seconds with hosted signup pages, embeddable widgets, and built-in referral tracking. Use real-time analytics to see signups and conversion, and let subscribers climb the queue by sharing unique links. You can customize branding, choose dark or light themes, and integrate via REST API, webhooks, or CSV export. Start free, then add custom domains, team access, and advanced analytics.
With the new acquisitions, the company wants to bolster its position as a marketing solution by potentially adding video creation and more granular measurement.
Shortly after news broke that Ubisoft is, in fact, working on "several" Assassin's Creed launches after its controversial Creative Houses reshuffle, the company has published an official Reddit post detailing the newly appointed lead for the Assassin's Creed franchise as well as giving gamers a taste of what's in-store for the future of the franchise. The most notable take-away from the announcement is that the Assassin's Creed franchise will be led by Martin Schelling as Head of Brand, Jean Guesdon as Head of Content, and François De Billy as Head of Production Excellence.
All three members of the Assassin's Creed leadership team have previously worked on Assassin's Creed games: Schelling was Producer and Senior Producer of Black Flag, Origins, Revelations, and Valhalla; Guesdon was Creative Director of Black Flag and Origins, among other franchise credits; and De Billy served in a number of roles on Revelations and Black Flag and as Production Director on Origins and Valhalla. Ubisoft says the new team "marks the beginning of an exciting and ambitious new chapter" for the franchise, although it will be picking up where previous leaders left off in the aforementioned Assassin's Creed projects Ubisoft already has in the works. Appropriately, given the history, it seems as though the first Assassin's Creed project that will be released after the new leaders take over is the Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake. That said, the remake is likely all but complete, especially when it comes to more meaningful gameplay and artistic elements, meaning the new team likely won't have contributed much to that, if anything.
Kid's Portal is an ad-free learning platform for kids ages 5-10. We've curated over 1,000 educational videos, interactive games, stories, and printable activities across science, nature, history, and geography, all in one safe space with zero tracking or interruptions. Unlike free platforms built on advertising, our subscription model prioritizes safety. There are no ads, no data collection, and no algorithmsβjust quality educational content that kids love to explore. It works across iOS, Android, and web.
Anthropic on Monday said it identified "industrial-scale campaigns" mounted by three artificial intelligence (AI) companies, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax, to illegally extract Claude's capabilities to improve their own models.
The distillation attacks generated over 16 million exchanges with its large language model (LLM) through about 24,000 fraudulent accounts in violation of its terms
Samsung has largely remained conservative over the camera specifications of its premium smartphones, choosing to utilize the same sensors while focusing heavily on computational improvements. This approach can work for a while, but only if competitors choose not to push forward with their own upgrades, which is why, on paper, the Galaxy S26 Ultra appears more like a mid-ranger when comparing the individual physical camera sizes to the competition. The Vivo X300 Ultra embarrasses the Galaxy S26 Ultra with larger physical cameras, with the Samsung flagshipβs only advantage being an additional sensor To recap, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected [β¦]
Measure Vertical helps you measure your vertical jump at home in under 60 seconds using only your smartphone. It uses your body measurements to calculate jump height and shows how many inches you are from dunking. You can track your progress and use training guidance to build strength, power, and explosiveness. Whether you play basketball or volleyball, you can quickly establish a baseline, adjust your workouts, and see how close you are to your goal.
A new patent application by Sony may provide players with an alternative to pausing a game that would ostensibly prevent halting gameplay execution by putting the game into an alternate gameplay state while players deal with momentary distractions or decide whether they want to fully pause the game to deal with something like a message. The patent, (US20260021411) filed with the USPTO, explains a number of potential ways to achieve this, seemingly with the idea that different games and genres could implement different versions of Soft Pause. Sony touts Soft Pause as particularly useful for VR use cases, in which a jarring pause and cut to a menu screen may cause nausea or dizziness
The Soft Pause concepts include everything from having the game slow down while the feature is active, making the game easier, guiding the player towards objectives or enemies, boosting player assist featuresβfeatures like aim assist or stretching time windows for certain inputsβor even having a machine-learning tool take over from the player entirely while Soft Pause is active. It's unclear if that ML model would be trained on player data or if it will offer more generic support. It remains to be seen if or when this will be implemented at all, and, realistically, it could go either way. If it is implemented, it will also be interesting to see how each game implements it, especially in competitive games. Currently, being AFK in a competitive game can be disastrous, and, while something like Soft Pause might be able to provide something of a solution to short AFK moments, although games like Paladins already have an AI that takes over gameplay when players are disconnected. Other recent Sony patents include an adaptive controller of sorts that puts all controls into a touch interface.
Need a new telephoto zoom for your Nikon mirrorless camera? Nikon's new Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II could fit the bill βif you're prepared to pay for it.
Gametify is a lightweight gaming platform designed for seamless play. We curate high-quality HTML5 games optimized for both desktop and mobile. No ads overload, just pure gaming experience.
FarmCloud is a connected agriculture data platform that integrates farm-level data, IoT devices, machinery, and enterprise systems into one interoperable ecosystem. It serves as middleware for the agri-food sector, enabling secure data exchange between farmers, processors, agri-input manufacturers, OEMs, retailers, and advisors.
Available as SaaS, on-premise, or white-label, FarmCloud allows real-time supply chain monitoring, traceability, ESG and Scope 1β3 reporting, and data-driven collaboration. It includes loyalty programs, targeted campaigns, and lead generation tools that increase retention, conversion, and measurable sales growth based on verified food production data.
Lamborghini's chief executive says that the Italian supercar manufacturer is planning to abandon its all-electric supercar. So where next for speedy, luxury EVs?
Fosi Audio and TechPowerUp bring you the Fosi Audio C3 gaming DAC Giveaway. It's been up over the week, but entries close on February 26. Open worldwide, the Giveaway gives 10 lucky winners a chance to bag a Fosi Audio C3 external sound card (DAC + headphones amp) that's optimized for PC gaming. It packs an analog kit that's perfectly suited for various gaming genres, giving you crystal clear audio and a competitive edge in online multiplayer gaming. nlike traditional gaming sound cards that rely on fixed EQ boosts, the C3 uses AI models to recognize key in-game sounds, such as footsteps, gunfire, reloads, and directional cues, and dynamically enhance what matters while reducing irrelevant or distracting noise. Rather than simply making certain frequencies louder, the system is designed to identify and prioritize important sounds depending on the gameplay context. Sounds good? Drop your hat in before February 26!
BlitzClaw gets your Claude-powered assistant online in about a minute. Skip servers, API keys, and configuration; sign up, pick a plan, connect Telegram, and start chatting. It includes browser automation for screenshots, scraping, and web control, and stores secrets securely in a dashboard so data stays in your instance. Plans start at $19 per month, with included credits and usage-based billing beyond that.
The viral X post from an AI security researcher reads like satire. But it's really a word of warning about what can go wrong when handing tasks to an AI agent.
Following a temporary injunction on sales, Asus and Acer have restored their German websites for sales and support. However, some products are still unavailable.
The Motion Picture Association sent a strongly worded letter to the Seedance owner demanding that it stop training on copyrighted material, per Variety.
With Marathon and its upcoming server slam event almost literally just around the corner by now, details have started to emerge about the game's server and anti-cheat configurations. In a new post on the @MarathonTheGame official X account, Bungie has explained the details of Marathon's anti-cheat system. Aside from both kernel- and user-level anti-cheat on clients, it was confirmed that Marathon will have server-side fog of war that will protect against wall hacks, ESP cheats, and loot revealers. The game will also use dedicated servers with authority on key combat and looting actions, meaning the servers will be protected against client-side interference. The anti-cheat announcement also mentions that in the case of a crash or connection loss, players will be able to rejoin the game as soon as the connection is re-established, although they will have to rely on teammates to protect their character.
Most notably, though, Bungie announced that any cheaters caught cheating in Marathon will receive a permanent ban from the game. While an authoritative stance has been well received by the community, there are concerns over BattlEye potentially tagging false positives and banning players who weren't guilty of cheatingβan issue that was recently brought up by the Apex Legends community when a player was falsely banned after the new Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike seemingly triggered a ban threshold for gameplay automation.
The aviation-style BlackShark chassis, in a cheaper stripped-down form that preserves wireless connectivity and great comfort levels, elevates the new V3 X.
How Gene Amdahl turned IBMβs mainframe blueprint into a rival empire β and gambled on wafer-scale silicon decades before the AI era made it viable.
Disney Worldβs The Magic of Disney Animation will feature an audio-animatronic Olaf hosting a drawing experience alongside Disney animators, where guests learn to sketch Disney characters β including Olaf himself.
The Russia-linked state-sponsored threat actor tracked as APT28 has been attributed to a new campaign targeting specific entities in Western and Central Europe.
The activity, per S2 Grupo's LAB52 threat intelligence team, was active between September 2025 and January 2026. It has been codenamed Operation MacroMaze. "The campaign relies on basic tooling and the exploitation of legitimate services
Bethesda game director Todd Howard says it's not using AI to "generate anything," but acknowledges its potential as a tool and says "you can't ignore" it.
Xbox co-founder Seamus Blackley has raised concerns that Microsoftβs increasing focus on AI could sideline the Xbox brand. In a recent interview, he argues that Xbox is being βsunsettedβ as the company pivots toward generative AI, though his comments remain speculative.
WWE and 2K have disclosed the full details on what players can expect to experience in WWE 2K26's version of WWE 2K25's The Island mode, from a new non-linear story to expanded gameplay features.
Mozilla announced in early February that it had implemented its "AI kill switch" in a nightly build after severe community backlash, with the full release slated for Firefox 148. As of February 23, Firefox 148 is officially available for download via the download server ahead of the officially announced February 24 launch date. According to Mozilla, the AI features will remain disabled through updates once they have been disabled via the kill switch.
The AI kill switch isn't the only new change coming to Firefox 148, with Mozilla also slated to add features like a split view and HDR video streaming on Windows, with both features seemingly leaving experimental in build 148. Hardware acceleration is also expected to speed up PDF load times, and the sidebar will be getting a visual update with convenient access to bookmarks, history, AI tools, and the settings menu. As with other Firefox UI elements, the new sidebar is fully customizable in the settings menu.
DeepNude Online is a global database that tracks legislation, statistics, and educational resources related to AI-generated intimate imagery. It offers an interactive regulation map covering over 150 countries with details on criminal penalties, civil remedies, platform liability, and age restrictions. Use the site to compare regional approaches, explore trends and estimates on usage and harm, and access guidance for parents, educators, employers, and individuals. The platform updates regularly to support policymakers, researchers, and advocates working to combat non-consensual AI imagery.
The team that sold their last app Dark Sky to Apple are back with Acme Weather, which offers alternative forecasts, rainbow and sunset alerts, and more.
Do you remember that game from Amazon and Glowmade at Gamescom ONL 2024 that put Geoff Keighley in its trailer and looked like a more medieval version of Fall Guys? No? Well, to remind you (unless you're one of the 10 people playing it on Steam right now who need no reminder), that game was King of Meat, a co-op party platformer that dropped four friends into a medieval, community-built obstacle course. That's what King of Meat was, with 'was' being the keyword here, because today, Amazon and Glowmade announced on the game's official website that its servers are going [β¦]
The biggest hindrance to smartphone chipsets unlocking their potential is heat dissipation, and while TSMCβs 2nm process is expected to introduce some efficiency improvements, the ever-growing complexity and size of these SoCs mean that newer packaging needs to be adopted to break through the performance ceiling. One tipster notes that the industry has been discussing companies like TSMC and Huawei exploring 3D packaging for the smartphone category, but the reality is that this technology offers far too many drawbacks for it to be adopted for this specific sector. Instead, these firms appear to focus solely on improving manufacturing processes. Apple [β¦]
Bungie's upcoming first-person PvEvP extraction shooter, Marathon, will be out on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S in a little more than a week from the time of this writing, and as you might expect, there has been a lot of communication and marketing from the team as we get closer to the game's release. The most recent of which arrived today, in the form of a new blog post on the official Bungie website, all to do with the game's networking and security. The blog post highlights the game's dedicated server networking and how elements like Fog of War [β¦]
Sidekick Publishing and developer Randwerk are excited to announce their partnership on the highly-wishlisted open-world roguelike WANDERBURG, with a surprise playable demo launching Today as part of Steam Next Fest. WANDERBURG landed with a bang during its breakout reveal at the 2025 PC Gaming Show, with a trailer that has since racked up over 470,000 views. The game has since received over 250,000 wishlists and saw 126,000 participants during the recent closed playtest.
Inspired by Mortal Engines and Howl's Moving Castle, WANDERBURG is a minimalist open-world roguelike in an ecosystem of Castles on Wheels. Consume, grow bigger, upgrade your modules, and survive! Unlock new weapons, build your castle, and discover a procedurally generated map.
Nvidia is known to be collaborating with MediaTek to develop its N1 and N1X PC SoCs, which integrate CPU, GPU, and NPU components into a single chip. Major PC makers such as Dell and Lenovo are reportedly working on several laptops powered by the new processors, with launches expected in...
Here's how to watch Love Island All Stars finale for free β live on 23rd February as season 3 favorites Belle and Harrison compete for a shot at love and the Β£50,000 prize.
Anthropic accuses DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax of using 24,000 fake accounts to distill Claudeβs AI capabilities, as U.S. officials debate export controls aimed at slowing Chinaβs AI progress.
Uber Autonomous Solutions will see the company selling both software and services for all the tasks associated with operating a robotaxi, self-driving truck, or sidewalk delivery robot business.
Flamingo Compliance is a tax residency and visa compliance platform for globally mobile individuals and teams. It automatically records trips across countries, US states, and select cities, calculates Schengen 90/180 limits, tracks long-term visas and permits, and alerts you as thresholds approach. You can use the Passport Index, plan future travel, and export audit-ready reports. Your data stays on your device with optional iCloud sync and no precise tracking.
Almost nine months after the game's announcement, the team behind Ashes of the Singularity II is finally ready to share more about this highly anticipated real-time strategy game sequel. A demo is available for download on Steam as part of the newly launched Next Fest, allowing players to try two of three factions, three maps, the full skirmish mode, and even 8-player multiplayer. Moreover, we have an exclusive interview with Oxide Games, diving into pretty much every major aspect of the game. The participants were Brett Norton (Head of Production), Adrian Wright (General Manager), Gabriela Leskur (Narrative and Experience Lead), [β¦]
Publisher Nacon will host its next Nacon Connect event next week on March 4, 2026, at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm BT. A press release for the event doesn't identify how long it will be, but it does tease new looks at upcoming titles like Edge of Memories, The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu, and Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss. The press release also adds that "This key event will highlight the publisher-developer's future releases as well as the latest from its accessories department," so we know we won't just be hearing about new games from Nacon; we'll also get [β¦]
The Japanese government is eager to expand onshore production, and one way to attract investment is to offer incentives to giants like SK hynix and Samsung. Japanese Government's Support & Incentives Reportedly Reduce TCO of Memory Fabs by More than 50% The global semiconductor dynamics have evolved rapidly since nations like Japan and the US have made chip production a matter of national security. Incentives like the CHIPS Act have contributed significantly to the growth of American manufacturing, and the current Japanese administration is now looking to attract private investment as well. A report by Chosun Biz reveals that memory [β¦]
AMD is absent when gamers need its help, but no worries! Optiscaler is one step ahead, thanks to the contributors. Optiscaler Version 0.9.0-Pre10 Test Build Now Offers FSR 4 Support for Vulkan Games AMD isn't moving an inch when it comes to extending FSR 4.0 (FidelityFX Super Resolution) support. It has not just restricted FSR 4 to RDNA 4 GPUs; it has also made its availability limited to only DX12 titles. It has been nearly a year since the new upscaler from AMD was rolled out, but to this day, AMD just couldn't enable FSR 4 on Vulkan titles. Thanks [β¦]
Optical drives can still be handy in 2026, though desktop and PC laptop makers very rarely offer them. Here's a USB-attached device that is also a SATA dock, and more, for under $21.
German data center operator Hetzner announced today that itβs raising prices across its cloud, dedicated server, storage, and load balancer products starting April 1.
A major kernel update, Linux 7.0, has been officially released. Although it'll take some time to show up in various Linux distros, the kernel comes with preliminary support for AMD's upcoming Zen 6 and Intel's Nova Lake.
AMD has reportedly stopped delivering new driver updates to handheld gaming PCs with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU, including Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go S.
Advertisers contacting Google Ads support may now need to grant explicit authorization before they can even submit a help request β giving a Google specialist permission to access and make changes directly inside their account.
Hereβs whatβs happening. Users are first routed to a beta AI chat. If they opt to submit a support form instead, they must tick an βAuthorisationβ box. The wording allows a Google Ads specialist, on behalf of the company, to reproduce and troubleshoot issues by making changes directly in the account.
The fine print is clear. Google doesnβt guarantee results. Any adjustments are made at the advertiserβs own risk. And the advertiser remains solely responsible for the impact on campaign performance and spending.
Why we care. The required checkbox shifts more responsibility onto advertisers at a time when automation and AI already limit hands-on control. If support makes changes, the performance and spend risk still sits with the advertiser.
Between the lines. This creates a trade-off between speed and control. Granting access could accelerate troubleshooting, but it also opens the door to account-level changes that may affect live campaigns β without any assurance of improved outcomes.
The bottom line. Getting support may now mean temporarily handing over the keys β while keeping full accountability for whatever happens next.
First seen. This new caveats to getting support was spotted by PPC specialist Arpan Banerjee who shared spotting the message on LinkedIn.
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new cryptojacking campaign that uses pirated software bundles as lures to deploy a bespoke XMRig miner program on compromised hosts.
"Analysis of the recovered dropper, persistence triggers, and mining payload reveals a sophisticated, multi-stage infection prioritizing maximum cryptocurrency mining hashrate, often destabilizing the victim
Modders update The Witcher Online, making the multiplayer mod even better Last month, modders added online multiplayer to The Witcher 3: The Wild Huntβs PC version, creating The Witcher Online. This mod allows gamers to play through the entire game with their friends. With The Witcher Online, players can travel together, complete quests together, and [β¦]
Microsoftβs latest Surface Pro firmware update fixes VPN and cellular issues, arriving as the company deepens its 5G push through a new Ericsson partnership.
Ever since Memory of a Killer burst onto the scene, fans have been hoping for a Grey's Anatomy reunionβ but according to Patrick Dempsey, it'll never happen.
All the ways to watch Everton vs Man United live streams online and from anywhere, as the Toffees look to make it back-to-back victories over the Red Devils.
Microsoft is reportedly working on yet another "advanced" Notepad feature that has little to do with basic text editing. According to unnamed sources cited by Windows Latest, the application will soon support inserting images into text-based documents.
Vfrog lets you create and ship production-ready computer vision models in minutes. Describe what to detect in natural language, and the platform handles setup without requiring computer vision expertise. Upload a small dataset and use synthetic data to fill gaps, then auto-label up to 80% and quickly review the rest. Vfrog trains, optimizes, and deploys your model, delivering an API you can use anywhere. Start with flexible credits from $49 a month and scale to enterprise features like advanced analytics, custom integrations, and real-time processing.
SerpApi filed a motion to dismiss Google's DMCA lawsuit, arguing the search giant lacks standing to invoke copyright law over publicly visible search results.
A new report from Game File points to the latest source of video game industry layoffs, this time coming from Tencent and its TiMi Montreal studio. In this case, the whole studio is getting shut down, leading to everyone on the team seemingly losing their roles nearly five years after the studio was founded with the intention of creating "AAA open-world multi-platform games." Game File's report comes after a now-deleted LinkedIn post from one of the studio's programmers shared that the studio had been shuttered, with employees having been aware of the situation "for some time." They also added that [β¦]
In his latest hour-long conversation with Greg Miller from Kinda Funny, Bethesda's Todd Howard touched on various subjects, includingΒ The Elder Scrolls VIΒ and Starfield, the usage of AI in game development, and even his feelings toward Fallout 76. When it launched in late 2018, Fallout 76 quickly became a sort of punching bag for critics (including Wccftech's Chris Wray) and gamers alike. The game had several issues at release, including optimization, a lack of human NPCs (by design, as the game is set before any other in the series and was conceived with players as the first Vault dwellers getting out [β¦]
This past Friday, the video games industry, and more specifically, Xbox and Microsoft, entered a new era. A post-Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond era, with the announcement of Spencer's retirement and Bond's resignation. Former Microsoft CoreAI chief executive officer, Asha Sharma, took Spencer's place, while Matt Booty stepped into a new role as Xbox's chief content officer. As the industry and consumers wrap their heads around the sudden shake-up, a new report from The Verge looks to provide some insight into why it happened the way it did. Why is Sarah Bond leaving Microsoft instead of being the one to [β¦]
Over the past few months, video gaming has become a rather expensive hobby, with hardware and game prices rising consistently, risking pricing out more and more gamers as the worldwide economic situation remains challenging. However, not every publisher is set to increase prices, and some, like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 publisher Kepler Interactive, are set to continue employing a pricing strategy that is respectful of gamers' money and time. Speaking with the BBC, Kepler Interactive's CEO Alexis Garavaryan commented on the company's pricing strategy, which has "kind of taken the opposite action" to what most major publishers have done in [β¦]
A new year means a newΒ WWE 2K game,Β and I recently made the trip to WWE Headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to go hands-on withΒ WWE 2K26Β (readΒ more about that here). As has become tradition, I also sat down with longtime WWE 2K series creative director Lynell Jinks and gameplay producer Bryan Williams to take the current temperature of the series. We delved into a lot of topics, including WWE 2K26βs changes to the seriesβ core stamina and reversal mechanics, the gameβs massive 400 slot roster, added match types, new βRingside Passβ approach to DLC, why Visual Concepts knew The Island wouldnβt wow everyone [β¦]
Last yearβs entry in the WWE 2K series left some, including me, wanting. After several years of steady piecemeal improvement, WWE 2K25 went all-in on The Island, a new cosmetic-festooned online hub similar to NBA 2K's The City, with most other aspects of the game falling by the wayside. Was this just a one-year misstep, or the beginning of a new direction? Last week, I traveled to WWE Headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to go hands-on withΒ WWE 2K26Β and was surprised to find I could test pretty much the entire game (in years past, journalists were typically given a curated list of [β¦]
Demand Gen marks a shift in Google Ads toward visual advertising beyond keywords and text. Relying on traditional strategies when testing it wastes budget, hurts performance, and limits opportunity. To succeed, you have to think more like a social advertiser than a search advertiser.
At SMX Next, Industrious Marketing owner Jack Hepp explained why many businesses struggle with demand gen campaigns β especially in B2B and lead generation β while also sharing insights relevant to ecommerce.
Understanding the Shift: From Intent to Interruption
Demand Gen reflects Googleβs shift from intent-first search advertising to visual, discovery-based campaigns.
Instead of targeting users actively searching for your service, you reach them as they scroll through YouTube, Gmail, or Discovery feeds.
This changes your approach: visual creative becomes the new keyword, replacing traditional targeting.
Common misalignments in Demand Gen strategy
Applying outdated search strategies can lead to failure with Demand Gen. The four main mistakes:
Expecting bottom-of-funnel CPAs from mid-funnel traffic.
Using overly broad, βspray and prayβ targeting.
Running bland, generic creative.
Not knowing how to optimize without negative keywords.
Success requires a social advertising mindset.
Campaign structure: Understanding the hierarchy
Demand Gen uses a two-level structure.
Campaign-level settings control broad parameters like bidding strategy, conversion goals, and device targeting.
Ad groupβlevel settings control audiences, locations, and channels.
Each ad group learns independentlyβinsights donβt transferβallowing precise audience segmentation with tailored creative.
Creating interruption-based creative
You must stop their scroll within 3-4 seconds. Your creative must capture attention immediately, speak to a specific pain point, and present your solution.
Unlike search ads β where users are actively looking for you β Demand Gen interrupts browsing, so your message must be instantly compelling and problem-focused.
Aligning visuals to the customer journey
Match your offer to audience readiness.
Cold audiences need educational content like free guides or diagnostic tools.
Warm audiences respond to case studies, webinars, and comparison tools.
Hot audiences are ready for demos and direct purchase offers.
Misaligning them β like pushing demos to cold audiences β guarantees failure from the start.
The power of problem-focused creative
Generic ads with stock photos and basic headlines get scrolled past. Winning creative uses bold headlines, striking visuals, and problem-focused messaging.
For example, β43% of cyberattacks target small businessesβ speaks to a specific pain point, making the ad stand out and prompting engagement instead of a scroll.
Bidding and budget strategies
Demand Gen uses campaign goals rather than traditional bidding strategies: conversion-focused, click-focused, or conversionβvalueβfocused.
Aim for 50+ conversions per month and budget 10β15x your target CPA to build enough data.
For click-based bidding, set budget based on desired traffic volume and target CPC.
Demand Gen is highly data-reliant, so hitting these thresholds is critical to performance.
Can Demand Gen work with small budgets?
Yes, with strategic planning.
Focus on mid- or upper-funnel audiences and optimize for MQLs instead of bottom-funnel conversions. This helps you reach 50+ monthly conversions for data density, even with smaller budgets.
Align your goals, targeting, and budget to generate enough conversion data.
Building the right audience
Avoid two extremes:
Audiences that are too broad (billions of impressions) where Google canβt identify your target.
Audiences too narrow (a few thousand impressions) where you canβt build data density.
The sweet spot: start with custom segments based on search terms or competitor websites, then layer in lookalike segments and strategic first-party data. Avoid optimized targeting at first β it works best to expand already successful campaigns.
The role of creative in targeting
Your creative shapes who Google targets. The people who engage with your ads teach Google who to show them to next.
Performance peaks when your creative speaks to your ideal customer profile. Align messaging to the buyerβs stage β cold audiences need different messaging than hot prospects.
Strategic exclusions
Use exclusions surgically, not broadly. Itβs tempting to exclude like negative keywords, but over-excluding shrinks your audience too much.
Focus only on clear non-converters (e.g., specific age groups, locations, or audiences you know wonβt respond). Give Google room to find engaged users within your parameters, rather than narrowing to the point of ineffectiveness.
Optimization: Where to focus
Without negative keywords, optimize through three levers: creative, audience, and offer. Test multiple formats (video, image, carousel) and styles (UGC, testimonials, problem-focused messaging). Continuously refine what works with new hooks and data points.
Test offers to match audience readiness β cold audiences need educational content, while hot audiences need direct CTAs.
Prioritize post-click optimization: improve landing pages, strengthen tracking with CRM integration, and ensure clean data feeds Googleβs learning.
Real-world case study
A telecommunications company targeting B2B managed IT services drove strong results by aligning all three elements.
Offer: An interactive quiz showing businesses how managed IT could reduce costs.
Targeting: Custom segments based on proven search terms and competitor website visitors.
Creative: Problem-focused messaging about cybersecurity threats to small businesses.
Results:
$10 cost per MQL.
3.8% conversion rate.
40% of quiz takers became SQLs.
20% increase in total SQLs.
Key takeaways
As you plan your next campaign:
Match your creative to your customer and their stage in the journey.
Target the right audience at the right point in that journey.
Test and optimize creative and offers to find what resonates and drives action.
Gartner predicted traditional search volume will drop 25% this year as users shift to AI-powered answer engines. Googleβs AI Overviews now reach more than 2 billion monthly users, ChatGPT serves 800 million users each week, and Perplexity processes hundreds of millions of queries every month.
Getting found online is no longer just about ranking on Page 1. Itβs about being the source AI engines cite when they generate an answer.
Thatβs the job of generative engine optimization (GEO) β and in 2026, itβs no longer optional. This guide shows you how to build, execute, and measure a GEO strategy that actually works.
What is GEO β and why 2026 is the tipping point
GEO is the practice of structuring your content and digital presence so that AI-powered search platforms β including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot β can retrieve, cite, and recommend your brand when answering user questions.
If traditional SEO was about earning a spot among 10 blue links, GEO is about earning a place among the two to seven domains large language models typically cite in a single response. The competition is tougher, but the payoff is big: when an AI engine names your brand in its answer, it delivers an implicit endorsement no organic listing ever could.
Several forces make 2026 the tipping point. AI search adoption is moving beyond experimentation as users form platform loyalty, choosing their preferred AI engine the way they once chose between Google and Bing.
At the same time, GEO has gone mainstream at the enterprise level, with dedicated conferences, agency specializations, and a growing ecosystem of purpose-built tools. Academic research reinforces this shift. A Princeton study that coined the term, along with a 2025 paper on citation bias in AI search, shows that AI engines strongly favor earned mediaβauthoritative third-party sourcesβover brand-owned content.
Understanding this dynamic isnβt optional. Itβs the foundation of any effective GEO strategy.
A practical GEO framework: assess, optimize, measure, iterate
Treating GEO as a one-time content tweak is the biggest mistake you make. In reality, GEO demands the same ongoing discipline as SEO. The framework below lays out a repeatable structure to get it right.
Phase 1: Assess your AI search readiness
Before you optimize anything, you need a baseline. Most brands obsess over Google rankings yet have no visibility into how AI engines perceive and present their brand. Thatβs like running a business without ever checking your bank balance.
An effective GEO audit should answer a few core questions:
Are major AI engines citing your content at all?Β
Can AI crawlers read and understand your structured data?Β
How does your brand show up in AI-generated answers β accurate, positive, neutral, or wrong?Β
Where are competitors earning AI citations that youβre missing?
The audit doesnβt need to take months. Tools like Geoptieβs free GEO Audit can assess your siteβs AI search readiness and surface actionable insights in minutesβgiving you a clear starting point before you invest in optimization.
Phase 2: Optimize your content for AI engines
This is the tactical core of any GEO strategy. Focus your optimization on four areas: content structure, entity authority, technical foundations, and content freshness.
Structure content for AI retrieval
AI engines donβt read content the way people do. They break pages into individual passages and evaluate each one for relevance, clarity, and factual density. Every section needs to stand on its own.
Start each section with a clear, direct answer. Then expand with context.
Use a clean heading hierarchy (H2 and H3) to signal the topic of each passage.
Add brief TL;DR statements under key headings so they can stand alone as answers.
Include FAQ sections. AI engines rely heavily on clear question-and-answer pairs when building responses.
Build entity authority
GEO focuses on entities β your brand, your people, your products β not just individual pages. Strengthen those entity signals to increase the odds that AI engines recognize your brand and cite it with confidence.
Keep your brand mentions consistent across the web.Β
Publish clear, detailed About and author bio pages.Β
Pursue a Wikipedia presence when it makes sense.Β
Actively build and manage your knowledge panel.
Research shows AI engines favor earned media β third-party coverage, reviews, and industry mentions β over content on your own site.
Digital PR and thought leadership arenβt just brand plays anymore. Theyβre direct GEO levers.
Nail the technical foundations
Technical GEO optimization overlaps with traditional SEO, but it adds AI-specific layers.
Implement schema markup β especially Article, Organization, FAQ, HowTo, and Breadcrumb β to help AI engines parse your content.
Review your robots.txt file to ensure AI crawlers like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot arenβt blocked.
Consider adding an llms.txt file to guide AI systems on how to interpret your site.
And donβt ignore the fundamentals. Fast load times, clean site architecture, and mobile optimization still drive discoverability and crawlability.
Prioritize freshness and depth
AI engines weigh recency when selecting sources. A guide published in 2024 with no updates will lose ground to a 2026 article on the same topic.
Refresh your cornerstone content regularly. Add updated data, new insights, and a clear βLast updatedβ timestamp.
Original research, proprietary data, and expert commentary attract citations. If you publish something no one else has β a benchmark study, a unique dataset, or a framework built from your experience β AI engines have a reason to cite you over a dozen lookalike alternatives.
Phase 3: Measure your AI search performance
Measurement is the biggest gap in most GEO strategies today. Marketers whoβve spent years refining Google Analytics dashboards often have no comparable visibility into AI search performance.
Track the metrics that matter:
Measure AI citation frequency β how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers.
Track share of voice β your mentions versus competitors across AI platforms.
Monitor citation sentiment β whether AI accurately and positively presents your brand.
And measure AI-referred traffic β visits and conversions from AI search, tracked through GA4 attribution.
The challenge is that traditional SEO tools donβt track these metrics. You need purpose-built GEO platforms that query AI engines directly and monitor brand performance over time.
If you want a quick snapshot, Geoptieβs free Rank Tracker shows your position across multiple AI engines instantly. Itβs a practical starting point before you commit to a full monitoring setup.
Phase 4: Iterate and scale
GEO isnβt a launch-and-forget initiative. The AI search landscape shifts fast β models update, citation patterns change, and competitors adapt. Your strategy needs to evolve just as quickly.
Use your performance data to see whatβs earning citations β and why. Identify which AI platforms drive the most value in your vertical. Track where competitors are gaining or losing ground.
Then scale what works. Repurpose high-performing content across formats. Turn a well-cited guide into a data page, a video script, and a set of targeted FAQ entries.
Build a cross-functional GEO workflow. Generative engine optimization isnβt just the content teamβs job. It lives at the intersection of content marketing, SEO, digital PR, and product marketing.
Platforms like Geoptie bring audit reports, competitor intelligence, citation analytics, and content optimization into one dashboard. That makes it practical to manage the entire cycle in one place instead of stitching together multiple tools.
Now is the time to build GEO capability
GEO isnβt a passing trend. Itβs the new foundation of digital discovery.Β
As AI search adoption accelerates through 2026 and beyond, the gap between brands that invest now and those that wait will only widen.
The playbook is straightforward:
Assess where you stand today.Β
Optimize your content and technical foundation for AI retrieval.Β
Measure performance across the platforms that matter.Β
Then iterate relentlessly.
Brands that build this discipline into their marketing stack now will earn compounding advantages as AI becomes the primary way customers discover, evaluate, and decide who to trust.
The question isnβt whether GEO matters. Itβs whether youβll lead or follow.
Ready to take control of your AI visibility?
Geoptie gives you everything you need to master GEO from one platform. Run comprehensive GEO audits, track AI rankings across ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity, Claude, and more, analyze competitors, monitor citations, and build AI-first contentβall in one place.
Whether youβre new to GEO or scaling an established strategy, Geoptie turns insight into action from day one. Start your free 14-day trial and see exactly where your brand stands in AI search.
ASML aims to reduce chipmaking costs by boosting its EUV power ASML has confirmed that they have found a way to make its EUV lithography machines faster. With a new high-power EUV light source, ASML aims to boost the chipmaking productivity of its machines by 50% by 2030. ASML hopes that this tech will lower [β¦]
Ashes of the Singularity II now has a free demo on Steam Until March 2nd, PC gamers will be able to play a free demo version of Ashes of the Singularity II on Steam. This demo arrives as part of Steam Next Fest, and gives gamers a chance to play Oxide Gamesβ newest RTS ahead [β¦]
Blizzard Entertainment has released the final, definitive public release and early access dates for World of Warcraft's upcoming Midnight expansion, and we have curated them so you won't miss out on the launch.
ASML says it has boosted the light source power in its EUV lithography systems to 1,000 watts, up from roughly 600 W today. According to a Reuters report, the company claims the increase could enable up to 50% more chip output by the end of the decade. More source power translates directly into higher throughput. ASML says customers could process around 330 wafers per hour by 2030, compared to about 220 wafers per hour today, lowering the cost per chip. EUV light at a 13.5 nm wavelength is generated by firing a COβ laser at microscopic droplets of molten tin, creating plasma that emits EUV radiation. The light is then collected and directed through precision optics supplied by Carl Zeiss AG. To reach 1,000 W, ASML doubled the droplet rate to roughly 100,000 per second and shifted to a two-pulse laser shaping approach instead of a single pulse. The company says there is a path toward 1,500 W and potentially even 2,000 W over time.
ASML is the only supplier of commercial EUV scanners, used by major chipmakers including TSMC, SK Hynix, and Intel. The tools are considered critical to advanced node production and have been subject to export restrictions to China. The move is aimed at maintaining ASML's lead as U.S. companies, such as Pat Gelsinger's xLight EUV startup and Chinese efforts to develop competing lithography systems continue to ramp. Chinese companies have reportedly been sourcing parts from older ASML machines through secondary markets. Huawei is leading the charge, working to build a homegrown AI supply chain as a way around foreign tech restrictions. The company set up a large semiconductor manufacturing facility in Guanlan focused on 7 nm chips for its own processors. The Chinese government had initially aimed to have a working prototype from this effort by 2028.
Sam Altman dismisses viral claims about ChatGPTβs water use β but the bigger question of AIβs growing energy and environmental impact remains unresolved.
The Swedish VPN firm says attempts to raise awareness against mass surveillance with its "And Then?" campaign are getting halted in the UK. Here's all we know.
Save 25% on 16GB TeamGroup DDR5-6000 RAM using this voucher code β a huge price cut in a memory market that hasnβt been kind to PC builders lately.
Spotify continues to test its AI-powered βPrompted Playlistβ feature, now rolling out the tool to Premium subscribers in the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and Sweden.
Finnish unicorn IQM plans to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) valuing the company at approximately $1.8 billion β joining the growing cohort of quantum computing companies listed on U.S. stock markets.Β
Chinese hackers allegedly broke into the network of an Ivanti subsidiary in 2021. The hackers exploited a backdoor in its VPN product, which allowed the hackers to gain access to 119 other unnamed organizations.
In sharing the story, Redditor cgtechuk said he was running out of space after upgrading to four 16TB drives purchased from Amazon UK in 2020. Unfortunately, the 28TB replacement drives he had been eyeing were skyrocketing in price locally. Having previously purchased hardware in the US before, he decided to...
eve offers an income protection subscription for software engineers fearing AI-driven job disruption. It covers job loss events such as involuntary terminations tied to AI adoption, role elimination through automation, and layoffs citing AI. The service delivers monthly income replacement with simple, configurable coverage products that offer clear payment periods and benefit durations. Packages range from Essential to Elite and can include skills retraining funds and career transition support. Transparent, indicative pricing helps you gauge coverage ahead of launch.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade made its debut on Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series consoles in January, and the Switch 2 port in particular has been praised as a solid port that accounts for the system's technical limitations compared to theΒ PlayStation 5Β andΒ Xbox Series X,Β delivering the best possible experience. With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3, however, achieving a high-quality port is definitely going to be more challenging, but the development team is set to deliver a 30 FPS on the weaker platforms, such as the Switch 2 and Xbox Series S, according to the [β¦]
ASML plans to enable fab manufacturers to aggressively increase production through its latest breakthrough in EUV, as the Dutch chipmaker ramps up its light-source capabilities. ASML's Enhanced EUV Light Source Projected to Bring in a Huge Increase in Fab Output, Only With Equipment Upgrades The semiconductor industry is currently in a supercycle driven by demand from fabless manufacturers, not just for consumer products but also for enterprise/AI. We have extensively reported on how chip giants like TSMC are under significant supply constraints, and one way the supply chain is addressing this is by building an extensive fab network. However, ASML [β¦]
After several days of downtime, ASUS.de is back online, but Acer has yet to restore its Germany regional website. ASUS.DE is Now Live, and ACER.DE is Still Down; ASUS Removes Disputed Desktop and Laptop Products From the Site Due to Ban by Munich Court ASUS and Acer have been facing legal action from Nokia over a patent licensing dispute related to the HEVC/H.265 video codec.. The Munich I Regional Court forced both companies to halt direct sales of certain desktop PCs and laptops in Germany due to the same reason. The court found that ASUS and Acer had not agreed [β¦]
When you look at the state of the video game industry today, where long-running studios with veteran talent and brand-new teams (even ones built with veteran devs) get laid off entirely after their first project flops, it's easy to say that each new game hitting the market has a lot riding on it. In that general economic sense, ZA/UM's upcoming espionage CRPG, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, has a lot riding on it. But it also carries a heavier burden than other new titles. Few games have to deal with trying to best a predecessor that is as well-regarded as [β¦]
At the time of this writing, we are days away from the global release of Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth mainline entry in Capcom's long-running, beloved horror series. It's an exciting time for fans of the series and horror fans, but it's also a tense time to be online, because there are plenty of spoilers online to be found. While Capcom has already issued a plea to fans asking them not to share these spoilers, industry icon and director of Resident Evil 2, Hideki Kamiya, has a different take on these spoilers getting out there. In its statement, Capcom says, [β¦]
The Trump Administrations' new sweeping tariffs for all American imports could end up hurting American companies and benefitting their international competition at the same time, thanks to existing tariff carve-outs and rising material costs for U.S. producers.
Asus delivers a flagship 32-inch OLED with the ROG Swift PG32UCDM3. It sports 4K resolution, 240 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, Quantum Dot wide gamut color, DisplayHDR 500, and HDR10, and is one of the few monitors to support Dolby Vision.
Most SEO professionals give Google too much credit. We assume Google understands content the way we do β that it reads our pages, grasps nuance, evaluates expertise, and rewards quality in some deeply intelligent way. The DOJ antitrust trial told a different story.
Under oath, Google VP of Search Pandu Nayak described a first-stage retrieval system built on inverted indexes and postings lists, traditional information retrieval methods that predate modern AI by decades. Court exhibits from the remedies phase reference βOkapi BM25,β the canonical lexical retrieval algorithm that Googleβs system evolved from. The first gate your content has to pass through isnβt a neural network. Itβs word matching.
Google does deploy more advanced AI further down the pipeline, including BERT-based models, dense vector embeddings, and entity understanding systems. But those operate only on the much smaller candidate set traditional retrieval produces. Weβll walk through where each technology enters the process.
This matters for content optimization tools like Surfer SEO, Clearscope, and MarketMuse. Their core methodology β a mix of TF-IDF analysis, topic modeling, and entity evaluation β maps directly to how that first retrieval stage scores documents. The tools are built on the right foundation. The problem is that most people use them incorrectly, and the studies backing them have real limitations.
Below, Iβll explain how first-stage retrieval works and why it still matters, what the research on content scoring tools actually shows β and doesnβt show β and most importantly, how to use these tools to produce content that earns its way into the candidate set without wasting time chasing a perfect score.
How first-stage retrieval works and why content tools map to it
Best Matching 25 (BM25) is the retrieval function most commonly associated with Googleβs first-stage system.Β
Nayakβs testimony described the mechanics it formalizes: an inverted index that walks postings lists and scores topicality across hundreds of billions of indexed pages, narrowing the field to tens of thousands of candidates in milliseconds.Β
Hereβs what matters for content creators:
Term frequency with saturation: The first mention of a relevant term captures roughly 45% of the maximum possible score for that term. Three mentions get you to about 71%. Going from three to thirty adds almost nothing. Repetition has steep diminishing returns.
Inverse document frequency: Rare, specific terms carry more scoring weight than common ones. βPronationβ is worth roughly 2.5 times more than βshoesβ in a running shoe query because fewer pages contain it.
Document length normalization: Longer documents get penalized for the same raw term count. All of these scoring algorithms are essentially looking at some degree of density relative to word count, which is why every content tool measures it.
The zero-score cliff: If a term doesnβt appear in your document at all, your score for that term is exactly zero. Not low. Zero. Youβre invisible for every query containing it.
That last point is the single most important reason content optimization tools have value. If you write a comprehensive rhinoplasty article but never mention βrecovery time,β you score zero for that entire cluster of queries, regardless of how good the rest of your content is.Β
Google has systems like synonym expansion and Neural Matching β RankEmbed β that can supplement lexical retrieval and surface additional documents. But counting on those systems to rescue a page with vocabulary gaps is a risky strategy when you can simply cover the term.
After first-stage retrieval, the pipeline gets progressively more expensive and more sophisticated. RankEmbed adds candidates keyword matching missed. Mustang applies roughly 100+ signals, including topicality, quality scores, and NavBoost β accumulated click data over 13 months, described by Nayak as βone of the strongestβ ranking signals.Β
DeepRank applies BERT-based language understanding to only the final 20 to 30 results because these models are too expensive to run at scale. The practical implication is clear: no amount of authority or engagement signals helps if your page never passes the first gate. Content optimization tools help you get through it. What happens after is a different problem.
Three major studies have examined whether content tool scores correlate with rankings: Ahrefs (20 keywords, May 2025), Originality.ai (~100 keywords, October 2025), and Surfer SEO (10,000 queries, July 2025). All found weak positive correlations in the 0.10 to 0.32 range.
A 0.24 to 0.28 correlation is actually meaningful in this context. But these numbers need serious qualification. Every study was conducted by a vendor, and in every case, the vendorβs own tool performed best.Β
No study controlled for confounding variables like backlinks, domain authority, or accumulated click data. The methodology is fundamentally circular: the tools generate recommendations by analyzing pages that already rank in the top 10 to 20, then the studies test whether pages in the top 10 to 20 score well on those same tools.
The real question β whether following tool recommendations helps a new, unranked page climb β has never been rigorously tested. Clearscopeβs Bernard Huang put it directly: βA 0.26 correlation is not the brag they think it is.βΒ
Heβs right. But a weak positive correlation is exactly what youβd expect if these tools solve the retrieval problem β getting into the candidate set β without solving the ranking problem β beating competitors once there. Understanding that distinction is what makes these tools useful rather than misleading.
Why not skip these tools altogether?
Expert writers are terrible at predicting how their audience actually searches. MIT Sloanβs Miro Kazakoff calls it the curse of knowledge. Once you know something, you forget what it was like before you knew it.Β
Clearscopeβs case study with Algolia illustrates the problem precisely. Algoliaβs writers were technical experts producing genuinely excellent content that sat on Page 9. The problem wasnβt quality. The team was using internal jargon instead of the language their audience actually typed into Google.Β
After adopting Clearscope, their SEO manager Vince Caruana said the tool helped the organization βstart writing for our audience instead of ourselvesβ by breaking out of internal vocabulary. Blog posts moved from Page 9 to Page 1 within weeks. Not because the writing improved, but because the vocabulary finally matched search behavior.
Googleβs own SEO Starter Guide acknowledges this dynamic, noting that users might search for βcharcuterieβ while others search for βcheese board.β Content optimization tools surface that gap by showing you the actual vocabulary of pages that have already demonstrated retrieval success.Β
You can do everything a tool does manually by reading top results and noting common themes, but the tools automate hours of SERP analysis into minutes. At $79 to $399 per month, the investment is justified when teams publish frequently in competitive niches or assign work to freelancers lacking domain expertise. For a solo blogger publishing once or twice a month, manual analysis works fine.
What about AI-powered retrieval?
Dense vector embeddings are the same core technology behind LLMs and AI-powered search features. They compress a document into a fixed-length numerical representation and can match semantically similar content even without shared keywords. Google uses them via RankEmbed, but they supplement lexical retrieval rather than replace it.
The reason is computational: A 768-dimensional embedding can preserve only so much information, and research from Google DeepMindβs 2025 LIMIT paper showed that single-vector models max out at roughly 1.7 million documents before relevance distinctions break down β a small fraction of Googleβs index. Multiple studies, including findings on the BEIR benchmark, show hybrid approaches combining BM25 with dense retrieval outperform either method alone.
The bottom line for practitioners is clear: The AI layer matters, but it sits lower in the pipeline, and the traditional retrieval stage your content tools map to still does the heavy lifting at scale.
This is where most guidance on content tools falls short. The typical advice is βuse Surfer/Clearscope, get a high score, rank better.βΒ
That misses the point entirely. Hereβs a framework built on how these tools actually intersect with Googleβs retrieval mechanics.
Prioritize zero-usage terms over everything else
The highest-leverage action these tools identify is a term with zero mentions in your content. Thatβs a term where your retrieval score is literally zero, and youβre invisible for every query containing it. Going from zero to one mention is the single most impactful edit you can make. Going from four mentions to eight is nearly worthless because of the saturation curve.
When reviewing tool recommendations, filter for terms you havenβt used at all. Clearscopeβs βUnusedβ filter does this explicitly.Β
Ask yourself: Does this missing term represent a subtopic my audience would expect me to cover? If yes, work it in naturally. If the tool suggests a term that doesnβt fit your angle β a beginnerβs guide doesnβt need advanced technical terminology β skip it.Β
A high score achieved by forcing irrelevant terms into your content is worse than a moderate score with genuinely useful writing. As Ahrefs noted in its 2025 study, βyou can literally copy-paste the entire keyword list, draft nothing else, and get a high score.β That tells you everything about the limits of chasing the number.
Be selective about which competitor pages you analyze
Default settings on most tools pull from the top 10 to 20 ranking pages, which frequently includes Wikipedia, major media outlets, and enterprise sites with overwhelming domain authority. These pages often rank despite their content, not because of it. Their term patterns reflect authority advantage, not content quality, and theyβll skew your recommendations.
A better approach: Look for pages that rank for a high number of organic keywords on mid-authority domains.Β
Ahrefsβ data shows the average page ranking No. 1 also ranks in the top 10 for nearly 1,000 other keywords. A page ranking for 500 keywords on a DR 35 site has demonstrated broad retrieval success through vocabulary and topical coverage, not just backlinks. Those pages contain term patterns proven effective across hundreds of separate retrieval events, not just one.Β
In most tools, you can manually exclude specific URLs from competitor analysis. Remove the Wikipedia pages, the Amazon listings, and any high-authority site where you know authority is doing the work. Whatβs left gives you a much cleaner picture of what content actually needs to include.
Use tools during research, not during writing
The worst workflow is writing with the scoring editor open, watching your number tick up in real time. That pulls your attention toward keyword insertion instead of communicating expertise. Practitioners reporting the worst experiences with these tools tend to be the ones writing to a live score.
The better workflow: Run the tool first. Review the term list. Identify gaps in your outline, especially terms with zero usage that represent subtopics you should cover. Then close the tool and write for your reader.Β
Run it again at the end as a sanity check. Did you miss any major subtopics? Add them. Is the score significantly lower than competitors? Thatβs information worth investigating. But your job is to build the best page on the internet for this topic, not to match a number.
Understand that content is one player in the game
NavBoost, RankEmbed, PageRank-derived quality scores, site authority, click data, and engagement signals all operate on the candidate set that first-stage retrieval produces. Content optimization gets you through the gate. It doesnβt win the race.Β
If you optimize a page, push the score to 90, and donβt see ranking improvements, that doesnβt mean the tool failed. It likely means the other ranking factors β backlinks, domain authority, and click signals β are doing more work for your competitors than content alone can overcome.
This is especially important when scoping on-page optimization projects. Be honest about what content changes can and canβt accomplish. If a page is on a DR 15 domain competing against DR 70+ sites, perfect content optimization is necessary but probably not sufficient.Β
When a client asks why theyβre not ranking after you pushed their score to 95, the answer shouldnβt be βwe need more content.β It should be a clear explanation of which part of the problem content solves β retrieval β which parts it doesnβt β authority, engagement, brand β and what the next strategic move actually is.
Focus on going beyond, not just matching
The philosophy behind these tools β structure your content after what top results cover β is sound. You need to demonstrate topical relevance to enter the candidate set. But the goal isnβt to produce another version of what already exists.
The pages that rank broadly, the ones that show up for hundreds or thousands of keywords, consistently do more than match the competitive baseline. They add original research, practitioner experience, specific examples, or angles the existing results donβt cover.
Surfer SEOβs December 2024 study supports this. It measured βfacts coverageβ across articles and found that top-performing content by keyword breadth had significantly higher coverage scores than bottom performers.
The content that ranks for the most queries doesnβt just include the right terms. It includes more information, more specifically. Use the tool to establish the floor of topical coverage. Then build the ceiling with value the tool canβt measure.
A note on entities
Googleβs Knowledge Graph contains an estimated 54 billion entities. Entity understanding becomes most powerful in the later ranking stages where BERT and DeepRank process final candidates.Β
Some content tools are starting to incorporate entity analysis, but even the best versions present entities as flat keyword lists, missing the relationships between entities that Googleβs systems actually evaluate.Β
Knowing that βDr. Smithβ and βrhinoplastyβ appear on your page is different from understanding that Dr. Smith is a board-certified surgeon with published research at a specific institution. That relational depth is what Google processes, and no content scoring tool currently captures it.Β
Treat entity coverage as an additional layer beyond what keyword-focused tools measure, not a replacement for the fundamentals.
Content optimization tools work because theyβve reverse-engineered the vocabulary of the retrieval stage. Thatβs a less exciting claim than βtheyβve cracked Googleβs algorithm,β but itβs the honest one, and itβs supported by what the DOJ trial revealed about Googleβs infrastructure.
Use these tools to identify missing terms and subtopics. Be skeptical of exact frequency targets. Exclude high-authority outliers from your competitor analysis. Prioritize zero-usage terms over further optimization of terms youβve already covered.Β
Understand that a perfect content score addresses one stage of a multi-stage pipeline and use the competitive baseline as your floor, not your ceiling. The content that ranks the broadest isnβt the content that best matches what already exists. Itβs the content that covers what already exists and then goes further.
SerpApi is asking a federal court to dismiss Googleβs lawsuit, arguing the company is misusing copyright law to restrict access to public search results.
The motion was filed Feb. 20, according to a blog post by SerpApi CEO and founder Julien Khaleghy.
Google sued SerpApi in December, alleging it bypassed technical protections to scrape and resell content from Google Search.
The details: SerpApi argues Google is improperly invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). According to Khaleghy:
The DMCA protects copyrighted works, not websites or ad businesses.
Google doesnβt own the underlying content displayed in search results.
Accessing publicly visible pages isnβt βcircumventionβ under the statute.
Googleβs complaint alleged SerpApi:
Circumvented bot-detection and crawling controls.
Used rotating bot identities and large bot networks.
Scraped licensed content from Search features, including images and real-time data.
SerpApi said it doesnβt decrypt systems, disable authentication, or access private data. Khaleghy said SerpApi retrieves the same information available to any user in a browser, without requiring a login.
Khaleghy also argued Google admitted its anti-bot systems protect its advertising business β not specific copyrighted works β which he said undermines the DMCA claim.
SerpApi cites the Ninth Circuitβs hiQ v. LinkedIn decision warning against βinformation monopoliesβ over public data. It also cites the Sixth Circuitβs Impression Products v. Lexmark ruling to argue that public-facing content canβt be shielded by technical measures alone.
Catch up quick: The lawsuit follows months of escalating legal fights over scraping and AI data use.
Oct. 22:Reddit sued SerpApi, Perplexity, Oxylabs, and AWMProxy in federal court, alleging they scraped Reddit content indirectly from Google Search and reused or resold it. Reddit claimed the companies hid their identities and scraped at βindustrial scale.β Reddit said it set a βtrapβ post visible only to Googleβs crawler that later appeared in Perplexity results. Reddit is seeking damages and a ban on further use of previously scraped data.
Dec. 19:Google sued SerpApi, alleging it bypassed security protections, ignored crawling directives, and scraped licensed Search content for resale. SerpApi responded that it operates lawfully and that accessing public search data is protected by the First Amendment.
By the numbers: SerpApi claims that, under Googleβs interpretation of the DMCA, statutory damages could theoretically total $7.06 trillion β a figure it said exceeds U.S. GDP. The number reflects SerpApiβs calculation of potential per-violation penalties, not an actual damages demand.
Whatβs next. The case now moves to the courtβs decision on whether Googleβs claims can proceed.
Why we care: The outcome could reshape how SEO platforms, AI tools, and competitive intelligence software access SERP data. A win for Google could make third-party search data harder or riskier to obtain. A win for SerpApi could strengthen arguments that publicly accessible search results can be scraped and collected.
Search Console is a free gift from Google for SEO professionals that tells you how your website is performing. Itβs the closest thing to X-ray vision we can get.Β
With data-packed amenities, SEO professionals can scavenge through to locate stashes of hidden nuggets like clicks and impressions from search queries, Core Web Vitals, and whatever other surprises lie within your website.Β
Custom regex filters take you around your million-page website.Β
For starters, keep reading this guide below on Search Console.Β
Itβs engineered to withstand zombie pages, Helpful Content bloodbaths, core update mood swings, and AI Overview siphoning your clicks like weβre in Mad Max, the Search Edition. This guide is exactly what you need when the SEO industry gets dicey.Β
What does Search Console do? And how does it help SEO?
Search Console is a free website analytics and diagnostic tool provided by Google. Search Console tracks your websiteβs performance in Google search results (and, hopefully soon, in Gemini and AI Mode).Β
This is the closest thing we have to first-party search truth.Β
As an SEO director, I use Search Console daily. I monitor content performance, validate technical fixes, and track branded and non-branded query growth. It helps me prioritize what I should focus on in my SEO strategy.Β
If you donβt see any profiles listed, youβll need to choose a domain or prefix URL and verify your website ownership.Β
So, how do you choose between a domain versus a prefix URL? Let me walk you through the differences.Β
Domain property is the default recommendation
A domain property includes all subdomains but no protocols (HTTP:// or HTTPS://) and no path strings (/sub/folder/).Β
A domain property provides a comprehensive view of how your website performs in Google search results because it automatically includes the HTTP, HTTPS, www, and non-www versions of your site.Β
I recommend setting up domain properties first.Β
To set up a domain property in Search Console, remove the HTTPS and trailing slashes.Β
After you hit continue, you can verify your ownership via a DNS TXT record.Β
I recommend going this route as it is the easiest.Β
Youβll need to log in to your hosting provider to submit the TXT file.Β
Another option is to verify through the CNAME. If you have technical support, this could be an easy alternative.Β
This pairs nicely with your schema markup: Product + Offer + shippingDetails + returnPolicy lets Google read your store like a label with price, availability, delivery speed, returns, etc.Β
URL prefix property allows you to dissect sections of a siteΒ
A URL prefix property includes the HTTPS or HTTP protocol and path string. This means that if you want to really dive into a section of your website, like /blog/ subfolder or a blog.website.com subdomain, you can do this.Β
After I set up my domain property, I created individual URL prefix properties for each subdomain, HTTP versions, and the/blog/ subfolders.Β
By having multiple URL prefix properties, I can dig deeper into sections of the website to help troubleshoot.Β
I can also create reporting specific to the websiteβs sections that may be more relevant to my co-workers.Β
For example, I work with customer support team members looking for data on how their Help Center content is performing.Β
Key moments in history for Search Console
Some really crazy stuff has happened with Search Console over time. Search Console is notorious among many SEO professionals as a delicacy, an incessant phantom of manual actions, and a culprit behind a better understanding of our website health.
Iβve compiled a short history of my SEO bromance with Search Console over the years to give you a glimmer of how we got here.Β
June 2005: Google Webmaster Tools (now called Search Console) was launched.Β
September 2018: Search Console released the Manual Actions report, βTest Live,β and request indexing features added for the URL inspection tool, and upgraded to 16 months of historical data.
December 2025: Social channel performance begins to appear in Search Console Insights (limited rollout).
Was Google preparing us for AI through Search Console all along?
Alright. Zoom out with me for a second.
All of these updates are not random. They tell a very clear story.
Search Console is evolving from a technical reporting tool into a visibility intelligence tool for the AI era.
Google is moving from: βHere are 1,000 queries.β to βHereβs a topic cluster and how itβs performing.β
The weekly/monthly views and annotations encourage trend-level analysis.Β
Google recognizes discovery journeys arenβt linear anymore with the introduction of social reporting.Β
Breakdown of Search Console for SEOsΒ
While some SEO professionals may be waiting in the tunnels for Skynet and AIO to take over, thereβs one thing we can all still depend on: Search Console.Β
So before you join your freelance mission with SEAL Team 6, walk through the anatomy of Search Console.Β
Overview
The Overview section in Search Console provides a birdβs-eye view of all data sets users can uncover in Search Console.Β
Search Console Insights
Search Console Insights shows which pages are popping off and which are dying in the corner. The Insights view is a digital equivalent of a snack tray.
In an AI running wild like an overcaffeinated squirrel, Iβll take this instead of analyzing 50+ tabs. This is Googleβs attempt to slide into your emails and whisper, βHey, you might want to see this.β
URL inspection
The URL inspection tool lets you see what Google sees for a given URL.Β
The URL inspection tool is one of my favorite SEO tools.
The test will show if the URL is indexable and explain why it may or may not be indexed.Β
You can also request a URL be indexed.Β
Search results
Search results are every content marketerβs favorite report in Search Console. It shows search traffic over the past 16 months (with comparisons), along with search queries, devices, countries, and search appearances.Β
It will also show you which pages rank for specific queries.Β
I use this report to show which pages are performing best and which are performing worst. It also helps troubleshoot any major drops or spikes in traffic.Β
You can segment this report based on clicks, impressions, and CTR.Β
The AI-powered configuration (Experiment) inside the Performance report is where things get interesting.
Instead of manually stacking filters, comparisons, regex, device splits, country filters, and date ranges, you can now describe the analysis you want and let Google build the report for you.
You can ask it questions like:Β
βCompare blog traffic month over month.β
βShow me queries containing βhow toβ.β
βWhat happened to USA traffic last week?β
βCompare mobile vs desktop performance in the last 28 days.β
βShow non-branded queries for the past 3 months.β
βWhat pages lost clicks this month?β
βShow changes for mobile users.β
Discover
The Discover report in Search Console shows your contentβs performance in Google search results.Β
You can filter by pages, countries, search appearances, and devices, like the search results report.Β
Google News
The Google News report in Search Console tells you how your content performs under Google News in Google search results.Β
You can filter the report by page and device.Β
Pages
Pages indexing report in Search Console shares which pages in Google can find (or not find) on your website.Β
The pages report is valuable for every technical SEO. This report offers tons of quick wins for technical SEO. I always start with this section when auditing a website.Β
If you see an increase in pages indexed or not indexed, youβll want to investigate why itβs happening.Β
Video pages
The video indexing report shows how many pages on your website are indexed with video content.Β
Sitemaps
The sitemap report allows you to submit all your XML sitemaps to Search Console. Ideally, you have at least one XML sitemap to submit.Β
Youβll need to submit all your XML sitemaps, including any video, image, or language-specific ones.Β
Removals
The removals tool in Search Console lets you temporarily block pages from Google.Β
Remember, these must be pages that you own on your website. You cannot submit pages you do not own.Β
This is the fastest way to remove a page from your website. However, I recommend working on a long-term solution if you want this web page permanently removed.Β
Core Web Vitals
The Core Web Vitals report uses real-world data to tell you how your pages perform.Β
Again, this is based on a URL level.Β
The report is grouped into mobile and desktop with segments of poor, needs improvement, and good.Β
The report is based on LCP, INP, and CLS user data.Β
Only indexed pages will be included in the Core Web Vitals report.Β
HTTPS
The HTTPS report tells you how many indexed pages on your website are HTTP or HTTPS.Β
If you notice any HTTP pages on your website, you should convert them to HTTPS. Google indexes the HTTPS version to protect searchersβ security and privacy.Β
Product snippets
Product snippets are part of the structured data reporting in Search Console that showcases which products have product markup on the page.Β
Currently, Google only supports product snippets for pages with one product.Β
Merchant snippets are also part of the rich result report in Search Console and serve as extensions of your Product snippet.Β
Merchant snippets are like getting a golden ticket. It provides more enhanced features in the SERPs, like carousels or knowledge panels.Β
Shopping tab listings
Shopping tab listings are also part of the rich result reports in Search Console and showcase the pages listed in the Shopping tab in Google search results.Β
If youβre an ecommerce marketer, youβll want to live inside this report.Β
If you donβt see this information in Search Console, make sure your websiteβs structured data fits within the Merchant listing structured data requests.Β
AMP
The AMP report in Search Console shows all the AMP pages on your website and potential issues you may need to troubleshoot.Β
If AMP is a big part of your SEO strategy, youβll want to ensure you reach zero in the critical errors section of the report so Google can detect your AMP pages.Β
While AMP is considered legacy, itβs relevant for some publishers.Β
Breadcrumbs
The breadcrumbs report is also part of the rich result report in Search Console, which tells you if your breadcrumb structured data is correct and readable by Google.Β
Breadcrumbs are essential to maintain a healthy site architecture and user experience. If you see any errors in the breadcrumbs, I recommend prioritizing this quickly.
FAQ
The FAQ report is also part of Search Consoleβs rich results report, which shares insights into which pages received the FAQ snippet.Β
The Profile page report reflects which pages are getting the profile page markup. Youβll want to validate and clean up any makeup you may be missing because these offer interesting SERP features.
Itβs almost like a card functionality similar to the recipes.Β
Review snippets showcase your validation of review markup on pages.Β
You should check that all your markup is valid. If you notice any errors, work on updating those specific pages.Β
With Googleβs algorithm updates, Iβve seen significant fluctuations in review snippets. Always double-check if itβs a bug, an algorithm update, or a true markup error.Β
Sitelinks searchbox
The sitelinks search box is a feature of the rich result report in Search Console that tells us in more detail any errors you may have with your Sitelinks Search Box markup.Β
Unparsable structured data
The unparsable structured data report in Search Console aggregates structured data syntax errors that prevent Google from identifying the specific structured data type.Β
Videos
The video indexing report in Search Console has expanded dramatically over the last few years, giving us more detailed information on how your videos perform in search results.Β
You can dissect whether the video is outside the viewport, too small, or too tall. If youβre building a video content strategy, it really helps to elevate your game with your UX team.Β
Manual actions
If youβre running your SEO strategy properly, youβll hopefully never have to worry about the manual action report.Β
But if youβre one of the unlucky ones who gets hit with a manual action, Google will tell you in this report in Search Console.Β
A manual action occurs when a human reviewer at Google determines that a specific page or pages are not compliant with Googleβs spam policy.Β
Google will actually email you now to notify you when you receive a security issue.Β
Check out this beauty I received within the first week of starting to work on a new site.Β
Links
The Links report in Search Console allows you to view all your siteβs internal and external links. You can view the top link pages, top linking sites, and top linking text.Β
This is a legacy report, so Iβd be cautious about relying on it in case Google decides to depreciate it.Β
Settings
If you need to verify ownership or add a new user, you should check the settings in Search Console.Β
Two cool reports under Settings in Search Console go undiscovered, but these are two of my favorite reports.
Robots.txt: The robots.txt report tells us which pages Google can crawl or any potential issues preventing Google from crawling your site.Β
One of the challenges I run into when working with developers is that they often choose to disallow it in the robots.txt file instead of adding a noindex, nofollow tag.Β
This report will help audit any technical updates with your dev team.Β
The robots.txt report is only available if you set up a domain property.Β
Crawl stats: The crawl stats report shows Googleβs crawling history on your website. It can be sorted by how many requests were made and when, server response, and availability issues.Β
It tells SEO professionals if Google is encountering problems when crawling your website.Β
This report is only available if you have a domain property or a URL prefix at a root level.Β
Search Console is like stepping onto a planet dedicated to SEO professionals
Thatβs a lot to unpack. But the gist is that Search Console is a place where you can get information about how your website is performing.Β
All of the above is just part of the early phases of Search Consoleβs transformation. Google also hopes to add Googleβs AI Overview data in the future. So, that seems like a worthwhile endeavor, seeing as there is no tool to support AIO data today.Β
And I know you all must be hoping Googleβs AI Overview doesnβt overtake your jobs. That would suck. It would likely mean the end of times.Β
But in the insane event it does, at least youβre covered on how Search Console got here today.Β
Until then, youβll have to make do with luxe URL inspections, regex filters, and manual action surprises.Β
Is Intelβs future βUnifiedβ? A new job listing from Intel is calling for a new CPU verification engineer for the companyβs βUnified Core teamβ, pointing towards a new direction for Intelβs future processors. Last year, we reported on a leak that claimed that Intel intended to create new CPUs with a βUnified Coreβ architecture. This [β¦]
A TV adaptation of Boys of Tommen is officially on the way β here's everything we know so far, from release date prediction, trailer, possible cast, plot rumors and more.
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Windows 11's in-box Paint app is gaining a new feature that will let you rotate shapes and text into any position you like. Believe it or not, this hasn't been possible until now!
Craig Cincotta has been named Chief of Staff at Xbox, reuniting with new CEO Asha Sharma. Here is his Microsoft career history and what the role means for Xbox leadership.
The AMD VEK385 Evaluation Kit provides a fast, feature-rich, and scalable path to evaluating AMD Versal AI Edge Series Gen 2 XC2VE3858 devices. With heterogeneous compute, high-performance I/O, comprehensive memory bandwidth, ready-to-run workloads, and robust bring-up tools, engineers can quickly assess system performance and accelerate the path from prototype to production.
Designed for Embedded AI, Control, and Vision Workloads
The VEK385 Evaluation Kit enables engineers to evaluate embedded AI, vision, and control systems through multiple, industry-standard interfaces:
HDMI RX/TX and USB3/DP for 4K/8K vision pipelines
PCIe x8 edge connector for Gen 5 x4 and Gen 3/4 x8 support
QSFP28 and SFP28 connectors for 25-100 Gb/s high-speed Ethernet applications
FMC+ for I/O expansion
CAN-FD with PL/PS Ethernet for deterministic robotics and industrial control
GameSir today announced the launch of the GameSir G7 Pro 8K PC Aimlabs Edition, a new flagship controller designed specifically for competitive PC gaming. Built to meet the demands of high-level esports play, the G7 Pro 8K PC combines ultra-low latency performance, deep customization, and premium components with a distinctive Aimlabs-inspired visual identity. The GameSir G7 Pro 8K PC Aimlabs Edition Game Controller is available for $79.99/Β£89.99 on the GameSir website, Amazon US and Amazon UK.
Developed in collaboration with Aimlabs, the industry-leading FPS training platform, the G7 Pro 8K PC Aimlabs Edition is an officially licensed accessory. The controller reflects Aimlabs' iconic cyan aesthetic while adhering to professional performance standards trusted by competitive gamers. This partnership unites precision hardware with a training-driven design philosophy, delivering a controller built to support skill development and tournament-level play.
AMD recently added "Crimson Desert" as an official Ryzen and Radeon game bundle partner, so it should come as little surprise that the game implements nearly the full FSR 4 "Redstone" gaming technology feature-set. This includes the ML-based upscaling AMD introduced with FSR 4, and the two new features the company introduced this yearβML-based ray regeneration, and ML-based frame generation. All three features use machine learning models that leverage the new AI acceleration capabilities introduced with AMD RDNA 4 graphics architecture, benefiting Radeon RX 9000 series GPUs.
Citrini Research imagines a report from two years in the future, in which unemployment has doubled and the total value of the stock market has fallen by more than a third.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon for a tense discussion over the military's use of Claude. Hegseth has threatened to designate Anthropic a "supply chain risk."
The design replaces the complex, flammable chemistry of lithium-ion batteries with an electrolyte that's as safe as saltwater. In lab tests, the prototype endured more than 120,000 charge cycles, an endurance record that far exceeds today's commercial standards. Typical electric-vehicle batteries degrade after just a few thousand cycles β even...
Colorado's HB26-1144 bill would expand the state's firearms rules to cover "3-dimensional printing," defined to include additive printing and subtractive manufacturing (CNC milling is covered, too).
The production lines for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max were rumored to undergo testing back in December,Β and now that weβre in the first half of 2026, the latest update hints that Apple is making efforts to prepare both flagships and the iPhone FoldΒ for a potential launch in September. The Cupertino firm is now proceeding as scheduled, with a tipster claiming that the premium iPhone 18Β models have entered trial production, while also mentioning that buyers shouldnβt expect any significant changes compared to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Chipset, camera, and battery are the [β¦]
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