California-based auditor webXray reports that tech giants have continued to use cookies to track users across the internet, even when website visitors reject them. Google, Microsoft, and Meta have all disputed the findings.

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DaVinci Resolve 21 beta pushes further into all-in-one territory, adding a dedicated Photo section that allows edition of still images using the same color pipeline that made Resolve a favorite for video. The update leans heavily on AI to speed up everyday work. Early impressions highlight how seamlessly the new tools fit into existing workflows.

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TrajectoryAI is a company monitoring platform made for go-to-market teams who need to understand changes across their market. It continuously tracks company signals like hiring activity, leadership changes, product launches, partnerships, and strategic shifts, turning scattered data into clear, actionable insights.

This helps save time on research, increase win rates, improve retention and revenue from existing customers, boost conversion rates using intent signals, strengthen pipeline performance, and support faster, data-driven decisions.

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By now, the legal debacle between the founders of Subnautica developer, Unknown Worlds, and Krafton, the studio's parent company and the game's now-former publisher, is public knowledge, with the situation ultimately culminating in the ousted founder and CEO of Unknown Worlds being reinstated by a judge in a recent legal decision. Following that legal drama and a Subnautica 2 release date leak, which was heavily criticized by the returning founder Ted Gill, it appears as though Unknown Worlds has broken with Krafton as the publisher for Subnautica 2.

A quick look at the survival game's Steam Store page reveals that Unknown Worlds Entertainment is now listed as both the developer and the publisher of Subnautica 2. The same is true for the game's Epic Games Store page, where the publisher now also reads Unknown Worlds Entertainment. It's a rather curious turn of events, given the nature of the relationship between Krafton and Unknown Worlds—Krafton being Unknown Worlds's parent company—and it brings up questions about the destiny of the game developer. At this point, it's unclear who cut who loose, but it remains to be seen how Unknown Worlds will handle the launch now that there is no dedicated publisher. It probably helps that Unknown Worlds is very deep into the development process for Subnautica 2, with the studio previously commenting that the game was ready for launch in 2025 already. In March 2025, however, the studio commented that the Early Access version of the game would not be a complete experience.

NVIDIA has introduced Ising, its newest OpenAI models designed to make Quantum Computers useful and faster with brand new capabilities. NVIDIA Ising AI Models For Quantum Computers Bring Up To 3x Performance Boost Quantum Computing has been cited as the next frontier of computing for decades. Several companies have been trying to perfect quantum computing for years now, and only now have a few started to break the code. NVIDIA already offers an open-source development platform for quantum computing called CUDA-Q. The platform is "qubit-agnostic" and works seamlessly with QPUs and Qubit Modalities. Today, NVIDIA is announcing its first family […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/nvidia-made-quantum-computing-practical-with-ising-worlds-first-open-ai-models/

Promptbook tracks your AI coding sessions automatically. Every prompt, token, dollar, and line is logged and turned into a public profile and project timeline so your best work doesn't disappear.

Create your profile, track your progress, and share the proof. Over 40 builders are already tracking more than 2,400 sessions. Setup takes just 2 minutes. The first 1,000 users get permanent Founding Builder status.

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Daredevil: Born Again's latest episode brings two people back from the dead — and adds another to its death counter.

One investor who has backed both companies told the FT that justifying OpenAI's recent round required assuming an IPO valuation of $1.2 trillion or more — making Anthropic's current $380 billion valuation look like the relative bargain.

Meta will fulfill its massive AI demands by co-developing multiple next-gen AI Silicon "XPUs" with Broadcom. Meta & Broadcom Partner To Develop A Multi-Gigawatt AI Ecosystem Powered by Custom AI Silicon "XPUs" Last month, Meta announced four AI chips featuring a custom design for its AI tasks. These XPUs (chips with multiple IPs) were branded under the MTIA AI lineup & each chip is optimized for a specific workload that spans GenAI inference, General-Purpose, and Training tasks. The four chips are listed below with their specs: Metric MTIA 300 MTIA 400 MTIA 450 MTIA 500 Workload Focus R&R Training General […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/meta-broadcom-co-develop-custom-ai-silicon-power-multi-gigawatt-ecosystem/

DevShip unifies issue tracking, project management, client collaboration, and time logging in a single workspace for engineering teams. Use triage queues, roles and permissions, and a client portal to organize requests and keep stakeholders aligned, while the API and Slack integration connect your workflow. Start free and upgrade for advanced reporting, exports, and unlimited users.

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4ever gives every family member their own profile where a lifetime of memories lives in one beautiful timeline. Every birthday, holiday, and first sports game are all organized and easy to find. Grandparents can digitize photos in boxes and add the stories behind them before they fade. Parents can build a living scrapbook for their kids that grows with them year after year. Recipes have their own section so dishes that bring everyone together are never lost. 4ever is one place where your entire family's history is preserved for generations.

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Robots running is our new obsession, and it still proves nothing.

It was recently revealed that NVIDIA plans to launch a version of the RTX 5050 GPU with 9 GB of VRAM—three 3 GB modules of GDDR7 over a 96-bit bus and 336 GB/s total memory bandwidth. Now, according to a new leak by Hakuitado on the Board Channels forum (via Gazlog), NVIDIA is planning to make the same move with the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti in order to cater to budget consumers while avoiding high DRAM and BOM costs.

DRAM quantity aside, the move would also see NVIDIA decrease the bus width of the respective cards, going from 128-bit to 96-bit by using new 24 Gbit memory chips, resulting in an overall decrease in bandwidth and reduced memory performance. According to @harakuze5719 on X, the new 9 GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti GPUs are slated to launch sometime between May and June, with a Computex launch seemingly likely.

The failure rate of NVIDIA's 16-Pin connector GPUs should be the primary reason why the company's warranty claims have increased by 1000%. With A Share of Over 90% In The Discrete GPU Segment, NVIDIA Witnesses A Massive Surge In Warranty Claims That Could Be Linked To Its New 16-Pin Connector Products NVIDIA's warranty expenses have seen a drastic rise over the past three years, as Warranty Week reports an unusual rise in the company's warranty claims and accrual rates. It is reported that NVIDIA's warranty claims increased ninefold, whereas AMD's warranty claim rates increased by two-thirds during the 2024-2025 period. […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/nvidia-warranty-claims-increased-1000-percent-since-16-pin-connector-gpus-launch/

As the United States continues to hammer down trade restrictions on China, YMTC has decided to uplift the chipmaking capacity by building new fabs. China & US Trade Wars Continue, In the Midst, YMTC Decides To Double Its Production Capacity With Two Brand New Chipmaking Factories The semiconductor industry is currently facing a trade war between two giants. On one hand, there's the United States, and on the other, there's China. From export restrictions to the banning of necessary tools that are required for making chips, the United States is trying to ensure that China doesn't get bleeding-edge materials and […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/china-to-double-chip-making-capacity-with-three-new-ymtc-fabs-tackle-us-restrictions/

Looking for NYT Connections answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, plus my commentary on the puzzles.

Looking for Quordle clues? We can help. Plus get the answers to Quordle today and past solutions.

Looking for NYT Strands answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, including the spangram.

Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game by Ravensburger is introducing its next set, Wilds Unknown, and bringing iconic Pixar characters into the fold.

I went to Clair Obscur: A Painted Symphony, and it brought one of the greatest games ever made to life.

Intel and Google signed a multiyear Xeon deal while co-developing IPUs to keep x86 relevant against Arm's rise in AI servers.

DLSS 4.5 made my RTX 5070 hit 270fps in Cyberpunk at 4K – but is this free update too good to be true?

A Google Search Console glitch resulted in a message to site owners implying that impressions have only just started being reported.

The post New Google Search Console Message Glitch Gives SEOs A Scare appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Emmanuel Macron, president of France, is spearheading an initiative to prohibit teens under age 15 from accessing the apps.

The fifth annual messaging conference will be held on June 3 and will showcase artificial intelligence innovations and upgrades to WhatsApp, Messenger and IG Direct.

Linking the two platforms will enable streamlined post scheduling and access to advanced tracking and insight tools.

The move is part of a larger celebration honoring the 250th anniversary of the U.S., which will also include a new America 250 Hub.

A new study from Snap and Ipsos found that Snapchat users were more likely than non-users to own at least one insurance policy.

Major changes include new ways to schedule and publish content and manage engagement.

Bambu Lab launches its X2D 3D printer at a shockingly low price After a time of teasing, Bambu Lab has officially unveiled its X2D 3D printer, the company’s highly anticipated replacement for its popular X1 Carbon. With this new model comes a suite of features, including an “auxiliary nozzle”, AI error detection, and more. This […]

The post The Bambu Lab X2D has arrived, and it’s aggressively priced appeared first on OC3D.

Reported Starfield sales on PS5 suggest a slower start than expected, raising questions about Xbox’s multiplatform strategy and whether moving away from exclusivity impacts hardware value.

Overwatch Season 2: Summit arrived today, and it’s a massive update introducing high-octane DPS hero Sierra and a bounty of rewards to earn on an all-new battle pass.

Bethesda's Todd Howard says Fallout 76 and Starfield were different than its usual RPGs by design, as the devs "have ideas that we want to get out there."

It seems as though God of War studio, Santa Monica Studio, is slated for a busy time in the coming months and years, with recent rumors suggesting that there is another God of War game on the horizon, some even claiming that it may be announced as soon as April 2026. Not all that much is known about the new God of War game, but according to reporting by MP1st and Tom Henderson on the Insider Gaming podcast, it will not follow Kratos. Instead, the new spin-off, which does not yet have a name, will feature Týr and Faye, the erstwhile Norse god of war and Kratos's deceased wife. This suggests that the spin-off will be a prequel to the recent God of War 2018 and Ragnarök.

The reports make mention of a talking sword, which will apparently be Merlin from English legend, as well as elements from Japanese, Chinese, and possibly other East-Asian mythologies. According to Henderson, the next "mainline" God of War game was meant to be announced at an April Sony State of Play, and it is assumed that the spin-off with Faye will be the next mainline installment in the franchise. This news comes not too long after Santa Monica Studio and Sony announced that a remake of the original God of War trilogy was in the works at Santa Monica.

Keychron may be known for its mechanical and HE keyboards, but it has also recently made a name for itself in the mouse space with wireless mice like the M6 8K and M7 8K. Now, Keychron has launched two new gaming mice under the Keychron G3 name. The G3 is an ultra-light gaming mouse with a right-handed symmetrical design and two material options for the shell—a carbon fiber top and an ABS base or a translucent polycarbonate top and an ABS bottom. Both the carbon fiber and the translucent PC version of the Keychron G3 have the same shape, weight, and internals, so potential buyers have two aesthetic choices without giving up any performance or battery life. The Keychron G3 is available on the Keychron web store at $84.99 for the translucent PC version and $109.99 for the carbon fiber version.

The Keychron G3 uses a PixArt 3950 sensor, replete with 8 kHz polling, tri-mode wireless connectivity (2.4 GHz, Bluetooth 5.3, and USB-C), and a 500 mAh battery, which Keychron says offers up to 160 hours of use on a single charge. Keychron has not specified the test configuration, but it can usually be assumed that manufacturers test battery life over Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz at something like 1,000 Hz polling rate. Unlike many modern gaming mouse, but much like Keychron's other gaming mice, the G3 uses mechanical Huano Transparent Shell White Dot micro switches for the main clicks, meaning they have a 120 million-click rated MTBF, which is a step up from the Huano Transparent Blue Shell Pink Dot switches used in other Keychron mice, which were only rated to 80 million clicks.

The Mac lineup will obtain a mammoth advantage over the competition because Apple has kept its prices in check, but this isn’t the only lineup the company is focused on. According to the latest rumor, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max could become two of the most popular flagships on the planet because, where rivals are introducing price hikes left, right, and center, Apple is rumored to introduce a price freeze. However, there’s a catch, but not a terrible one: those who are used to picking out their favorite color options might be left sorely disappointed. iPhone 18 […]

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MemoKee is a central memory hub that lets you save articles, videos, social posts, product pages, notes, and voice notes from any device and find them fast. It uses AI to auto-tag and categorize your saves and semantic search to retrieve what you remember without exact keywords. Group by topic, project, or tag to build a long-term personal knowledge library you can trust.

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The more thinking you outsource to AI, the harder it gets to reason on your own.

Thessea reverses that with 10-minute daily sessions built around real articles, not brain games. Read actively, answer reasoning questions, and get structured feedback that shows exactly where your thinking held up and where it broke down. A six-axis skill profile tracks your progress over time, so you can see your reasoning sharpen week by week.

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Researchers find chatbots often agree with users depending on phrasing, while question-based prompts produce more balanced AI responses.

Fundraising is reportedly flowing for Fluidstack after it secured a $50 billion deal to build data centers for Anthropic.

A Reddit user has found a way to use an Xbox Expansion Card on PC with a CFexpress adapter, potentially giving unused storage a second life with faster-than-SATA SSD speeds.

Microsoft's 7th Edition Surface, one of the best AI laptops we use daily for its supreme workflow performance and perfected clamshell, is now 38% off to defy the recently announced price hikes.

The publisher of the upcoming Xbox Game Pass title Subnautica 2 has been changed from Krafton to its devs, raising questions about their partnership.

YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp) is planning to significantly expand its manufacturing capacity, with Reuters reporting the Chinese NAND flash maker intends to build two additional factories on top of one already nearing completion. When all three are running at full capacity, YMTC's total output would more than double from its current 200,000 wafers per month to 400,000 wafers per month (each new plant is designed for 100,000 wafers monthly). The third fab, located in Wuhan alongside the existing two plants, has already been built and is currently being equipped. The fab is expected to start operations later this year and reach 50,000 wafers per month by 2027. Notably, over half of the equipment has been sourced domestically, including tooling for vertical layer stacking, a sign of how much YMTC has leaned into local suppliers since the US added it to the Entity List in December 2022. However, recently, the U.S. Government's Bureau of Industry and Security reportedly removed YMTC from the list of restricted Chinese companies.

The two planned factories don't yet have confirmed locations or target dates, but all three new plants will reportedly allocate some capacity to DRAM production alongside NAND. YMTC has already sent LPDDR samples to clients and expects feedback by year-end, which will shape how aggressively it pursues DRAM going forward. On the NAND side, YMTC already holds 11.8% of the global market, on par with Sandisk and not far behind SK Hynix (16%), Kioxia (15.9%), and Micron (13.3%), while Samsung leads at 30.4%. UBS expects the YMTC shares to pass 14% by early 2027. The company is pushing its Xtacking 4.0 architecture, which is considered competitive with what the industry leaders are shipping.

It's no secret that since the RTX 40-series GPUs launched, pushing the new 12VHPWR connectors to new heights, and again increasing power draw with the RTX 50-series, that premature failures have been high. However, Warranty Week has quantified NVIDIA's warranty expenses and total warranty claims, finding that the GPU maker saw a 1000% year-over-year increase in warranty expenditure in 2025. According to the analysis, NVIDIA paid out a whopping $894 million in warranty claims in 2025, compared to just $81 million in 2024. Part of the driving force behind the increased warranty payments is the recent spike in hardware prices, but much of it also has to do with increased warranty rates.

The analytics firm reports that NVIDIA's warranty claim rate rose to as much as 0.9% by Q4 2025, compared to just 0.17% in Q1. Although not quite as drastic, AMD, for its part, also saw an increased warranty rate, with rates climbing from 0.43% in 2024 to 0.68% in 2025. AMD's 2025 warranty claims totaled to $238 million, compared to $110 million in 2024, amounting to an increase of just over 100%. By the end of 2025, NVIDIA had increased its warranty reserves from $416 million to $2.59 billion, whereas AMD increased its warranty reserve balance from $310 million to $597 million.

After the success of the Forta Gaming Headset, GXTrust announces the launch of the highly anticipated Forta Wireless - an Official Licensed Product for PlayStation 5 consoles. With all of the premium features that gamers have come to expect from the Forta - immersive sound, seamless connection with their consoles, and ultra-comfortable design - this new edition gives players yet another ultimate feature: complete wireless freedom.

Designed specifically for PlayStation fans, the officially licensed Forta Wireless offers ultra-low latency lossless wireless connection via a 2.4G USB receiver, giving players the freedom to move, cheer, and enjoy with no cables getting in the way. What's more, with no lag, the Forta Wireless ensures precise actions and reactions, keeping gamers fully connected to every crucial moment.

Malwarebytes recently uncovered a new malicious campaign targeting the Windows Update service. Focused on French-speaking users, the campaign uses layered obfuscation techniques to deliver multiple malicious payloads built with legitimate tools. The malware's primary goal is to steal passwords and other sensitive user data.

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Path of Exile 2 is developer Grinding Gear Games' self-dubbed "next generation action RPG," and this round-up will take you through everything you need to know about the game between its early access launch, to 1.0, and beyond. After getting announced all the way back in 2019, Path of Exile 2 arrived in Early Access in December 2024 after it was delayed from its initial November 2024 release window. When it arrived a little more than a year after Diablo IV, comparisons between the two ARPGs were all over the place. But at least at the time of its early […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/roundup/path-of-exile-2-everything-we-know-about-grinding-gears-next-gen-arpg/

Boxlab is an online packaging design tool that turns your box dimensions into production-ready dielines and realistic 3D previews. Pick a template, set your sizes, upload artwork, and see the result fold and rotate in real time, complete with foil stamping, spot UV, and material effects. Place your packaging into photorealistic scenes using 100+ built-in studio and lifestyle presets, or generate a custom environment from a text prompt with AI. Lighting, shadows, and atmosphere adjust automatically. Export dielines in PDF, SVG, or DXF, download high-res renders, or embed an interactive 3D viewer on your site, no switching between apps.

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I built PeopleBuild around a problem I’ve had for years: it’s hard to find the right people for your ideas and just as hard to find ideas where you can contribute. The layoff and job-transition angle was part of the starting point, but the problem feels broader. Many talented people want to keep building, but most platforms push them toward jobs, generic networking, or solo work. PeopleBuild aims to create a more direct place for collaboration and team formation.

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AI is speeding up production cycles and increasing pressure on creators to acquire better cameras, microphones, and stabilization gear.

'Apple is now the value brand': More RAM misery as Microsoft hikes Surface prices in a big way.

Memorial Day sales will be here before you know it, so I've created this guide with everything you need to know, including the date and what deals you can expect.

Exit 8 has one big, impressive moment, and director Genki Kawamura has explained how he managed to film it.

The Best Buy Ultimate Upgrade sale features some excellent laptop deals this week, so I've picked out seven of the top offers that I'd recommend buying.

Modern cordless vacuums are getting ever heavier, but these models buck the trend by keeping things light without sacrificing cleaning power.

The Dyson PencilWash couldn't be easier to use, and makes light work of wet and dry dirt, but only if your wallet can stand it.

Google is rolling out Skills to Gemini in Chrome on desktop, letting users save prompts as reusable one-click tools and run them across selected tabs.

The post Google Chrome Skills Turn Gemini Prompts Into Reusable Workflows appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Sony would be largely stepping away from porting its first-party games to PC, returning to console exclusives for its single-player games and only releasing multiplayer games across different platforms. Now, it seems as though Microsoft may be plotting or is at least considering a similar maneuver for its first-party Xbox Game Studios games. This is according to industry insider, Jez Cordon, on the Xbox Two Podcast. According to Corden, "there are very very very big discussions happening about the exclusivity stuff" internally at Microsoft. Corden goes on to explain that, despite Microsoft's recent moves away from platform exclusives, it recognizes the value in exclusive games—that is to say the value in keeping users largely locked into your gaming platform as opposed to being mostly a publishing and game development company.

Corden continues with a prediction that Microsoft will continue its shift away from Xbox gaming hardware—especially if it decides to move away from the platform approach and lean further into its game publishing business. Currently, the Xbox Helix is on the horizon, which is a hybrid game console that will run both PC and Xbox games, but that doesn't necessarily preclude Microsoft from launching exclusives; it just means that the exclusives would be PC and Xbox exclusives. This convergence of PC and Xbox has been echoed by other rumors that Microsoft may be combining Xbox and PC Game Pass subscriptions into one unified subscription service.

Shortly after announcing the OneXPlayer ONEXStation, powered by the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU, OneXPlayer is apparently planning to launch the OneXPlayer X2 Mini, a new gaming handheld powered by the same powerful AMD Strix Halo APU with its Radeon 8060S iGPU. The OneXPlayer X2 Mini features many of the same features and design cues as the X1 Pro that released in 2025, but in a more compact form factor, much like the OneXPlayer Apex that we saw at CES 2026. The new X2 Mini, however, also has a few upgrades over the Apex, including a slightly larger display, an optional exclusively air-cooled version, and a modular design. Pricing has not yet been revealed, although the X2 Mini is slated to launch on May 10.

According to a video posted by Nitrix on YouTube, the X2 Mini will have an 8.8-inch, 144 Hz, OLED display with VRR and HDR. It will feature an 85 Wh battery that is user-swappable, allowing users to keep an extra battery on-hand to swap in when the battery dies. The rest of the console is modular, as well. The detachable controllers will feature user-replaceable buttons, casings, joysticks, and vibration motors, and the display will also be user-serviceable. The Joy Con-like controllers will also have a frame to join the two halves into a single mini controller, and the X2 Mini will include two d-pad configurations—the standard cross and an octagonal pad, similar to Microsoft's Xbox Series Elite controller. One point of contention that has been mentioned on Reddit is that the X2 Mini will feature micro switches for the face buttons—although notably not the d-pad—which means the buttons will have lower travel and be slightly louder than a normal membrane switch. There will also be a magnetic connection with pogo pins to attach a keyboard accessory to the bottom of the gaming handheld. The full video showing off the device follows below.

While Meta partnered with Ray-Ban to position its smart glasses as more lifestyle-oriented than experimental, Apple's design philosophy remains distinctly in-house. In his Power On newsletter, Gurman notes that Apple is taking an independent approach, choosing to develop the product internally rather than collaborate with an established eyewear brand. Each...

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Per the agreement, Amazon will take ownership of Globalstar's existing operations including its low Earth orbit satellite network and supporting infrastructure, as well as related assets like mobile satellite service spectrum licenses. Amazon is paying $90 per Globalstar share – available either as cash or in Amazon stock – which...

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Pragmata is drawing positive early reviews thanks to its inventive mix of third-person shooting and real-time hacking mechanics alongside striking futuristic visuals. The dynamic between its lead characters and the game's strategic combat depth stand out as key strengths.

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Starfield finally made its (somewhat inevitable) arrival on PS5 last week, alongside the launch of its Free Lanes update and the Terran Armada DLC expansion, and in its first week on PlayStation, according to a new report from Alinea Analytics, the game has managed to sell 140K copies. Not a bad start when you look at it on the surface, but Alinea's report seemingly proves that Starfield is mid. Or at least its PS5 launch sales are, compared to other Xbox Game Studios-published games that have arrived on PS5 within the last six months. Compared to The Outer Worlds 2, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/starfield-ps5-launch-estimated-140k-copies-sold/

Today's exclusive interview is a bit different from the usual because it is focused on a company called Wolfjaw Studios that is probably unknown to most gamers but still powers many of the most played online games, including the likes of NBA 2K, WWE 2K, Destiny 2, Marathon, Among Us, and Magic: The Gathering Arena. Founded in 2019 by Mitchell Patterson (following a conversation at TwitchCon 2018), Wolfjaw was built from scratch around a single, focused ambition: to establish backend development as a distinct, mission-critical discipline within game development, rather than an afterthought bolted on after the "real" work was […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/wolfjaw-ceo-live-service-craze-fortnite-pubg-lol/

Even though Samsung has now ended the production of its triple-folding Galaxy Z TriFold smartphone, its successor might already be in the works and would likely bear a wide form factor popularized by the upcoming iPhone Ultra, as per the insights gleaned from Samsung's patents. Samsung's patents hint at an upcoming successor to the now-defunct Galaxy Z TriFold, albeit in a wide form factor We already know that Samsung has been working on a Galaxy Z TriFold 2, which is expected to sport a more refined hinge mechanism, one that is lightweight and ultra-thin, allowing the South Korean behemoth to […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/samsung-is-likely-working-on-a-successor-to-the-galaxy-z-trifold-that-bears-a-wide-form-factor/

Digital Dashboard Hub unifies 255+ interactive dashboard tools for managing finance, productivity, and wellness in one place. Explore three collections—Career & Skills Lab, Vision & Values Suite, and Tools That Work—to budget, invest, plan your career, set goals, and build healthy habits. Start with a free 14-day trial and choose from Starter, Pro, Premium, or a one-time Lifetime Deal to unlock unlimited views, saves, exports, and priority support.

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Roborock has taken all the things that were great about this model's predecessor and sprinkled some nifty extra features on top.

Zoom CEO envisions AI becoming so powerful that workers might be able to earn themselves some time off work.

The same 400GB memory card used to store Artemis II Moon photos is now available to photographers on Earth.

Segway's latest robot mower brings composed performance to challenging terrain

Tesla's big Spring software update has landed — and its new Self-Driving app leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

Dozens of WordPress plug-ins were allegedly hijacked to push malware after they were sold to a new corporate owner.

In an interview at the Semafor World Economy summit this week, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark explained why the company was still engaged with the U.S. government while simultaneously suing them.

Waymo's commercial service will eventually follow testing if the U.K. government approves.

Until now, the only way to avoid seeing ads was by paying for a YouTube Premium subscription.

Skills in Chrome let you discover, save and remix AI workflows — and repeat them instantly.

A major shift is underway in digital advertising: Meta Platforms is projected to generate more ad revenue than Google in 2026, signaling how marketers are increasingly favoring automated, performance-driven platforms.

Driving the news. According to Emarketer, Meta is expected to bring in $243.46 billion in global ad revenue this year, narrowly topping Google’s projected $239.54 billion.

• Meta is forecast to capture 26.8% of global ad spend.
• Google is projected to take 26.4%.
• It would be the first time Google has lost the top spot in digital ad revenue.

Why we care. Meta’s growth suggests brands are getting more value from automated, performance-focused tools, which could influence how they split budgets between Meta and Google. It’s also a reminder that platform dynamics are changing fast, so media strategies need to stay flexible.

Catch up quick: Google has long dominated digital advertising through Search ads, Display ads across the web, and YouTube.

But its core ad business is growing more slowly than in previous years.

Meanwhile, Meta has benefited from AI-powered ad automation, stronger performance measurement tools, and continued scale across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Why Meta is winning now. Advertisers are increasingly prioritizing platforms that can deliver both reach and measurable return.

Meta’s advantage has been its ability to automate creative and targeting faster, optimize campaigns with less manual input, and make it easier for brands to prove ROI.

That’s especially appealing in a tighter economic environment where marketers are under pressure to do more with less.

Yes, but. Google is still enormous — and still growing.

Its search business remains one of the most profitable ad engines in the world, and YouTube continues to attract brand budgets. But the company faces more pressure from, AI search disruption, antitrust scrutiny, and slowing growth in traditional search advertising.

The bottom line. Meta passing Google in ad revenue would mark more than a symbolic milestone — it reflects a broader power shift toward platforms that make advertising easier to automate, measure, and scale.

A growing number of advertisers say their Google Ads campaigns were suddenly hit with mass disapprovals tied to DNS and 500 server errors — even when their sites appeared to be working normally. The issue is raising fresh concerns about platform reliability and the risk of sudden performance disruptions.

Driving the news. PPC advertisers began flagging widespread problems this week across Google Ads accounts, with multiple agency leaders saying clients were affected at the same time.

• Managing Director at Cornerhouse Media, Ryan Berry, said more than 1,500 ads were disapproved in a single account around 1:30 p.m. UTC.
• Others said they received overnight emails warning that ads had been disapproved.

Why we care. Sudden mass disapprovals can instantly pause traffic, leads, and revenue — even if nothing is actually wrong with their website. If Google’s systems are incorrectly flagging DNS or server errors, brands could lose performance and spend valuable time troubleshooting an issue they didn’t cause. It also highlights the need for closer monitoring and faster escalation when platform glitches happen.

What advertisers are seeing:

• DNS errors, even when internal IT teams found no website issue.
• HTTP 500 errors, despite landing pages loading normally.
• Repeated disapprovals across multiple accounts.

Google Ads trainer, Charlotte Osborne said she saw two separate cases this week — one tied to a DNS error and another to a 500 error — with no issues found on the client side.

Google Advertising specialist Joshua Barr said he received “lots of emails overnight” about disapproved ads and has been dealing with similar problems for weeks.

Several Paid Search experts also said they were seeing the same issue across accounts.

What’s likely happening. Google’s ad review systems use automated crawlers to test landing pages. If Googlebot encounters temporary server issues, DNS lookup failures, redirects, or timeout errors, ads can be automatically disapproved under the platform’s “destination not working” policy.

That means advertisers can be penalized even if:

• their site is live for users,
• the issue is temporary,
• or the problem is on Google’s crawler side.

What to do now:

• Check Google Ads policy manager for exact disapproval reasons.
• Test landing pages using multiple locations and devices.
• Review DNS uptime, redirects, and CDN/firewall settings.
• Submit appeals for clearly incorrect disapprovals.
• Document account-level impacts in case the issue proves platform-wide.

The bottom line. For advertisers, this is a reminder that campaign performance can be derailed by platform glitches as much as by strategy — and when Google’s systems misfire, spend and leads can disappear fast.

First spotted. The errors were first spotted by Ryan Berry in the UK and Founder Anthony Higman also spotted issues in the US.

Ahead of the full Metro 2039 reveal, franchise author Dmitry Glukhovsky says the game will be darker than any other entry in the acclaimed FPS series.

Fedora 44 was meant to be launched today, April 14, 2026, but a gander at the Fedora developer mailing list reveals that the workstation Linux distribution will be delayed to April 21 at the earliest. Adam Williamson, the Fedora QA developer who made the announcement clarified in the email that the reason for the delay is a long list of outstanding blockers—bugs or broken features that are big enough to break the experience or prevent the launch of the OS—that nobody is willing to waive. These bugs include issues with KDE's plasma-setup network setup, the NVIDIA Mesa driver setup, KDE keyboard layout selection, the systemd-oomd.service, and Grub breaking booting to Windows systems with BitLocker enabled.

On the one hand, this means that gamers and workstation users on Fedora, and all of its various iterations, like Bazzite, Nobara, and Rocky Linux, will have to wait a longer for the new version, along with all of its bug fixes, the new kernel version 6.19, and promised new features. On the other hand, the delay will give the project's developers extra time to iron out those experience-breaking bugs and deliver a working operating system. Some of the highlights of Fedora 44 are a move to Gnome 50 and KDE Plasma 6.6, a streamlined install process, finalizing the move to Plasma Login Manager on KDE spins, and adding support for Budgie 10.10.

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. This week, PRAGMATA launches with path-traced effects, DLSS Multi Frame Generation and DLSS Ray Reconstruction, giving GeForce RTX gamers the definitive experience. Additionally, DLSS comes to Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, MONGIL: STAR DIVE, and Windrose this week. And INDUSTRIA 2 launches with DLSS 4.5 this month. And a new sci-fi first-person shooter called Fragmentary Order has been announced, which will launch with DLSS 4.5.

PRAGMATA GeForce RTX 50 Series Bundle Available Now, Ahead Of April 17th Launch, Featuring Path Tracing & DLSS
Set in the near future, CAPCOM's PRAGMATA transports players to a lunar research station. In the years since the discovery of Lunam Ore, humanity has developed Lunafilament, a material capable of replicating almost anything. One day without warning, Earth lost contact with the station dedicated to this Lunafilament, as all signals went dark.

Sony Electronics Inc. expands its INZONE gaming gear lineup with two new models: the INZONE H6 Wired Air open-back headset and the INZONE M10S II 27" QHD 540 Hz OLED gaming monitor, designed for players who prioritize precision and speed. The INZONE H6 Air introduces an open-back acoustic structure that delivers a more natural and expansive sound field. Paired with custom drivers and integrated back ducts, the headset produces controlled low frequencies and detailed spatial audio that helps players better track in-game environments.

Engineered in collaboration with Fnatic, the leading esports team, the INZONE M10S II combines a next-generation tandem-structured OLED display with Dual Mode (QHD 540 Hz or HD 720 Hz), an ultra-fast 0.02 ms response time, advanced Motion Blur Reduction (MBR) and a Super Anti-glare Film—all designed to ensure peak esports performance.

STORMCRAFT PC, the Southern California gaming PC brand founded by gamers and engineers, today announced the launch and retail availability of its new Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus gaming desktop lineup. Designed for gaming, streaming, content creation, and PC upgrades, the new prebuilt gaming PC family combines the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus processor with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5070, and RTX 5060 Ti graphics across four STORMCRAFT series: WIZARD WHITE, PHANTOM, SKYHAWK, and FALCON. With up to 24 cores, up to 5.5 GHz max turbo frequency, Intel AI Boost, DDR5 memory, Gen 4 SSD storage, and premium cooling, the lineup is built to give gamers, creators, enthusiasts, and hardcore players a stronger path to next-generation desktop performance.

"With this Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus launch, we wanted to bring customers a meaningful upgrade for better gaming and multitasking experiences," said Frank Lee, Founder of STORMCRAFT PC. "This new lineup combines the latest Intel platform with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics, giving gamers and creators more performance, faster responsiveness, and a wider range of system options across different price points. From our flagship WIZARD WHITE build to more accessible upgrade-ready desktops, every STORMCRAFT PC is built in Southern California and backed by lifetime tech support from our team."

Microsoft recently released a new preview build of Windows 11 for the Windows Insider channels. Users enrolled in the Insider program can now test a somewhat historic change: a new "hard" size limit for disk volumes formatted with the FAT32 file system. This long-anticipated update may improve compatibility and flexibility...

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Festus leaders pitched the project, set to span roughly 360 acres north of Highway 67 and Route CC, as a once-in-a-generation windfall, but many residents saw it as a massive development being pushed through over local objections.

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Apple's smart investment in Globalstar now stands to yield a sizable return, while allowing for a significant expansion in the iPhone's satellite-based connectivity features further down the line, courtesy of the $11.5 billion acquisition deal between Amazon and Globalstar. Apple will not only recoup its investments in Globalstar and then some, but also benefit from the upcoming expansion in Amazon's Leo-branded constellation of satellites For the benefit of those who might not be aware, Apple acquired a 20 percent stake in Globalstar back in 2023 for $400 million, while also committing to injecting $1.1 billion in cash-based liquidity to expand […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/apple-is-an-unequivocal-winner-in-the-11-5-billion-amazon-globalstar-satellite-constellation-deal/

EA and Full Circle have revealed a new Nike SB collab for Skate, as one of the most highly anticipated collabs finally joins the game. It also comes with a complete Nike-themed makeover to the Isle of Grom skatepark, and the introduction of Grom at night. The Nike event will be on from April 14 to May 5, during which all players will have access to the Isle of Grom. Afterwards, it's back to having to either buy a day pass to the island, or buy the premium Skate pass to access it. Which was the bit of the Isle […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/hands-on-with-ea-skate-x-nike-sb-collab-full-circle-defends-controversial-paywall/

A new report published today by market analyst firm Newzoo suggests a structural shift in the PC and console gaming market: while the biggest AAA titles still dominate, a growing share of both playtime and revenue is flowing to games ranked outside the Top 20, with the trend most pronounced on the PC platform. The headline figure is striking. In Western markets (US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain), titles ranked 21st and below accounted for 56% of total PC gaming revenue in 2025, up from 48% in 2022. That means the majority of money spent on PC games now goes […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/aaa-dominance-eroding-pc-gaming-revenue-top-20/

Anthropic's Mythos might be the best cybersecurity AI ever, but it's not the only one and it may well be the most expensive, raising questions about how useful it actually is, when weighed against the competition.

The 27-inch Sony Inzone M10S II can crank all the way to 720 Hz at 720p resolution

LogDB is a developer-first observability platform for modern teams that need speed, privacy, and control. It lets you search, analyze, and investigate logs, metrics, and threats in one unified environment with local control, encrypted storage, and AI-assisted workflows. Built for engineering, DevOps, and security teams, LogDB helps you turn complex telemetry into fast answers without sacrificing data ownership or trust.

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Two high-severity security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in Composer, a package manager for PHP, that, if successfully exploited, could result in arbitrary command execution. The vulnerabilities have been described as command injection flaws affecting the Perforce VCS (version control software) driver. Details of the two flaws are below - CVE-2026-40176 (CVSS

Microsoft was "foundational" to OpenAI's success, but the ChatGPT maker is exploring new partnerships.

Press freedom advocates are demanding urgent answers from US lawmakers after revelations that using a VPN might strip American citizens of their constitutional rights. Here's why the Freedom of the Press Foundation wants immediate limits on warrantless spy powers.

Insomniac Games has seemingly begun development on Marvel's Spider-Man 3.

Here's how to watch Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League 2025-26 quarter-final, with Barca trailing 2-0.

The trend of expensive OLED monitors is finally ending, and it's thanks to Alienware launching its new 27-inch QD-OLED monitor.

The man who turned climbing, flying, and fear into art. Here's how to watch The Dark Wizard online from anywhere in the world.

If you're struggling to stay connected in heavily restricted countries like Iran, Russia, or China, Windscribe's latest mobile app updates might be exactly what you need. Here's how the provider is fighting back against the censors.

Adding simple details like lighting, aspect ratio, and text instructions to your prompts can dramatically improve the quality of AI-generated images.

The Play Pro turntable from Tinyl grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it on TikTok.

Sony has announced a new Inzone gaming monitor and headset.

There is one specific feature hackers often use to maintain persistence and exfiltrate data.

The device could help address multiple neurological conditions if it proves successful. One early use could be delivering gentle electrical stimulation to damaged brain or spinal cord cells to encourage healing.

Google is adding “Skills” to Chrome, letting users save and reuse AI prompts across websites. The feature builds on Gemini’s browser integration.

Freecash was removed from Apple's App Store after TechCrunch reached out for comment.

Pillar hopes to offer sophisticated, institutional-grade tools to small and medium-sized enterprises. "Our goal is to make hedging as accessible and ubiquitous as payments or accounting software," he said.

The first StrictlyVC of the year will be coming to San Francisco before you know it. There are still a few tickets available to join us and our stacked speaker lineup April 30, so register today!

Google app for desktop is now available for Windows users around the world in English

Google’s legal troubles over its search and ad tech businesses are entering a new phase — one that could expose the company to billions in payouts from advertisers seeking damages after U.S. courts found it illegally monopolized key digital ad markets.

Driving the news. A growing group of advertisers is preparing to file mass arbitration claims against Google, according to attorney Ashley Keller, who said the first filings are expected this week.

• Keller says he has already signed up a “significant number” of advertisers.
• He estimates potential claims tied to online search and display advertising could exceed $218 billion, based on economic analysis his firm commissioned.
• Similar mass arbitration cases typically take 12 to 24 months to resolve.

Catch up quick. Courts in 2024 dealt Google major antitrust blows.

• A federal court in Washington, D.C. found Google illegally monopolized online search.
• A separate federal court ruled Google also illegally monopolized parts of the ad tech stack that connects advertisers with publishers.
• Google is appealing both decisions.

Why we care. This case could open a path to recover money advertisers believe they overpaid for search and display ads due to Google’s alleged monopoly power. Mass arbitration may give businesses more leverage than individual claims and could pressure Google into settlements.

It also signals growing legal scrutiny of the digital ad market, which could eventually lead to more competition and lower costs.

Why arbitration matters. Most advertisers can’t simply sue Google in court because their contracts require disputes to go through arbitration.

That usually favors large companies when claims are handled one by one. But mass arbitration — which bundles 25 or more similar claims — can shift leverage back toward claimants.

• It increases pressure to settle.
• It can lower legal costs for smaller businesses.
• It allows companies with relatively modest individual claims to pursue damages collectively.

What’s new. This case could break new ground because most mass arbitrations to date have involved consumers or workers — not corporate plaintiffs.

A large-scale advertiser action against Google would be among the first major efforts to use the strategy for business-to-business claims.

What Google says. In a recent filing, Google said it faces private damages claims tied to global antitrust cases but cannot yet estimate potential losses.

The company said it believes it has “strong arguments” and plans to defend itself aggressively.

The bottom line. Google’s antitrust losses are no longer just a regulatory problem — they are becoming a direct financial threat, with advertisers now testing whether mass arbitration can turn monopoly rulings into real payouts.

Nvidia plans to adopt 3GB GDDR7 memory modules for new GPUs A new report from Board Channels (via Videocardz), Nvidia is reportedly planning to utilise 3GB GDDR7 memory modules to create several new graphics cards. DRAM manufacturers are ramping up production of 3GB GDDR7 memory, leading Nvidia to introduce new 9GB versions of its RTX […]

The post New Nvidia RTX 5060/5060Ti 9GB GPUs leak appeared first on OC3D.

Microsoft has ended production on the Surface Hub 3, with no plans to make more in the future, putting an end to its collaborative displays line.

Microsoft unveils MAI-Image-2-Efficient, a faster and cheaper AI image model designed to deliver photorealistic results at scale.

Retro Bethesda-style RPG mechanics get a fresh new life in Dread Delusion, a bite-sized RPG that shakes off the aesthetics and mechanics of modern RPGs and embraces nostalgia and low-poly visuals.

Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH (Toshiba) has unveiled a metallic blue casing for its Canvio Flex 2.5-inch portable hard disk drive (HDD). The new color adds a fresh look to the range, alongside the original warm silver option. The new metallic blue model will be available exclusively across EMEA.

Available in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacities, the Canvio Flex is designed for easy storage across multiple devices. Pre-formatted with exFAT, it works seamlessly with Windows PCs and Macs, as well as with compatible Android and iOS tablets and smartphones, without requiring reformatting.

NVIDIA today announced that it is bundling "Pragmata," the new Sci-Fi action adventure game, with new purchases of GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" graphics cards from its various add-in card partners, new notebooks with RTX 50-series gaming GPUs, and pre-built desktops with RTX 50-series graphics cards. From a technical standpoint, "Pragmata" is a pioneering game as it is the first to implement path-tracing with Neural Rendering for more visual realism. It also implements DLSS 4 upscaling, and multi-frame generation. The giveaway is available to select markets, select brands, and through participating retailers.

The offer is limited to one Steam code per customer (buying multiple graphics cards don't get you multiple keys). Eligible products include GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070 on the desktop platform; and RTX 5090 Laptop GPU, RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, and RTX 5070 Laptop GPU, for gaming notebooks with discrete GPUs. Certain pre-built desktops with eligible graphics cards may also be part of the offer.

Kensington, a worldwide leader of desktop computing and mobility solutions for IT, business, and home office professionals, today announced the expansion of its VeriMark security portfolio with the launch of two new NFC+ hardware security keys: VeriMark NFC+ USB-C Security Key (K64739WW) and VeriMark NFC+ USB-A Security Key (K64738WW).

Both models are FIDO2 Level 2 certified and support the latest FIDO CTAP 2.1 protocol, delivering enterprise-grade, phishing-resistant multifactor authentication (MFA) and passwordless login protection across modern cloud and web-based services.

Endorfy expands its lineup with the brand's first-ever showcase-style cases, featuring tempered glass panels (a flat side panel and a curved front). Inspired by 1960s design, the Aquarius 8000 series combines a distinctive look with extensive configuration options, from gaming setups to modern workstations. The lineup includes the Aquarius 8000 Corona and Aquarius 8000 Flex. Both stand out with a slim profile and broad compatibility, supporting graphics cards up to 450 mm, radiators up to 420 mm, and up to ten fans. This level of flexibility allows you to build advanced cooling systems tailored to different use cases. The Aquarius 8000 Corona variant comes equipped with four of the latest Endorfy Corona 120 ARGB fans: three Reverse and one standard which launch alongside the cases and are also available separately. The designs support motherboards in SSI-CEB (E-ATX up to 280 mm), ATX, microATX, and Mini-ITX formats.

The Aquarius 8000 series sets a new standard for showcase PC case design, combining its signature form with the ease of installation known from classic layouts with a bottom-mounted PSU. The design is built around a balance of form and function: large, perforated surfaces and fans work together to deliver both efficient airflow and a striking visual effect. Additional space in the lower section is dedicated to a tool-free drive mounting system with vibration damping; ideal for users who value refined acoustics and thoughtful design.

Blackmagic Design today announced DaVinci Resolve 21, a significant update introducing the new Photo page, which enables colorists and photographers to use Hollywood's most advanced color tools for still photos. Other updates include new AI tools such as IntelliSearch for fast content searching, CineFocus for focal point adjustment, tools for facial refinement, and more. The Krokodove toolset adds over 70 new graphics to Fusion, Fairlight folders simplify audio track management, plus there are improvements to keyframing, MultiMaster trim passes, layer list node graphs and more. DaVinci Resolve 21 public beta is available for download now from the Blackmagic Design web site.

DaVinci Resolve's powerful post-production workflow now fully integrates photo image editing. The new Photo page lets customers import and manage photographs, integrating with the color page for node based grading. Now colorists and photographers can use Hollywood color grading tools on still images. Use primary color correction, curves, qualifiers, power windows and node editor to adjust color in artistic ways across an entire project. Plus, customers can use a DaVinci color panel to adjust multiple parameters at once.

Developed by PCI-SIG for high-bandwidth enterprise use, CopprLink provides a full PCIe 5.0 x16 interface with throughput of 32 GT/s per lane, or 64 GB/s of total bandwidth. That is four times the throughput of an OCuLink connection using PCIe 4.0 x8, one of the fastest eGPU options currently available alongside Thunderbolt.

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In a post on the Google Developers blog, the company said it is designating back button hijacking as a malicious practice. It added that engaging in any activity that alters the default back button behavior of web browsers will be considered an "explicit violation" of its spam policies, potentially leading...

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Another batch of games has been confirmed to include support for NVIDIA's DLSS upscaling technology, with this list including some games that are out in a matter of days, like Pragmata, and others that have just been announced and won't release for a while, but will still arrive with support for the upscaler at launch. Starting with the games due to release soon, as previously mentioned, Capcom's latest release, Pragmata, will launch with support for NVIDIA's DLSS Multi-Frame Gen support. It'll also support DLSS Ray Reconstruction and NVIDIA Reflex, all of which will be at their best on NVIDIA's latest […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/pragmata-windrose-ctuhulhu-the-cosmic-abyss-nvidia-dlss-multi-frame-gen-support/

Last year, Samsung employees went on a strike for the first time in five decades. Now, these unionized workers are back at it, threatening a much longer, 18-day protest-led work hiatus. At the heart of this issue lies a perception mismatch, where Samsung is seen ripping off its workers to earn ginormous profits. The question remains: who will blink first? Samsung is seen as short-handing its workers, and those employees are now pushing back According to the Korea Herald, Samsung's union workers are currently demanding 15 percent of the company's annual operating profit, which amounts to around $30 billion, in […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/samsung-workers-threaten-an-18-day-strike-against-its-penny-pinching-ways-demand-30-billion-in-bonuses/

Last week, following an in-depth analysis of the PlayStation 6 bill of materials and potential pricing, speculation about a PlayStation 6 "lite" model powered by the APU of the Canis handheld began circulating. Some suggested this model could launch at a lower price than both the home and portable consoles. However, the chances of this happening are nonexistent, as such a model would be a “nightmare” for developers, according to what AMD leaker KeplerL2 said on the NeoGAF Forums. After reacting positively to a post from another user who highlighted how the existence of this third PlayStation 6 model is a complete fabrication, the leaker replied to a […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/playstation-6-lite-not-happening-nightmare/

Bungie has pushed its mid-season refresh update for Marathon, which comes with a lot of balance tweaks to weapons, Runner Shell abilities, equipment, and weapon mods, while also introducing tweaks to progression. There's also yet another experimental queue getting added to the game as the Duos experiment comes to a conclusion. If you want to dig into all of the tweaks and changes, big and small, you can check them out in the patch notes here. As you can imagine, there are several worth highlighting, so let's begin with some of the bigger changes impacting the game overall, before digging […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/marathon-mid-season-refresh-bungie-more-ways-for-players-to-work-together/

Xbox's multiplatform pivot led to the successful release of multiple former console exclusives such as Starfield on other consoles, but it seems like the new company leadership is considering returning to console exclusives, so much so that “there are very, very big discussions internally” on the matter, according to what Windows Central's Jez Corden said during the latest episode of the Xbox Two podcast. The debate stems from a growing perception that consumers are consistently steered away from Xbox hardware because “all the games are on PlayStation.” Corden noted that while releasing games on competing consoles works well, as some games […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/xbox-considering-return-exclusives/

A new leak claims Intel is prepping a 16-core CPU featuring 12 Xe3P iGPU cores, likely targeting the Ryzen G-series APUs. AMD's latest desktop APUs top out at only 8 RDNA 3.5 CUs, while the Arc B390M in Panther Lake already beats the Radeon 890M in Strix Point. That means 12 Xe3P cores on an NVL-S chip would be a heaven-sent for gamers.

Nvidia said that it wasn't in talks with another PC manufacturer to acquire it, despite rumors saying that it has been discussing the possibility since 2024.

The Elegoo Centauri Carbon, one of our all-time favorite 3D printers, is on sale for a limited-time only, down to just $285.

Fxroom is an AI creative studio for image and video creation powered by leading models, AI Agents, and community-driven creative effects called FX. Use rich, expressive FX to push creative possibilities further, turn your own creative ideas into FX others can use, and earn when your FX is used by others. We're just getting started.

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Localith is a Google Business Profile management platform for multi-location teams. It centralizes listings, reviews, posts, and local SEO so you can run every location from one place. AI agents draft tone-aware review replies, suggest SEO actions, and automate updates like hours and bulk publishing. Audits flag duplicates and missing data, while heatmaps and reports help you focus. Integrations connect workflows to tools like n8n for routing and reporting.

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Dishcount turns local grocery sales into practical meal plans. It aggregates weekly deals from over 80 grocery chains and uses AI to suggest recipes based on what's affordable near you.

Pick your stores, browse sales, and build smart shopping lists. If you shop at Kroger family stores, add ingredients to your online cart in one tap and check out for pickup or delivery.

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Cybersecurity researchers have unmasked a novel ad fraud scheme that has been found to leverage search engine poisoning (SEO) techniques and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content to push deceptive news stories into Google's Discover feed and trick users into enabling persistent browser notifications that lead to scareware and financial scams. The campaign, which has been

'The AirPods Pro 3 deliver the quietest ANC I’ve ever experienced,' and Amazon just slashed $50 off the cost, bringing the price down to a near record low.

From outstanding automations to AI assistant flops – learn from my mistakes and successes

A Redditor created a breathtaking gaming PC housed in a custom Lego chassis.

Jeff Bezos only takes home $81k a year — but don't worry, he's not out of pocket.

Jay Klaitz, the voice actor behind Grand Theft Auto 5's heist mastermind Lester Crest, has shut down the rumors that he's playing a character in Grand Theft Auto 6.

Get a taste of the post-quantum age with encryption technology designed for the next generation of computing power

Here's how to watch Liverpool vs Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of their Champions League 2025/26 quarter-final at Anfield

After too long a break, KEF is back in the Bluetooth speaker game. It’s aiming for the upper end of the market though — so does the Muo hit the mark?

Privacy advocates have urged Meta to cancel its rumored controversial Name Tag feature.

W3LL phishing operation targeted victims worldwide before being shut down.

Demand for used PS5s is spiking, here's what to know when buying second hand.

A leaker has claimed Sony will launch its next-generation PlayStation with three devices, including two consoles and a handheld.

From office essentials to cool gear you didn't even realize you needed for a productivity boost.

Most organizations did not fail at cloud security because they misunderstood the technology, rather they failed because they tried to secure it afterwards.

There is currently a limited-time deal across Keeper Family, Personal, and Business Starter plans.

The feature lets users connect Google accounts like Gmail and Photos to get personalized answers.

It's not clear how many people were compromised by this hacking campaign, but a security researcher said the hackers were targeting victims since at least November 2025.

Tesla has also made it easy to subscribe to the advanced driver assistance system.

The acquisition will allow the company to expand its business into international markets without needing to launch a delivery network in those regions.

Anything is planning to launch a desktop companion app to aid mobile app development after its App Store removal.

An overview of Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6, an upgrade to our reasoning-first model that helps robots to understand their environment.

Google celebrated World Quantum Day 2026 with a Doodle and a video about quantum computing.

Topical authority is a key concept in SEO, but it doesn’t account for how search and AI systems choose between competing sources.

The missing layer isn’t in content or structure. It’s in the signals that determine selection once a topic is understood — the difference between being eligible and being chosen.

Topical authority explains content, not selection

Topical authority is foundational for SEO and now AEO and AAO. But the framework the industry calls topical authority is incomplete. It covers semantics, content, and structure, but that’s just one part of a three-row, nine-cell model that defines topical ownership.

Topical authority describes what you’ve built. Topical ownership describes whether the system picks you.

Search and AI systems don’t reward content for existing. They reward content for winning a selection process. At Recruitment (Gate 6 in the AI engine pipeline), the system selects candidate answers from everything it has indexed.

Topical ownership has three layers: coverage, architecture, and position.

Everything in this article builds on Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR’s foundation. He has engineered a rigorous methodology for building content architecture that signals genuine expertise to search engines, and his case studies prove it produces measurable results.

He coined “topical map” as a standard SEO deliverable, engineered the semantic content network methodology, and brought mathematical rigor to what had been vague advice about writing comprehensively. 

His own formula (topical authority equals topical coverage plus historical Data) already acknowledges the temporal dimension I’ll expand below. He’s the authority on this subject. The expanded framework names the cells he already recognized and adds the one row he hasn’t yet formalized.

As with everything in this series, the “straight C” principle applies. To compete in any algorithmic selection process, you can’t afford a failing grade in any of the criteria that are being evaluated. 

Excellence in some dimensions doesn’t compensate for absence in others. The system requires a passing grade for each criterion. The three rows aren’t equally weighted above that floor, and position is the dominant row, as we’ll see.

Row 1: Coverage is the entry ticket, not the destination

Coverage in one sentence: Go deep enough that nothing’s left to add, cover every adjacent angle, and bring a perspective nobody else has.

Coverage describes the content itself. 

• Depth is vertical exhaustiveness and is often underestimated. 
• Breadth is the horizontal range across subtopics and adjacent areas. GÜBÜR’s topical map concept is the engineering discipline that makes breadth systematic rather than accidental.
• Original thought is the dimension that is almost always overlooked. Pushing the boundaries of a topic is what makes your coverage non-interchangeable.

An entity that covers a topic with perfect depth and breadth but says nothing new is an encyclopedia: comprehensive, correct, and structurally identical to any other comprehensive source. That’s an advantage that you will lose over time since it will become prior knowledge in the training data of the AI sooner or later. You’re no longer needed and won’t be cited.

Original thought is the key to retaining the attention of the AI — a new framework, a novel angle, and a perspective no one else has articulated is a good reason to come back again and again, and ultimately cite.

Importantly, original thought doesn’t require being revolutionary, nor do you need to be original on every page. Often it will be as simple as a fresh way of framing a familiar concept.

Define your brand’s specific perspective on specific vocabulary. When done properly, that’s enough.

There are two kinds of original thought, and they carry different risk profiles. 

• Reframing connects two existing validated truths that nobody has explicitly joined before. Both components are already corroborated; the system can verify them independently, and the originality lives in the framing.
• True invention is different. There’s nothing for the system to cross-reference and nothing that’s already established to anchor the new claim. The result is that you look fringe until the world catches up.

The window between being right and being recognized can be long and uncomfortable, and to take that risk credibly, you need absolute conviction not only that you’re right, but that you’ll be proven right, and the patience to survive looking wrong in the meantime.

The reframe carries a fraction of that risk: the source truths are already verifiable, so the connection is credible from the moment it’s published.

Row 2: All architecture decisions begin with source context

Architecture in one sentence: Write sentences clearly, make your content flow in a logical manner, and link intelligently.

The three cells in the architecture row are GÜBÜR’s terms, and I’m using them as he defined them.

Source context determines everything that follows:

• The publisher’s angle.
• The identity and purpose that shapes what the topical map should contain. 
• How the semantic network should be constructed. 

GÜBÜR’s insight that a casino affiliate and a casino technology provider need fundamentally different topical maps for the same subject captures the principle: structure follows identity.

Topical map is the structural design of the content: core sections and outer sections, which attributes become standalone pages and which merge together, the direction of internal linking, and the identification and elimination of information gaps.

Semantic network is the interconnected execution that makes the structure machine-readable: contextual flow between sentences and paragraphs, semantic distance minimized between related concepts, and cost of retrieval optimized so that the system can extract facts without unnecessary computational effort.

Good architecture makes coverage legible to the system. You can have thorough coverage that the algorithm can’t parse, and the result is the same as not having the content at all. Architecture is the bridge between what exists and what the system understands.

Where architecture falls short as a complete model is that it’s entirely within what you control. It describes how to organize your own house. It doesn’t address who the neighborhood knows you as.

Row 3: Position is why two equally thorough sources produce different results

Position in one sentence: Be first to stake the claim, be recognized by others as the best at what you do, and do things that ensure you are the person everyone refers to when they talk about your topic.

Position is the competitive layer. It’s the only row that describes the entity rather than the content. That distinction makes it the dominant row, for the same structural reason links were the dominant signal in traditional SEO: external validation at the entity level breaks ties that content quality alone can’t.

Because you’re building entity reputation, the position row requires the greatest investment of resources and must be maintained over time. Because most brands are looking for quick, easy wins and are unwilling to commit to long-term investment in their position, this is where your competitive advantage lies and where you’ll see a real difference.

Two entities can have identical coverage and architecture, and yet one will be treated as the authority and the other won’t. The current definition of topical authority can’t explain why. Position is the huge missing piece.

Temporal position is about when you said it. The source that established a claim, coined a term, or described a mechanism before anyone else has a structurally different relationship to that topic than a source that repeated it later. 

GÜBÜR’s formula already acknowledges this: “Historical data” in his equation is the accumulated proof of chronological priority. First-mover advantage in knowledge graphs is an architectural phenomenon we see over and over in our data.

Hierarchical position is about dominance: being recognized by others as the top voice on the topic. Primary sources, practitioners who work in the field, researchers who run studies, and experts who generate knowledge. This isn’t self-declared. Others assign it. When Matt Diggity describes GÜBÜR as “one of the most knowledgeable people” in semantic SEO, that’s a hierarchical position being conferred by a peer.

Narrative position is about centrality: being the person everyone refers to when they talk about the topic. The journalist credits you, the researcher cites you, and the conference features you as the reference voice. 

All roads lead to Rome, and you’re Rome. The system reads these co-citation patterns and builds a picture of where you sit in the source landscape. 

Narrative position can’t be manufactured with first-party content. It’s earned by doing things in the world that others find worth referencing.

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Topical authority, N-E-E-A-T-T, and topical ownership

N-E-E-A-T-T — Google’s experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) framework, extended with notability and transparency — describes the credibility signals that drive algorithmic confidence and are rightly a huge focus of the industry.

N-E-E-A-T-T describes inputs, not structure. Those signals don’t exist in a vacuum. They attach to an entity that the system has already understood.

I made this argument in a Semrush webinar with Lily Ray, Nik Ranger, and Andrea Volpini in 2020, when we were still talking about E-A-T: entity understanding is a prerequisite to leveraging credibility signals, not an optional layer on top.

The nine-cell matrix shows where each signal lands.

• The coverage row provides the source material for AI to evaluate your knowledge on your claimed topic. 
• The architecture row is where your content gets classified and positioned relative to a topic. 
• The position row is where strong N-E-E-A-T-T signals translate into a competitive advantage because N-E-E-A-T-T is an entity framework: it measures the publisher and author, not the content. Position is the entity row.

Note on the diagram: It could be argued that the four gaps in the diagram are partially covered by inference. 

• Expertise implies the knowledge to build a topical map and the depth that produces original thought.
• Experience implies the first-hand involvement that creates temporal priority.
• Transparency implies the clear structural identity that shapes a semantic network. 

Those arguments aren’t wrong. N-E-E-A-T-T evaluates the person primarily — what they built is an indirect signal.

N-E-E-A-T-T maps onto two of the three position dimensions. 

• Hierarchical position is, in structural terms, what Authoritativeness and expertise measure — your level of knowledge and peer recognition of your standing on a topic. 
• Narrative position is what notability captures. The co-citation patterns that tell the system you’re the reference voice.

Temporal position sits outside N-E-E-A-T-T. No credibility signal changes just because you said something first. 

Original thought sits outside it, too. The framework that’s supposed to reward quality has no mechanism for recognizing originality — at least not in the short term. It can reward reframing immediately, because both source truths are already verifiable. 

True invention only registers retroactively, once corroboration has accumulated to the point where assertion becomes position.

That structural gap points to a practical problem. Most practitioners build N-E-E-A-T-T credibility as a general brand exercise — demonstrate expertise, earn trust, and accumulate signals. However, credibility without topical position is a credential without context. The fix is to audit all nine dimensions and focus your work on building N-E-E-A-T-T credibility to improve your weakest.

My own situation is a good example of the difficulties of original thought:

• Temporal position is well-documented. Brand SERP in 2012, Entity home in 2015, answer engine Optimization in 2017, the algorithmic trinity and untrained salesforce in 2024, and now assistive agent optimization in 2025. The chronological priority is established and verifiable. 
• Hierarchical position has partial coverage. I’m recognized within specific circles as the reference voice on brand SERPs and algorithmic brand optimization, but not yet broadly enough to call it dominance.
• Narrative position is the biggest gap. Many people use the terms I coined, but few third-party sources cite me unprompted, and more articles on my own properties won’t change that. The fix I am implementing is doing things in the world that others find worth referencing: keynotes, independent collaborations, corroboration with partners, and articles like this one.

This is why crediting GÜBÜR for source context, topical map, and semantic network is intentional. Accurate attribution from a credible source builds the narrative position of the person being credited (GÜBÜR), and giving credit accurately signals to the system that my own claims are likely to be equally well-founded. 

Crediting well is a position signal, and it’s one most practitioners consistently underuse. My take is that citing the original source is the same as linking out. People resisted for years to protect the mysterious “link juice,” but it’s now accepted that linking out to provide supporting evidence is worth more than the PageRank cost. The same logic applies to citations: the value it brings you is greater than the loss.

This article is itself a demonstration. 

• GÜBÜR’s architecture framework is validated and extensively corroborated.
• The AI engine pipeline argument runs across the previous eight articles in this series.
• The nine-cell connection is new. 

For the original thought in this article, I’m using the safer form of original thought: the reframe-cite-and-add technique. I invite you to do the same.

Recruitment (Gate 6) is where position determines the winner

Article 8 in this series covered annotation (Gate 5) — the gate where you’re alone with the machine, where the system classifies your content based on your signals alone, and with no competitor in the frame. Annotation is the last absolute gate. From recruitment onward, you’re always being compared with your competition.

So, recruitment (Gate 6) is where the game changes. Every source that reaches recruitment has cleared the infrastructure gates and survived annotation (hopefully in a healthy, competition-ready state). Now the system is selecting between candidates, and it’s selecting based on relative standing, not absolute quality.

This is the moment the entire matrix resolves into a single question: when the algorithm culls candidates at the recruitment gate, is your entity’s position strong enough to be one of the survivors in that selection? 

In my three-by-three topical ownership grid, coverage gets you into the candidate pool, architecture makes the system confident it understands your content, and position determines whether it picks you ahead of the competition.

Coverage and architecture are content rows. They describe what you published. Position is the entity row. It describes who published it.

At recruitment, the system evaluates the content, and selection is heavily influenced by its assessment of the entity in the context of the topic. You can rewrite the content, but you can’t quickly rewrite who you are.

Darwin described natural selection as the mechanism by which organisms best adapted to their environment survive. An entity that occupies a strong position is an entity best adapted to the system’s selection criteria: temporal priority, hierarchical standing, and narrative centrality.

 The system isn’t being arbitrary when it selects one well-structured, comprehensive source over another equally well-structured, equally comprehensive one. It’s selecting the entity best adapted to the query’s requirements, and best adapted means best positioned, not best written.

The signals behind each row have never been equally weighted, and entity is the clearest illustration of that. In traditional SEO, inbound links were the dominant signal. They could sometimes overcome very weak criteria and were almost a guarantee of victory when all other signals were roughly equal.

That dominance gradually diminished as links became one signal among many, table stakes rather than differentiator. Entity has followed the inverse trajectory. It began as a minor signal with the introduction of the knowledge graph and knowledge panels, and has grown steadily in structural importance ever since. 

N-E-E-A-T-T attaches to an entity. Topical ownership attaches to an entity. Agential behavior requires a resolvable entity to function. Co-citation and co-occurrence patterns are only meaningful when the system has an entity to attach them to. 

The AI engine pipeline stalls at the annotation stage (Gate 5) without a resolved entity. That gate is entity classification, and everything downstream depends on it. Brand SERPs, Knowledge panels, and AI résumés are entity constructs. Without a resolved entity, they don’t exist in a meaningful way. 

The future will be more entity-dependent, not less, and the gap between brands that have invested in their entity and those that haven’t will compound. Entity is no longer simply a signal. It’s the substrate that other signals require to operate, and the most important single investment you can make in your long-term search and AI strategy.

To update a common saying: the best time to start was 10 years ago, the next best time is today, and the time it won’t be worth starting is tomorrow.

Topical ownership requires all nine cells, all three rows

Topical ownership is the state where an entity dominates all nine cells of the matrix for a given topic. Not just comprehensive, not just well-structured, but the entity others reference when they write about the subject — ideally the one that got there first, and the one peers defer to by name.

• Coverage tells the system you’re eligible.
• Architecture tells the system you’re legible.
• Position tells the system you’re the right answer.

The industry has been actively optimizing for six of those nine cells. 

Understandability work builds the entity. N-E-E-A-T-T builds credibility. But the position row — the one that determines who wins at recruitment — has been built largely without intent. Practitioners accumulate N-E-E-A-T-T signals as a general credibility exercise and assume that covers the entity layer. 

Position requires deliberate engineering of temporal, hierarchical, and narrative standing on specific topics. Being intentional about all nine, knowing which row each piece of work serves and why, is where the competitive advantage lives now. 

Simply becoming conscious of the grid and the three rows will make your topical ownership, SEO, and N-E-E-A-T-T work more purposeful across all nine cells, because you will implement each signal with specific intent rather than general ambition.

The brands AI consistently recommends aren’t just covering their topics well. They own them.

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This is the ninth piece in my AI authority series. 

• The first, “Rand Fishkin proved AI recommendations are inconsistent – here’s why and how to fix it,” introduced cascading confidence. 
• The second, “AAO: Why assistive agent optimization is the next evolution of SEO,” named the discipline. 
• The third, “The AI engine pipeline: 10 gates that decide whether you win the recommendation,” mapped the full pipeline. 
• The fourth, “The five infrastructure gates behind crawl, render, and index,” walked through the infrastructure phase.
• The fifth, “5 competitive gates hidden inside ‘rank and display’,” covered the competitive phase.
• The sixth, “The entity home: The page that shapes how search, AI, and users see your brand,” mapped the raw material.
• The seventh, “The push layer returns: Why ‘publish and wait’ is half a strategy,” extended the entry model. 
• The eighth, “How AI decides what your content means and why it gets you wrong,” covered annotation — the last gate where you’re alone with the machine. 
• Up next: “The methodology that forces the right build order: Why the machine requires you to start at the bottom of the funnel.”

Despite all the shiny new capabilities at our disposal, many professionals seem stuck in a cycle of “AI Groundhog Day.” 

You open a chat window, carefully craft a prompt, paste in your context, and get a great result. An hour later, you do it all over again. If this is how you use AI to automate, you’re still doing manual work — you’re just doing it in a chat box.

To move from using AI to building with it, you need to shift from a human doer to a true human orchestrator. That means stopping one-off prompts and starting to build systems. In this new phase of AI automation, what you really need are AI skills.

I explore this shift in my new book, “The AI Amplified Marketer,” where I look at how the human element of marketing remains vital even as new AI tools and shifting expectations evolve at a breakneck pace.

Below, I’ll show how to use Skills, a newer AI capability, to make you more efficient when managing PPC.

What’s a Claude Skill?

While many marketers have used ChatGPT’s Custom Instructions to set a general approach for how their AI works, a Skill is a more rigorous definition of how the AI needs to do things. These instructions can help it deliver more predictable outcomes that fit your expectations.

For example, I recently used a standard chat to rate search terms. While the AI’s logic was sound, the output was inconsistent: one session returned letter grades, another gave a percentage out of 100, and a third used a 1-10 scale.

In a professional setting, this inconsistency is a problem. It makes it difficult to integrate that prompt into a larger workflow where unpredictable grading might confuse other tools or team members.

A Skill solves this by providing a reusable set of instructions. It defines which tools and logic to use for a complex task and ensures the results are formatted exactly the same way every time.

It’s what turns the AI from a temperamental assistant into a reliable professional teammate.

And thanks to more recent agentic capabilities in Claude, a Skill is like turning your best multi-step PPC playbook into something an AI can execute on demand by delegating the various tasks to the right tools and subagents.

Whether it’s your agency’s proprietary account audit checklist or your framework for mining search query reports, a Skill encodes that process. It turns your PPC expertise into a scalable system that anyone on your team can use with their AI.

Dig deeper: Agentic AI and vibe coding: The next evolution of PPC management

How to build your first AI Skill

Creating a Skill is more straightforward than it might sound and you can do it through a simple chat session with your AI. Provide an account audit checklist, a standard operating procedure (SOP) from your team, or a blueprint to Claude. You can then ask it to convert that process into the formal structure of a Skill.

Interestingly, when you ask Claude to help build a Skill, it uses a specialized Skill-building protocol. This ensures your final output is structured correctly, follows best practices, and remains consistent with Anthropic’s underlying architecture.

Technically, a Skill is saved as a Markdown (.md) file that contains the playbook for the task at hand.

This file can be stored locally on your computer if you’re concerned about data privacy. Alternatively, you can share it in a central cloud repository. This makes it easy for your team to update and deploy best practices across your entire organization.

You don’t have to start from zero. Many pre-built Skills are available on platforms like GitHub. You can find examples for various marketing tasks, download them, and adapt them to fit your specific needs and workflows.

How to use a Skill in PPC

To use a skill, first make sure there are some available in your account.

Then, just tell the AI the task you want to do.

The AI will look through connected Skills and, if it finds one that matches the task, it will use those instructions to perform the work.

Sidenote: This means it is important not to have competing skills in your account. Imagine what could go wrong if you did: with two skills that both do Google Ads audits, you lose the predictability a Skill was supposed to give you in the first place, because it may randomly pick a different one and do the work in different ways as a result.

Dig deeper: Agentic PPC: What performance marketing could look like in 2030

PPC Skills need real-time data

A Skill provides powerful logic, but without access to live account data, it remains theoretical.

A Skill can define an analysis, such as “review search terms from the last 14 days with costs over $50 and zero conversions.” However, it doesn’t know how to pull that data from Google Ads on its own.

In the past, the workaround was to manually download static data, like a CSV from the Google Ads interface or a Google Ads Editor file. You would then feed this file to the AI as context. This works, but it’s slow, manual, and the data is outdated the moment you download it.

A more modern approach uses a Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect your AI and its Skills to other systems, such as live data sources. For example, using the Optmyzr MCP, your Skill can dynamically pull the exact Google Ads data it needs, when it needs it. This connection turns a static set of instructions into a living, responsive tool. (Disclosure: I’m the cofounder and CEO of Optmyzr.)

Dig deeper: From scripts to agents: OpenAI’s new tools unlock the next phase of automation

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From grunt work to system oversight

Combining a Skill with a tool like an MCP is where the real transformation happens. Your AI moves from being an assistant that requires constant direction to a system that can manage a process. It transitions from giving you ideas to executing your vision.

Let’s look at a common PPC task:

• Task: Search Term Analysis to Eliminate Irrelevant Clicks
• A Skill without tools is a task-oriented assistant: It might instruct you: “Paste in your search term report as a CSV, and I will identify potential negative keywords.” You’re still the one doing the grunt work of retrieving data and implementing the findings.
• A Skill with tools acts as a junior manager for that specific process: It can be configured to: “Pull the search term report for the last 7 days via the MCP, identify terms with high spend and no conversions, and apply them as exact match negatives to the appropriate campaign.” The entire workflow is handled, and your role shifts to one of oversight.

When you combine structured logic (Skills) with live data and execution capabilities (tools), you’re building more than a chatbot; you’re building a reliable teammate. It’s a grounded, practical system that handles defined tasks, freeing you up to be the orchestrator of your strategy.

Dig deeper: Scaling PPC with AI automation: Scripts, data, and custom tools

4 PPC Skills you can build today

To move from theory to practice, let’s look at four concrete examples of PPC Skills. In each case, notice how connecting these Skills to live tools transforms the AI from a passive analyst into an active participant.

1. Search term mining

This Skill’s logic guides the AI to analyze a search query report to find wasted spend and opportunities.

• Without tools: You provide a CSV. The Skill returns a structured list of recommended negative keywords and new keyword ideas. You have to implement them manually.
• With tools (MCP): The Skill automatically pulls the latest search query report data, identifies the negative keywords, and uses a tool function to apply them directly to your Google Ads account.

2. Ad copy generation

This Skill takes a landing page URL and target keywords to generate ad copy variations based on value propositions and user intent.

• Without tools: The Skill produces headlines and descriptions in a text format. You copy and paste them into Google Ads.
• With tools (MCP): The Skill finds underperforming ad assets in your account, and then generates the ad copy and pushes the new ads directly into the correct ad groups, potentially even setting up a new ad experiment.

3. Account auditing

This Skill runs a predefined checklist against an account, looking for issues like missing ad extensions, campaigns limited by budget, or ad groups with low CTR.

• Without tools: The Skill generates a report that lists all the problems it found. You then have to log in to the account and fix each one.
• With tools (MCP): The Skill not only identifies that an ad group is missing a callout extension but can also apply a relevant, pre-approved extension from extensions used elsewhere in the account. It doesn’t just report the problem; it fixes it.

4. Budget reallocation

This Skill analyzes campaign performance data to find opportunities to shift budget from underperforming campaigns to those with higher potential returns.

• Without tools: The Skill provides a recommendation, such as: “Decrease Campaign A’s budget by 20% and increase Campaign B’s budget by 15%.”
• With tTools (MCP): The Skill performs a dynamic analysis, pulling in exactly the right data with the appropriate lookback and time segmentation, and then executes the budget change directly, ensuring budgets are optimized as soon as the opportunity is identified.

The future of your role: From PPC doer to PPC designer

The combination of Skills and tools enables you to move from playing with AI to having AI do meaningful work. For years, AI has been good at generating ideas but weak at executing them inside the ad platforms. This solves the “last mile problem” by giving AI the logic, data, and permissions to act.

This also signals a change in the role of the PPC professional. Your job will shift from doing the repetitive work to designing the systems that do the work. Instead of manually analyzing reports and making changes, you will spend more time designing Skills, defining the rules and guardrails for automation, and reviewing the outcomes.

We’re at a point where the large language models are capable, the tools for connecting them to platforms are available, and the interfaces make it possible for non-developers to build. It’s time to rethink your processes and get AI to be a real teammate.

Dig deeper: AI tools for PPC, AI search, and social campaigns: What’s worth using now

The end of endless prompting

The cycle of endless prompting is a dead end. It keeps you in the role of a manual operator when you should be a systems designer. By embracing Claude Skills, you’re doing more than just working faster; you’re changing the very nature of your job. You’re moving from “doing PPC work” to “designing the PPC systems” that perform that work with predictability and at scale.

This is the ultimate expression of the AI-amplified marketer: building a true partner that codifies your expertise into a reliable, efficient engine.

The first step is to look at your daily tasks through the lens of a designer. What repetitive process is ready to be turned into your first Skill?

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Google’s Ask Maps feature does more than help users find nearby businesses.

Based on hands-on testing of local service queries for plumbers, electricians, and HVAC companies, Ask Maps often narrows the field, interprets user intent, and frames businesses around qualities such as responsiveness, specialization, honesty, and repair-first thinking.

In more complex prompts, it sometimes provides guidance before recommending businesses. This shows Google Maps moving beyond simple local retrieval and toward a more recommendation-driven experience.

To evaluate that shift, we tested Ask Maps across five levels of local intent — starting with simple category searches and progressing toward conversational prompts involving uncertainty, trust, and decision-making.

A clear pattern emerged. As query nuance increased, Ask Maps shifted from listing businesses to interpreting which businesses fit and why.

This article draws from hands-on testing across a limited set of local service queries in one geographic area. Treat these findings as an early directional view, not a comprehensive representation across all markets or query types.

The testing framework

To evaluate progression, we built a five-level intent model based on how homeowners and local service customers actually search. Instead of organizing around traditional keyword categories, we structured the framework from simple retrieval toward conversational decision-making.

• Level 1 focused on basic requests with minimal context.
  • Example: “Looking for an HVAC company near me.” 
• Level 2 introduced more service specificity.
  • Example: “I need an electrician to upgrade my panel in an older home.” 
• Level 3 moved into situational queries, where the user described a problem.
  • Example: “My furnace is making a loud banging noise and I’m not sure if it needs to be replaced or repaired.” 
• Level 4 introduced trust and decision concerns.
  • Example: “I think my furnace might need to be replaced, but I don’t want to get overcharged. Who is honest about that?” 
• Level 5 combined those elements into fully conversational prompts asking for guidance, validation, and recommendations in the same search.
  • Example: “I was told I need a full furnace replacement, but it feels expensive. How do I know if that’s actually necessary, and who should I call for a second opinion in my area?”

This framework allowed us to evaluate:

• Which businesses appeared.
• How Ask Maps interpreted prompts.
• What attributes it emphasized.
• When results started to resemble guided recommendations rather than search results.

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Ask Maps narrows the field and adds interpretation

One of the clearest patterns across the testing was that Ask Maps consistently returned a relatively small set of businesses while increasing the amount of interpretation as the user’s search intent became more complex.

At Level 1, the average number of businesses shown was 3.6. Level 2 rose to 4.3. Level 3 dropped slightly to 3.3. Level 4 averaged 5, and Level 5 averaged 4.6. Across the full set, the range remained fairly tight, generally between three and eight businesses.

That’s a different experience from traditional Maps, where a user can scroll through a much broader set of options and do more of the evaluation work themselves.

Ask Maps narrows choices early and spends more effort explaining why those businesses fit the prompt, but stops short of being fully action-oriented. Even when a phone number is shown, there’s no clickable call button directly in the Ask Maps response. 

To call or access the full set of contact options, the user still has to click into the business’s Google Business Profile. That matters because while Ask Maps is becoming more interpretive, the underlying GBP is still where action happens.

As prompts become more nuanced, uncertain, or trust-sensitive, Ask Maps draws on a broader range of sources. It shows fewer businesses, replacing breadth with interpretation.

Dig deeper: How to build FAQs that power AI-driven local search

Basic queries already go beyond simple listings

Even the simplest queries don’t behave like a traditional Maps result.

At the baseline level, Ask Maps still relies heavily on Google Business Profile data, including: 

• Business descriptions.
• Review content.
• Ratings.
• Hours.
• In some cases, posts. 

Website influence is minimal here, and there’s little evidence of outside sourcing. But even within that mostly closed ecosystem, it goes beyond listing nearby businesses.

Instead of just showing names, ratings, and locations, Ask Maps:

• Generates narrative summaries based on information in the Google Business Profile. 
• Describes businesses in terms of responsiveness, experience, specialization, or the kinds of situations they seem well-suited for. 
• Draws on reviews when framing businesses.

Even at the most basic level, Ask Maps isn’t neutral. It’s beginning to interpret businesses for the user.

As queries become more specific, Ask Maps starts matching capability

Once the prompt shifts from a general service search to a specific type of job, Ask Maps becomes more selective in how it matches businesses to the request.

• A query about an electrical panel upgrade doesn’t behave the same way as a query about urgent AC repair. 
• Replacement-oriented prompts emphasize installation and system expertise. 
• Repair-oriented prompts emphasize speed, availability, and responsiveness. 
• Queries tied to older homes or higher-risk work call for more evidence of specialization.

At this level, Google Business Profile and reviews still carry much of the weight, but websites matter more when the job is more complex or costly. A panel upgrade query produces stronger external link usage than a more straightforward AC repair prompt.

That doesn’t mean websites are always heavily used. It shows more selectivity. As decisions become more complex, Google looks for more supporting evidence before recommending businesses.

Situational queries push Ask Maps toward interpretation

The more noticeable shift begins once the prompts move from service categories to real-world scenarios.

At Level 3, the user is no longer looking for a plumber, electrician, or HVAC company. Instead, they’re describing a problem, such as a loud banging furnace, outdated electrical in an older home, or an AC unit that has stopped working during extreme heat. In those cases, Ask Maps increasingly interprets the problem before introducing businesses.

Some responses provide guidance or context first. Others identify the provider and clarify the work before making recommendations. The businesses that follow aren’t framed as generic providers. They’re framed as possible solutions to the situation.

Review content becomes important here. Rather than simply supporting a business’s credibility, reviews act as evidence that the company has handled similar situations before. Fast arrival times, experience with older homes, communication during stressful repairs, and problem-solving ability all become more meaningful when describing businesses.

This is the point where Ask Maps moves more clearly from retrieval to interpretation.

Dig deeper: 7 local SEO wins you get from keyword-rich Google reviews

Trust-oriented queries change what gets emphasized

When the prompts introduce fear, skepticism, or concern about making the wrong decision, Ask Maps changes again.

At Level 4, the focus is less on the service need itself and more on the emotional context around it. The user is worried about being overcharged, being pushed into unnecessary replacement, or hiring someone who would cut corners. 

Ask Maps doesn’t just return businesses capable of doing the work. It organizes businesses around trust-related qualities such as honesty, transparency, careful workmanship, fairness, and second-opinion value.

This is one of the strongest patterns in the research. At this stage, review language is the primary signal shaping how businesses are framed. Specific phrases and anecdotes matter, elevating businesses that explain options clearly, don’t upsell, offer honest assessments, or deliver careful, professional work.

External sources become more relevant here. In addition to GBP information and reviews, Ask Maps shows more willingness to pull from company websites, testimonials, third-party platforms, and educational resources when the user’s concern involves decision risk rather than just service need.

Once the query becomes trust-driven, the recommendation no longer appears to be based only on who can do the job. It reflects who is most likely to handle the situation in a way that the user feels good about.

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Advisory queries show the clearest shift

The strongest example of this progression came at Level 5. These are prompts where the user combines a problem, uncertainty, and a request for recommendations in a single query. 

For example, someone might say they were told they needed a full furnace replacement but were unsure whether that was really necessary and wanted to know who to call for a second opinion. In these cases, Ask Maps moves most clearly into a decision-support role.

Instead of leading with local businesses, it often starts with an explanation, introducing frameworks, safety context, or ways to think about the decision. 

Only after that does it recommend businesses, and those businesses are often grouped not just by rating or proximity, but by approach. Some are framed as repair-first options. Others are framed as second-opinion experts or safety-focused specialists.

This is where Ask Maps feels least like a directory and most like an advisor. The structure of the response looks more like a guided decision process than a traditional local search result.

That doesn’t mean the system is flawless or that every answer is equally strong. But it does suggest that when a prompt includes uncertainty and a need for validation, Ask Maps is trying to do more than match a category. It’s trying to help the user think through what to do next.

Dig deeper: New Google Maps features: Local Guides redesign, AI captions, photo sharing

Where Ask Maps gets its information

Across the testing, several source patterns appear repeatedly, and the mix appears to shift depending on the type of query.

At the foundation, Google Business Profile does much of the early work. Business categories, service descriptions, hours, ratings, and review counts help determine which businesses are eligible to appear and how they are initially framed. In some cases, Ask Maps also pulls from GBP services and products, business descriptions, and occasionally posts when those help reinforce what the business does.

Reviews seem to be one of the most important inputs across nearly every query type. Not just in ratings, but in how review language shapes the summary. 

Ask Maps often draws on review themes tied to:

• Responsiveness.
• Honesty.
• Professionalism.
• Fast arrival times.
• Work on older homes.
• Repair-versus-replace situations.
• Whether customers feel the company explains options clearly or avoids unnecessary upselling.

In other words, reviews support reputation and help define how a business is positioned in the response.

Business websites matter more once the query becomes more specific, higher-stakes, or more tied to decision-making. In those cases, Ask Maps seems more likely to pull in service pages, testimonial pages, or other on-site business information that helps reinforce specialization, repair-first positioning, second-opinion value, or experience with a particular type of job. 

That’s more noticeable in queries tied to things like panel upgrades, replacement decisions, or older-home electrical concerns than in simpler “near me” searches.

External sources are the most selective layer, but they become more visible when the query involves safety, diagnosis, pricing uncertainty, or broader decision support. 

In those cases, Ask Maps pulls in:

• Educational content around issues like repair-versus-replace decisions, quote validation, and electrical safety. 
• Third-party review and directory platforms such as Angi, HomeAdvisor, YouTube, and Facebook.
• Other publicly available business information, when it helps reinforce trust, workmanship, or reputation. 

In some of the trust-oriented electrician queries in particular, this outside sourcing is more prominent than in simpler local lookups, suggesting Google may broaden its evidence base when evaluating how a business is likely to operate, not just what services it offers.

Ask Maps isn’t relying on a single source of truth. It appears to be constructing an answer from a mix of Google Business Profile data, review language, business website content, and selectively chosen outside sources, with the balance shifting based on what the user is actually asking.

What this may mean for local visibility

If Ask Maps continues to develop in this direction, it could have meaningful implications for local visibility in Google Maps.

• Inclusion alone may matter less than interpretation. If Ask Maps is consistently showing a smaller set of businesses and adding more explanation around them, the question is no longer just whether a business appears. It’s also how that business is framed and whether Google has enough confidence to position it as a good fit for the situation.
• Review content is becoming more important than many businesses realize. The language within reviews appears to influence not just credibility, but the actual way a business is described and recommended.
• Website content plays a more targeted role than many local businesses assume. It may not be equally important for every prompt, but it matters more when the service is complex, expensive, or tied to greater uncertainty.

More broadly, Ask Maps points toward a version of local search in which retrieval, evaluation, and decision support occur much more closely together. Instead of searching, comparing, researching, and then deciding across several steps, the user may increasingly be guided through much of that process within a single AI-mediated Maps experience.

What businesses and SEOs should tighten up now

If Ask Maps continues moving in this direction, the practical response isn’t to chase a new tactic or treat it like a separate channel. It’s to make the business easier for Google to understand and easier for customers to trust.

Keep the Google Business Profile current and specific

A Google Business Profile may play a bigger role when Ask Maps is trying to decide what a business does, what kinds of jobs it handles, and whether it fits a more nuanced prompt.

• Review primary and secondary categories to make sure they reflect the core work accurately.
• Tighten the business description so it clearly explains the services offered, the types of jobs handled, and any specialties or areas of focus.
• Make sure hours, service areas, and contact details are complete and current.
• Add photos that reinforce the kinds of jobs the business wants to be associated with.
• Treat posts and profile updates as another way to reinforce services and activity, not just as optional extras.
• Use the Services and Products sections fully, adding clear descriptions that reflect the specific jobs, specialties, and situations the business wants to be known for.

Pay closer attention to review language

If Ask Maps uses review language to shape how businesses are positioned, then the wording in reviews may matter more than many businesses realize.

• Look beyond review volume and average rating.
• Pay attention to whether reviews naturally mention specific jobs, customer concerns, and outcomes.
• Watch for language around responsiveness, honesty, professionalism, repair-first thinking, and clear communication.
• Encourage reviews that reflect real experiences rather than generic praise.
• Use review trends to understand how the business is likely being framed by Google.

Revisit website content for higher-consideration services

Website content appears more likely to matter when the query is more complex, more expensive, or tied to more uncertainty.

• Strengthen service pages for the higher-value or higher-risk work the business wants to be known for.
• Add FAQs that address real decision points, not just basic definitions.
• Include examples of the kinds of jobs handled, especially where context matters.
• Reinforce trust signals such as experience, process, reviews, and proof of work.
• Use language that helps explain situations like repair versus replace, older-home work, or second-opinion scenarios.

Think beyond ranking for a phrase

There’s a broader strategic shift here for local SEO. The question may no longer be only whether a business can rank for a phrase. It may also be whether Google has enough evidence to recommend that business in response to a real-world question.

• Evaluate whether the business is easy to understand across GBP, reviews, website content, and broader digital mentions.
• Look at whether the business is clearly associated with the jobs and situations it wants to win.
• Think about trust and decision support, not just service relevance.
• Focus on making the business more legible to both Google and potential customers.
• Treat local optimization less like keyword matching alone and more like building a clear, consistent business profile across sources.

Dig deeper: If your local rankings are off, your map pin may be the reason

The direction of Ask Maps is becoming clearer

The main question behind this research was when Ask Maps stops behaving like a directory and starts behaving more like a recommendation engine. Based on this testing, that shift starts earlier than many might expect.

Even at the most basic level, Ask Maps narrows, summarizes, and interprets. As prompts become more specific, situational, and trust-driven, they move further toward guided recommendations. At the highest level of complexity, it begins to look less like traditional local search and more like a system designed to help users make decisions.

That doesn’t mean Google Maps has fully changed into something else. But it does suggest the direction is becoming clearer. For local businesses and the people who support them, that makes this worth watching closely. Visibility inside Maps may increasingly depend not just on being present, but on being understood well enough for Google to explain why the business fits the user’s needs.

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At midnight on Jan. 5, hackers took over our Google Ads Manager Account (MCC). We weren’t alone. While it’s hard to get an exact count, hundreds, if not thousands, of agencies have been affected by the hacks, in turn affecting tens of thousands of accounts. 

While I wouldn’t wish this experience on our worst enemy, having been through it, I have some insights that I hope can help you prevent the same experience from happening to your MCC account.

How we were hacked

Despite having two-factor authentication (2FA) and allowed domains enabled, the hackers were able to get into our account via an employee’s email address. It was clearly a targeted hack: the night of the hack, the hackers tried to get in via two other email accounts at our company before they succeeded with the third.

While phishing or compromised passwords may have originally gotten them into the system — we still don’t know which — we later learned that the account the hackers used had been compromised for months and that they had created their own 2FA that they had been using all along.

Once they gained access to our account, the hackers removed everyone else’s access to the MCC. They then changed the allowed domain to Gmail and granted access to over a dozen people. The hackers then created a new MCC in our company’s name and invited most of our clients. Luckily, none of them accepted.

In the few hours they were in the MCC, the hackers proceeded to create chaos. They removed all the users from some accounts and changed the payment method in others. They launched new campaigns on only a few accounts, yet somehow also attempted half-million-dollar credit card charges on two others (despite not running any ads in those accounts).

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What happened after the hack

We were very lucky. The hackers were locked out within eight hours, and we regained access in just over a week. They spent only about $100 across the MCC. Neither crazy credit card charge went through. We were fully recovered from the hack within two weeks. How did we do this? Let’s take a look at the steps we took.

Step 1: We contacted Google

When we were hacked, we immediately contacted our reps at Google. We’re incredibly lucky to have wonderful Google reps with whom we’ve built longstanding relationships, including one we’ve worked with for over three years. 

These long-term relationships helped, and our reps went to bat for us. They continued to put pressure on the support cases until they were resolved and helped connect us to the resources we needed. Not everyone has their own reps, but you can also take these steps on your own.

Step 2: Fill out the forms

Our Google reps immediately directed us to their “What to do if your account is compromised” resource. From there, we filed Account Takeover Forms, alerting Google to the hack. We were directed to file a form for each of our accounts that had been hacked.

We first filed one for our MCC, even though the form, at the time, said not to use it for MCCs. It looks like that language has since been changed, which is great — don’t skip this step. Getting back into the MCC makes it easier to resolve all issues, rather than having to file tickets and coordinate access for each account.

Step 3: Contact clients

At the same time, we directed any clients who still had access to their accounts to disconnect them from our MCC, and to grant access to a non-compromised email account. That way we were able to secure the accounts, work on them, and mitigate any damages immediately. We were also able to triage our accounts to figure out which we were still able to access, and which had no admins left with access.

Step 4: Reset billing

Disconnecting from our MCC wound up being a very important step. That’s because when our accounts were disconnected from the MCC, we were easily able to reset the billing by editing the payment manager and undoing all of the payment chaos that the hackers had created. We were then able to reconnect them without issue.

Step 5: Check change history

When we eventually did get back into the accounts, we immediately checked the change history, which we were able to do at the MCC level for additional speed. All the changes the hackers made during that time were there with time stamps, allowing us to put together a timeline of the hack and remediate any remaining issues.

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Best practices for recovering from a hack

During all this activity, a few things were especially critical to our success in recovering the account and mitigating damage. Here’s a quick rundown of best practices to keep in mind.

Make sure clients have access

This isn’t just a best practice, but something we believe should always be the case for ethical reasons. Having additional admins in the account let us regain access immediately, despite being locked out of the MCC, and remediate issues without losing time or momentum. 

Google also pushed back on any access or billing changes that didn’t have approval from an existing admin, so having people still in the accounts was critical.

Keep your MCC clean

Remove old clients, and any other MCCs for tools you’re no longer using. We didn’t do this, and wish we had. We’ve made it a best practice for our accounts moving forward.

Limit team access

Make sure your team only has the minimum access they need. Standard access is great. Admin access should be reserved for as few people as possible. The compromised account belonged to a junior team member who didn’t need admin-level access. 

This isn’t to say they wouldn’t have gotten in through a more senior team member’s account — as mentioned, they did try to get in through several before succeeding — but it would have mitigated risk.

Use credit cards or invoices

Never connect your bank accounts to your MCC. We’ve heard of companies that have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars with this same kind of hack. Because our clients were all either on invoice or credit cards, the hackers couldn’t quickly spend money in a way that hit their accounts. 

As noted earlier, the credit card companies rejected the very suspicious half-million-dollar charges the hackers attempted to make, and notified the credit card holders. The clients we were invoicing were never charged, and everything was captured on the invoices before billing.

Invest in relationships

It’s important to invest in your relationships with your Google reps, and fellow agency owners. We remain incredibly grateful to all of the people who helped us, or even just commiserated with us along the way. This experience would’ve been even more painful if we’d had to go through it alone.

How to prevent being hacked

For those who have yet to be hacked, congratulations! Let’s try to keep it that way. Here are some things you can do to make it much less likely that this will ever happen to your accounts.

Start with a clean reset

Begin by kicking every single user out of your account, and have everybody on the accounts reset their passwords. Make sure you log everyone out of every session they were in on every device. 

Our hackers were sitting around auto-logging in and keeping their sessions open for over two months prior to the night they took over the MCC. If we’d forced a reset and logged everyone off, we would’ve removed their access without even realizing it.

Enable 2FA and allowed domains

Make sure there’s only one 2FA per person. 2FAs that use authenticators or physical keys are better than pinging a device. The hackers had created their own 2FA to get into our employees’ accounts, and we never even had an idea that it was happening.

Audit and limit access

Make sure the minimum number of people have the minimum access they need to the MCC. This reduces your risk.

Enable multi-party approval

Google rolled out this new feature quite recently to help prevent account takeovers. Essentially, the feature requires that a second admin verifies any big changes before they happen. If you’d like to read up on this feature, here’s a great guide introducing multi-party approval.

Back up your accounts

You can copy and paste your accounts into your preferred spreadsheet app via Google Ads Editor. Make a habit of doing this periodically so that you’ll always have a copy of how things were in case of a hack. With the backups, you can easily revert back if you need to.

Use strong passwords

It’s important to use unique passwords that aren’t being used anywhere else. That way, if one site gets hacked, your MCC is still not at risk. We’re still not sure how the hackers passed the initial password stage to be able to create their own 2FA.

Invest in security monitoring

If you want to be extra careful, invest in security software and/or a cybersecurity expert to monitor your system. We have now done this, and it’s been amazing (and scary) to see how many phishing attempts have already been caught in the six weeks since we did it.

A note for clients: If you’re a client and another team is managing your Google Ads, do not accept any Google Ads MCC access requests that you aren’t expecting. Please make sure you always know who and what you’re giving access to. When in doubt, double-check with the team that is managing your account. A little caution can go a long way.

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Stay safe out there

The good news is that Google knows about these issues, and is actively finding ways to tighten their systems to prevent hacks. In the meantime, I hope this article has helped make our loss your gain. With an ounce of prevention, you’re likely to prevent a pound of pain.

When a client calls about a damaging search result, you might typically default to one of two responses: “we can suppress it” or “there’s nothing we can do.” Both skip the middle ground — where Google’s removal tools live.

Google provides tools to remove or deindex content from search results. They’re underused, frequently misunderstood, and often conflated.

This guide breaks down what each tool does, when to use it, and what it can’t do — so you can triage client situations accurately and set expectations that hold.

The distinction that changes everything: removal vs. deindexing

Before you use any tool, get one thing right with clients: the difference between two outcomes that look the same but aren’t.

• Removal at source: The content is deleted from the site where it lives. Once removed, Google will drop it from its index as it re-crawls the page. This is the cleanest outcome — but it requires the site owner to act. Google’s tools can’t force it.
• Deindexing: Google removes the URL from its index, so it won’t appear in search results — even if the page still exists. Anyone with the direct URL can still access it. This is what most of Google’s self-service tools do.

The practical implication: deindexing fixes a search problem, not a content problem. If the content is the liability — a news article, court record, or damaging forum post — deindexing reduces risk but doesn’t eliminate it. That context matters when you advise clients.

Google’s removal tools, explained one by one

1. The URL removal tool (Search Console)

In Google Search Console under Index > Removals, this tool lets you temporarily hide a URL or directory from search results. Removal lasts about six months. If the URL still exists, it may reappear.

• Who it’s for: You, if you control the site in Search Console. You can’t use it to remove someone else’s content.
• Common use case: Your site has an outdated page you don’t want surfacing — old press releases, deprecated product pages, or pages you’ve updated or removed.
• What it won’t do: Remove content from a site you don’t control. This misconception causes significant client frustration.

2. The outdated content removal tool

This is the public tool to request deindexing of pages already removed or significantly changed at the source.

• When it works: The content is gone (the page 404s or the content is removed), but Google still shows a cached version. You submit the URL, Google recrawls it, and if the content is gone, it removes the result and cached snippet.
• When it doesn’t: The page still exists and the content is live. Google will verify it and reject the request.
• Practical use: After you’ve removed content at the source, use this to speed up deindexing instead of waiting for the next crawl. It’s not a removal tool — it triggers a recrawl.

For a more technical breakdown, see this step-by-step guide to Google’s removal tools.

3. The Results about you tool

Launched in 2022 and expanded in August 2023, the Results About You tool lets you request the removal of specific categories of personal information from Google Search. It added proactive alerts and broader coverage, then expanded again in early 2026 to include government-issued IDs, passport data, Social Security numbers, and improved reporting for non-consensual explicit imagery, including AI-generated deepfakes.

• What it can remove:
  • Home addresses and precise location data
  • Phone numbers
  • Email addresses
  • Login credentials and passwords
  • Credit card and bank account numbers
  • Images of handwritten signatures
  • Medical records
  • Personal identification documents (passports, driver’s licenses)
  • Explicit or intimate images shared without consent
• What it can’t remove: General information that falls outside these categories — news articles, reviews, social posts, court records, or professional information. Those require different paths.
• Why it matters: If you’re dealing with doxxing, data broker sites, or exposed sensitive data, you now have a self-service path. Managing this tool is increasingly part of ORM work.

4. Legal removal requests

For content outside self-service categories, you can submit legal removal requests to Google:

• Defamation: False statements of fact about an identifiable person.
• Copyright (DMCA): Unauthorized use of copyrighted material.
• Court orders: Legally binding orders requiring removal.
• Right to be Forgotten (EU/UK): Requests under GDPR and UK law, based on the 2014 Google Spain v. AEPD ruling.
• Other legal grounds: Harassment, illegal imagery, or other violations.

Google’s legal team reviews these requests; they aren’t automatic, and approval isn’t guaranteed. Defamation has a high bar: the content must be false, not just negative. A bad review isn’t defamation; an inaccurate factual claim may be.

Right to be Forgotten applies only if you’re in the EU or UK. It allows deindexing from Google’s European search properties. It doesn’t remove content globally or impact U.S. search.

5. The personal content removal form

Separate from Results About You, this Google form handles requests to remove non-consensual explicit images, doxxing content, and certain sensitive information on other sites.

This process is more manual. Google reviews the external site content rather than just deindexing a URL. Approval rates are higher for explicit imagery than for other categories, but the process is slower and less predictable.

What none of these tools do

Understanding the limits matters as much as knowing the tools. None of Google’s removal tools will:

• Force a third-party site to delete content.
• Remove content from other search engines (Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo).
• Remove content from Google Images, News, or Maps without separate requests.
• Permanently fix the underlying content problem.
• Remove results that are accurate, lawful, and in the public interest.

That’s why suppression remains core to reputation management: when you can’t remove content, you push it down with authoritative, well-optimized content.

How to triage a client removal situation

A practical decision flow for incoming removal requests:

Step 1: Can the client control the source site? 

If yes, remove it at the source, then use the outdated content tool to speed up deindexing.

Step 2: Is it personal information in Google’s covered categories? 

Use Results About You.

Step 3: Is there a legal basis? 

Defamation, copyright, court order, or GDPR right to be forgotten. If yes, file the appropriate request and set realistic timelines (weeks to months, not days).

Step 4: Is it none of the above? 

Suppression is likely the primary path. Build a content and link strategy around the branded SERP to displace the result over time. 

For high-stakes cases — like non-consensual content or permanent court records — firms like Erase.com handle direct outreach and legal escalation on a pay-for-success basis, bridging the gap between DIY tools and litigation.

Setting realistic client expectations

The most common client mistake is expecting Google to act like a content moderator. It isn’t. 

Google’s removal tools cover specific, narrow categories. Outside them, Google defaults to indexing what exists on the web.

Set this expectation upfront to protect the client relationship. It also positions suppression not as a fallback, but as the right tool for most ORM situations.

When removal is viable, these tools have improved over the past two years. Results About You has expanded and should be included in your standard ORM audit. The outdated content tool remains underused and is a quick win when source removal has already happened.

Know the tools. Use them where they apply. Suppress where they don’t.

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