As AI agents reshape how advertising platforms are used, Google is bringing focus toward the developers behind the systems and create content specifically for them.
What’s happening. Google’s Advertising and Measurement Developer Relations team has launched Ads DevCast, a bi-weekly vodcast and podcast hosted by Cory Liseno. The show focuses on technical deep dives across Google Ads, Google Analytics, Display & Video 360 and related tools.
Zoom out. This is a companion to Ads Decoded, hosted by Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin, which focuses on campaign strategy. Ads DevCast is explicitly built for developers and technical practitioners.
Driving the news. Episode 1 — “MCPs, Agents, and Ads. Oh My!” — centers on what Google calls the “agentic shift,” where AI agents are becoming primary users of advertising APIs.
Why we care. Ads DevCast gives developers a direct line to the engineers building Google’s ad tools, which should help stay ahead of technical changes, discover new capabilities faster, and build more efficient integrations in an increasingly AI-driven ecosystem.
The big picture. AI is expanding who can work with ad tech systems. Google is seeing a shift from a narrow “Ads Developer Community” to a broader “Ads Technical Community,” where marketers can execute technical tasks without full development cycles.
What’s next. Ads DevCast is a pilot, and Google is collecting feedback to shape future episodes.
Bottom line. Google is positioning Ads DevCast as a tool to give developers a front-row seat to Google’s latest ads innovations, with practical insights to build, test, and adapt faster in an AI-first landscape.
A new Google Merchant Center update changes how e-commerce sites must handle out-of-stock products, with direct implications for product approvals and ad performance.
What’s happening. Google now requires that out-of-stock products must still display a buy button, but it can no longer be active or hidden. Instead, the button must be visibly disabled and appear grayed out. In other words, users should be able to see the button, but not click it.
This marks a clear shift from common practices where retailers either left the “Add to Cart” button clickable or removed it entirely. Both approaches are now non-compliant.
How it works. In practical terms, the requirement is simple. The buy button must remain on the page, but its functionality needs to be turned off. Typically, this is done by applying a disabled state so the button becomes unclickable and visually subdued.
The catch. The button change is only part of the update. Google also expects clear availability messaging on the product page, such as “in stock,” “out of stock,” “pre-order,” or “back order.” This information must match exactly with what is submitted in the product feed.
Any inconsistency between the page and the feed can lead to disapprovals.
The bigger shift. This update removes a long-standing workaround used by many retailers. Previously, it was possible to keep selling out-of-stock products by leaving the purchase button active. That approach is no longer allowed.
If a retailer still wants to accept orders for unavailable items, the product must now be labeled as “back order.” This status needs to be reflected consistently across both the landing page and the feed.
Bottom line. What looks like a small UI requirement is actually a meaningful policy change. Retailers will need to review how they manage out-of-stock products and ensure their pages and feeds are fully aligned to avoid disruptions.
First seen. This update was spotted by Google shopping specialist who shared the his how to video on LinkedIn.
Google has released a new Android test update – Android Canary 2603. It is currently available for Pixel 6 and newer phones. This update is still in testing, so it may have some problems and changes may happen later.
This update gives us a preview of what future Android versions might look like. Google is working to make Android simpler, better looking, and more secure. While it is mainly for developers, regular Android users can also learn about the new changes coming soon.
What’s new in Android Canary 2603
The update brings an improved design. Google has added more blur effects in the system.These can be seen in notifications and Quick Settings. The blur makes the screen look clean and modern, and helps users focus on important things.
Quick Settings is also getting a useful change. Wi-Fi and mobile data now have separate buttons again.Earlier, they were combined, which made it harder for some users. Now, you can turn them on or off easily with just one tap.
The update also introduces an app lock feature. This allows users to lock apps using a PIN, pattern, or fingerprint. It helps protect personal apps like messages, photos, and banking apps from others.
You can now turn apps into small floating bubbles on your screen. These bubbles can be moved anywhere, making it easier to multitask. You can close the bubble by long-pressing it or using the Dismiss option.
The long-press menu has been redesigned. App shortcuts are now hidden by default, making the menu look cleaner and less crowded. The permission screen has been redesigned to be simpler and easier to understand.
After stopping a screen recording, a new page appears where you can watch, edit, share, or delete your recording. The edit option opens Google Photos, making it easier to make quick changes.
Aside from these, there are minor fixes and improvements, which help the phone run more smoothly and work better overall. Since this is still a test version, it may not be perfect. Stay tuned for more information
Samsung is pushing long-term AI memory deals with Google and Microsoft. The structure is apparently closer to a purchase guarantee than a handshake.
Dr. Young Hyun Jun told shareholders they’re looking at three to five-year commitments, and according to one industry source, Microsoft alone could be on the hook for over $10 billion in upfront payments.
If they don’t take the volumes they promised, Samsung deducts from that deposit, as per the EBN report (via Jukan). Prices still float with spot rates, but the volumes are locked, and it’s a flip from where things stood in January.
Just a couple of months back, Samsung and SK Hynix were trying to jack server DRAM prices up 60 to 70 percent, and both Microsoft and Google told them to get lost. Wouldn’t lock into anything beyond a quarter.
Samsung apparently expects the memory shortages to end by 2028, which means they’re trying to lock in pricing and volume now. Jun said this kind of supply stability helps both sides, which is technically true.
Earlier, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun stated at a shareholders’ meeting, “It is very important for the semiconductor division to minimize mid- to long-term uncertainties and maintain a healthy balance of memory supply and demand. Through multi-year contracts, long-term supply can enhance business stability and visibility for both customers and us.”
Perplexity’s new Comet browser for iOS defaults to Google Search. That’s because mobile queries often focus on navigation, local results, and transactions, where “Google does a much better job … than anyone else … including Perplexity,” according to Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas.
Comet for iOS. It includes Perplexity’s AI assistant directly in the browser. Comet for iOS also blends AI answers with standard search results. For many queries, you’ll still see a traditional results page.
You can ask questions by voice while browsing.
The assistant can summarize pages, answer questions, and take actions like drafting emails.
Deep Research features generate cited summaries and prep materials.
What Comet does. According to Perplexity, the assistant can act on your behalf. Examples include:
Summarizing articles and sharing outputs.
Researching people or topics across tabs.
Assisting with bookings or form fills.
What Perplexity is saying.
“The search experience in Comet iOS provides traditional search results pages for fast, local, and high-intent queries that are more common on mobile. Meanwhile, the Comet Assistant easily allows for more advanced knowledge and intelligence powered by the Perplexity answer engine. The intention is for users to have the smoothest browsing experience possible for the real use cases of iOS.”
Why we care. The near future of search increasingly looks hybrid, which means you’ll need to optimize for traditional Google results and AI-driven answers. This also reinforces Google’s dominance in commercial and local search while shifting competition to the AI layer.
Google is doubling down on the infrastructure behind “agentic commerce,” introducing new capabilities to its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) while making it easier for retailers to plug in.
Google says UCP — its open standard for connecting retailers to AI-powered shopping experiences — is getting new features designed to make online buying feel more like a traditional storefront, even when handled by automated agents.
What’s new. The latest updates focus on making shopping via AI agents more functional and flexible.
A new cart capability allows agents to add or save multiple products from a single retailer in one go, mirroring how a typical shopper builds a basket.
There’s also a catalog feature, giving agents access to real-time product data such as pricing, inventory and variants when needed. The goal is to make interactions more accurate and responsive.
Another addition is identity linking. This lets shoppers carry over logged-in benefits — like member pricing or free shipping — when using platforms connected through UCP, rather than losing those perks outside a retailer’s own site.
Why we care. This update accelerates the shift toward AI-driven, agent-led shopping, where platforms like Search and the Google Gemini app may choose, compare and even purchase products on users’ behalf. That makes product data quality — pricing, inventory and feeds — very important for visibility, while simplified onboarding and support from platforms like Salesforce and Stripe suggest rapid adoption, giving early movers a competitive edge.
Zoom out. UCP is designed as a modular system. Retailers and platforms can choose which capabilities to adopt, rather than implementing everything at once.
That flexibility is key as the industry experiments with how much control to hand over to AI-driven shopping experiences.
What Google is doing. Google plans to bring these capabilities into its own ecosystem, including AI-powered experiences in Search and the Google Gemini app.
The company is also working to expand adoption by lowering the barrier to entry. A simplified onboarding process inside Merchant Center is expected to roll out over the coming months.
As conversational search gains traction, the bigger question isn’t who has more users, but who can monetize them.
Google enters this phase with a massive advantage: mature ad systems, deep advertiser adoption, and decades of optimization. Early AI Mode signals point to a measured rollout.
The panic phase is over
After a period of panic within the company, Google’s built-in advantages, coupled with massive capital expenditures, have helped it regain ground on category leader ChatGPT in LLM search.
The dust will continue to settle, and analysts have different takes. But one signal stands out: in a major validation, Apple has chosen Google to power its own AI.
It was perhaps premature to assume Google Search would simply lose to ChatGPT on product. That was the consensus at the start of 2025. Google shares fell about 30% from peak to trough before rallying 130%. Today, the company is valued at roughly $3.6 trillion, just behind Apple.
Why did Google’s recent progress in LLM conversational queries — in the form of AI Overviews and AI Mode — have such a large impact on the company’s valuation in such a short time?
Ultimately, it comes down to visibility of financial projections. In a company with so much to defend, Google’s CFO and leadership team needed to determine whether shifts in user behavior — in how search works and how it makes money — would weaken the business model or reinforce it.
Net-net: Google before the shift: huge. Google after the shift: ditto.
Google stock price. The market changed its mind.
Visibility — in the sense of financial planning, not in the SERP — means a great deal to Google’s advertisers, too.
A large proportion of your annual digital advertising budget is likely allocated to Google. You also still care about how you appear in organic results and increasingly, how your company appears in AI Mode, ChatGPT, Claude, and similar environments.
“I’m fine with 30% less of my business coming in from Google, and figuring out lots of complicated ways to replace it,” … said no advertiser ever.
How monetization will play out in AI search
The competition between monetization models in LLM conversations — especially between the two leaders, ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode — will play out differently from the broader race for overall user share. There are several moving parts to keep an eye on:
Overall assumptions about ad formats and “how to monetize.”
Pace of rollout.
Whether users and public opinion recoil at ads.
Advertiser success rates based on performance measurement.
Advertiser adoption, including adoption by the agency ecosystem.
Platform targeting options.
Advantages of fuller-funnel ad journeys and data collection.
Privacy, safety, policies, and enforcement.
An all-encompassing consumer brand vs. a better mousetrap.
And a few other factors.
Right now, OpenAI is at a critical moment because it’s still so early in its monetization. It’s still testing an inefficient auction model confined to a small group of large advertisers. (Some ads, from their pilot, spotted here.) It may be some time before more mature tools and reporting emerge.
Most recently, OpenAI brought ad platform Criteo (often used for retargeting) on as a partner. The Trade Desk, the world’s largest non-Google DSP for programmatic, is also in the mix. Some observers have speculated about deeper partnerships or even an acquisition of The Trade Desk, though that seems unlikely.
In any case, outsourcing inventory to programmatic partners is a pragmatic step in OpenAI’s monetization strategy. It also underscores how early the company is in building a scalable ads business.
Despite a broad rollout with partners, OpenAI is stepping back from “checkout in chat” integrations after limited adoption from both merchants and consumers. When your primary competitor has a 25-year head start, the learning curve is steep.
So does it make sense now for advertisers to lean into evolving Google user behavior and figure out how to ride the wave?
AI Mode considerations for Google advertisers
Expect the transition to more AI Mode sessions — and eventual monetization — to be smoother than initially anticipated. If you’re an advertiser, AI Mode need not equal panic mode.
How do these LLM sessions look to users? Obvious to you and me, but likely less so for many searchers.
Depending on how you search, AI Overviews may appear above other results on the SERP. That’s becoming a natural extension of Google Search sessions.
But that’s not the real conversational layer. The LLM workflow happens in AI Mode. How often users go there remains to be seen.
It’s improving quickly. Unlike ChatGPT, Google AI Mode downplays how it finds information, whether it is “reasoning,” and which model is being used. The experience feels relatively seamless.
It’s still early, but ads are already appearing in some cases. The key question is how this evolves, and what advertisers should be paying attention to.
The key areas to watch are:
Extent of monetization.
Different ways to monetize.
Advertiser control and campaign types.
Reporting.
Funnel stage.
1. Extent of monetization
AI Mode is in a popularity contest and a price war with ChatGPT. Google will likely try to grind down competitors in LLM conversations by monetizing lightly and gradually. Perplexity and Anthropic, for their part, are completely shunning ads.
An ad-free AI Mode results page. We’re going to see a lot of this.
The result will be less ad volume in this space than you might expect. It may also increase the commercial value of organic visibility in LLM-driven results, leading to renewed focus on content and reputation fundamentals.
Forget ad campaign FOMO, then. It will be interesting to place ads alongside AI-driven sessions, but don’t break the bank. Implement, watch, and learn at your own pace.
2. Different ways to monetize
Experienced advertisers know there are a few ad formats to consider in any situation like this. The main ones would be: text ads triggered by keywords or similar signals, in a reasonably native format, and feed-based Shopping type ads.
Another way to make money is to allow direct checkout — to take a cut of transactions. As noted above, OpenAI is backtracking on this approach, though not eliminating it entirely. How important it will be for Google merchants (and Google itself) remains to be seen.
Google’s experience likely allows it, again, to play the long game, study the data, and bring partners and advertisers along for the ride, on an impressive scale.
Recently, Loblaw inked an integration deal with OpenAI. A week later, it made a similar deal with Google.
In terms of execution, we’ll want to be on the lookout for which kinds of campaign types in Google Ads make your ads eligible to show in AI Mode.
You can learn everything you want about how ads will show in AI Overviews in Google’s help files. Unsurprisingly, text and shopping campaigns from Performance Max, standard shopping, and keyword campaigns make your ad eligible to show in AI Overviews.
Google says less about AI Mode in its documentation, for now.
Our agency recently received a Google deck outlining a “Shopping Expansion” beta. There’s little mention of AI Mode, though one table, in a subtle way, refers to both AI Overviews and AI Mode.
My expectation is that Google will gradually ease users into AI Mode and test ads sparingly. Even if ads appear in a small share of sessions — say 0.5% — that will still generate significant data and feedback.
Advertiser control will likely be even more limited than it is today. In the world of feed-based ads, you have some levers, but the massive machine learning that controls matching is held by Google and the real-world behavioral ecosystem.
To a lesser extent, that’s also how keyword matching works. Micromanagers won’t be too comfortable, but the impact of the ads could still be powerful, especially with data-driven attribution.
Here’s hoping new signals, new reporting breakouts, and new levers become available to advertisers. Namely: audiences including cool personas; demographics; novel larger buckets around life stages; novel characteristics we haven’t even dreamt of yet, such as their language ability level or aspects of how they interact with the LLM.
4. Reporting
The real question is: will reporting be transparent and insightful? We need to at least be able to look at all available metrics for ads that showed in AI Mode specifically. Time will tell.
Microsoft seems to be the first out of the gate with AI-conversation-specific reporting breakouts. We expect no less from Google and are impatiently awaiting further guidance on this front — primarily on what kind of reporting will be directly available in the Google Ads interface.
It would be easy for the casual observer to blindly believe that somehow, you’ll never be eligible to show up in AI Mode or AI Overviews unless you adopt certain Google Ads campaign types. There’s a lot of rhetoric around AI Max.
I’d advise advertisers to do their own research and run their campaigns to suit themselves. Hint: AI Max isn’t the only magical gateway to AI-using users and might not even be a good or appropriate one for many advertisers.
Once reporting is beefed up, you’ll want to know how well the AI-specific inventory is doing, however your campaigns wind up serving there.
5. Funnel stage
But that leads us to a wrinkle. Although ads appearing astride AI Mode conversations could certainly be low-funnel (think Shopping ads in high-intent situations), much of the opportunity here is thematic. Your company may now enjoy new opportunities to associate itself with higher-order thinking, new audience definitions, and new intent characteristics.
This opportunity probably comes to your door dressed up as “lower ROAS.” It may be tempting, therefore, to shy away.
That’s a mistake.
Why?
Like what happened when everyone started using mobile phones, that’s where the consumer will be. Ugly early numbers shouldn’t blind us to the imperatives associated with scale.
Midsized to larger advertisers should step back and reimagine how they approach growth and market impact. There are meaningful opportunities for companies to align more closely with their audiences.
This has little to do with AI Max, and everything to do with how LLM-driven research works. Compare how publishers have traditionally assembled consumer personas — often from fragmented behavioral signals — with the much richer context that can emerge from ongoing interactions with an LLM.
A net shift up-funnel could follow. Imagine a world where a significant share of Google search sessions takes place within conversational experiences. Your ads will need to show up there, where appropriate. If that happens, your funnel — and your competitors’ — will move with it.
Google regularly works to make Android phones better. Instead of giving big updates only once in a while, it now sends small updates regularly via Play System Services. These updates happen quietly in the background, so users don’t have to do anything.
The Play System update is a simple way for Google to improve your phone without a full system update. It helps fix bugs, improve security, and add new features. These updates come through Google Play services, the Google Play Store, and other Google features.
The latest March 2026 update brings many useful changes, including Wi-Fi Sync feature. It lets your devices share saved Wi-Fi networks. So, if you connect one device, others can connect easily too.
There are also improvements in signing into apps. You will see fewer pop-ups, making the process smoother.Security is better as well, with new options to protect your device.
Payments are now easier as users can make payments using their smartwatch without opening the wallet app. Support for digital IDs and payment systems is also growing, making everyday tasks easier.
For gaming, you can try some paid games before buying them. You can also buy a game once and play it on different devices. Other improvements include a redesigned wishlist with price alerts, faster gaming updates, and better-looking app pages with vertical videos.
If the update is available, download it now on your smartphone. Google will soon start rolling out these updates for Samsung devices. Stay tuned.
Google may soon update the look of its Circle to Search feature. This change is only about design, not new functions. The aim is to make the feature look more colorful and modern while keeping it simple to use.
Currently, when you use Circle to Search, you draw a circle or line on your screen, and a white outline shows exactly what you selected. There is also a very light colorful trail, but most people hardly notice it because the white line stands out more.
In a new beta version of the Google app, Google is testing a different look spotted by Android Authority. Instead of the white outline, the feature shows a bright, colorful gradient trail when you circle something. This trail uses colors similar to Google’s logo, which makes the experience feel more lively and Google-like.
Image via Android Authority
There is no change in how Circle to Search works. Users can still circle, tap, or draw on the screen to search as usual. The update only improves the visual experience. The new animation looks smoother and more fun. Even though it is a small change, it can make the feature more enjoyable to use.
Since this update was found in a beta version, it is still under testing. Google has not confirmed if or when it will be released to all users. It is also not clear if users will get an option to choose between the old and new designs. Stay tuned for more information.
A suspected group of Russian government hackers was caught targeting Ukrainians with new iPhone hacking tools designed for espionage and potentially to steal crypto.
Google announced the completion of its $32 billion acquisition of Wiz, a leading cloud and AI security platform headquartered in New York. Wiz will join Google Cloud and maintain its brand and commitment to securing customers across all cloud environments.
This acquisition is an investment by Google Cloud to improve cloud security and enable organizations to build fast and securely across any cloud or AI platform. In today’s AI era, more businesses and governments are migrating their most important data and systems to the cloud and turning to agile and continuous software development. As these organizations operate in a multicloud environment and adopt AI, attackers are using AI to operate with greater speed and sophistication.
Wiz delivers an easy-to-use security platform with deep expertise of cloud environments and code, connecting to all major clouds and helping prevent and respond to cybersecurity incidents. Its capabilities complement Google Cloud’s leadership in cloud infrastructure and deep AI expertise, including AI-powered threat intelligence and security operations tools.
Together, Google Cloud and Wiz will provide a unified security platform that improves the speed with which organizations can detect, prevent, and respond to threats. It will help them stay ahead of the curve by detecting emerging threats created using AI models, protecting against threats to AI models, and using AI models to help security professionals hunt for threats more effectively. The platform will also provide a consistent set of tools, processes, and policies across all major cloud environments at every layer, from code to cloud to runtime.
The combined capability will also boost the adoption of multicloud security, enhancing companies’ ability to use multiple clouds – further spurring innovation in cloud computing and AI applications. Enterprises and government agencies can vastly improve how security is designed, operated, and automated, scaling cybersecurity teams while lowering the cost of implementing and managing security controls. The combined platform will also help protect small businesses, which often do not have the expertise and resources to protect themselves, from increasingly sophisticated and destructive cyberthreats.
Consistent with Google Cloud’s commitment to openness, Wiz products will continue to work and be available across all major clouds, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud, and will be offered through an array of partner security solutions. Google Cloud will also continue to offer customers wide choice through a variety of partner security solutions available in the Google Cloud Marketplace.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google: “Keeping people safe online has always been part of Google’s mission. This job is increasingly important today, as more companies and governments move their work to the cloud and broadly use generative AI. By bringing Wiz and Google Cloud together, we’re making it easier for organizations to innovate with confidence.”
Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud: “We want to make security a catalyst for innovation, not a barrier. With this acquisition, we will deliver a unified security platform that simplifies the complex task of protecting multicloud environments in the AI era, making a strong security posture accessible to more companies and governments.”
Assaf Rappaport, Co-Founder & CEO, Wiz: “Joining Google Cloud allows us to scale our mission of protecting customers wherever they operate – at machine speed. We remain committed to our open approach, ensuring Wiz continues to support all major cloud and code environments. With Google’s AI leadership and resources, coupled with Wiz’s deep context and knowledge of cloud and code environments, we are in a stronger position to help our partners and customers prevent breaches before they happen.”
Although Google continues to test ads in AI Mode, users who connect apps to enable Personal Intelligence won’t see ads — and that isn’t changing right now, a Google spokesperson confirmed.
Early results: users find these business connections “helpful,” per Google.
But there’s a clear carveout: no ads for users who opt into app-connected, highly personalized experiences.
The details.Google today expanded Personal Intelligence in AI Mode as a beta to anyone in the U.S., allowing Gemini to generate more tailored responses by connecting data across its ecosystem, including Google Search, Gmail, Google Photos, and YouTube.
Opting into Personal Intelligence creates an ad-free experience inside AI Mode.
Why we care. Ads are coming to AI Mode, but Google is moving cautiously where personal data is deepest. Personal Intelligence experiences stay ad-free for now while Google works out the right balance.
What Google is saying. A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land:
“There are currently no ads for people who choose to connect their apps with AI Mode. That isn’t changing right now.
“Over the past few months, we’ve been testing ads in AI Mode in the US. Our tests have shown that people find these connections to businesses helpful and open up new opportunities to discover products and services.
“In the future, we anticipate that ads will operate similarly for people who choose to connect their apps with AI Mode. Ads will continue to be relevant to things like your query, the context of the response and your interests.”
Bottom line. Personal Intelligence positions Google’s Gemini app as a more personalized assistant, setting the stage for future ad experiences built on richer, cross-platform user context.
Personal Intelligence allows Google's AI assistant to tap into your Google ecosystem, such as Gmail and Google Photos, to provide more tailored responses.
As Google rolls out AI Overviews, AI Mode in Search, and the Gemini ecosystem, we face a growing challenge: what happens when users get answers — and soon complete purchases — without leaving Google’s interfaces?
UCP is designed to help brands to sell to consumers without leaving the Gemini or LLM experience. Consumers can check out within the LLM, add rewards points, and fully execute the transaction. Here’s an example flow:
How Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol works
At its core, UCP standardizes how consumer AI interfaces communicate with merchant checkout systems. When a user tells Gemini, “Find me a highly rated, waterproof hiking boot in size 10 under $200 and buy it,” UCP is the invisible bridge that allows the AI to securely fetch inventory, process the payment, and confirm the order.
While Google’s developer documentation leans into technical jargon like “Model Context Protocol (MCP)” and “Agent2Agent (A2A) interoperability,” the implications are remarkably straightforward:
It uses your existing feeds: UCP plugs directly into your existing Google Merchant Center (GMC) shopping feeds. The inventory data you’re already managing for your campaigns is the same data that will power these AI transactions.
You keep the data: Unlike selling on some third-party marketplaces, where you lose the customer relationship, UCP ensures you remain the merchant of record. You process the transaction, you own the first-party customer data, and you control the post-purchase experience.
Frictionless checkout: By enabling checkouts directly within Google’s AI ecosystem, UCP can reduce cart abandonment and increase conversion rates among high-intent shoppers.
Like many LLM optimization recommendations, these steps come down to the fundamentals of managing your shopping feed and Merchant Center account.
Google outlined a few best practices. If you follow these four steps, you’ll be well-positioned for success.
1. Master your feed data hygiene
In an agentic commerce environment, your product feed is your primary sales tool. To ensure the AI accurately matches your products to highly specific user queries, you need to enrich your feed with granular details.
Write product titles that are 30 or more characters long.
Expand product descriptions to 500 or more characters.
Include Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), where relevant, to ensure accurate product matching.
Include three or more additional images alongside your primary product photo to engage visual shoppers.
Use lifestyle images, not just standard product shots on white backgrounds.
Ensure your image quality meets the standard of 1,500×1,500 pixels.
Categorize your inventory by product type and share key product highlights.
Prepare specific feed attributes required for UCP, such as returns, support information, and policy information.
Support Google’s Native Checkout when possible (checkout logic integrated directly into the AI interface). Google also offers another option called Embedded Checkout (an iframe-based solution for highly bespoke branding). This will work, but is suboptimal at this time.
To set your brand apart when AI is helping consumers make immediate, confident purchasing decisions, you must pass trust and convenience signals directly through your feed. The data shows that these elements directly impact the bottom line:
Indicate clearly if your brand offers free shipping.
Share your shipping speed (next day, two-day, etc.).
Display your return policy.
Submit sale prices when available. Regardless, ensure the feed represents the most accurate pricing details.
The shift to UCP requires foundational updates to how your backend systems interact with Google. You must work hand in hand with their development and SEO teams to prepare for these AI search experiences.
Migrate from the Content API to the Merchant API to enable real-time inventory updates and programmatic access to data and insights.
Upgrade your tag in Data Manager and implement Conversion with Cart Data to effectively use first-party data in your campaigns.
Prioritize content-rich pages for indexing and crawling, and ensure structured data is always supported by visible content.
Create your Business Profile and claim your Brand Profile to highlight your business information and brand voice on Google platforms.
Have your development team explore and prototype with UCP open source on GitHub to map APIs for checkout, session creation, and order management.
4. Additional features and tools beyond UCP to consider
Google is actively rolling out pilot programs designed specifically for the agentic era. Be proactive in adopting these new solutions rather than waiting for wide release:
Prepare for the “Business Agent,” a virtual sales associate that acts like a brand representative to answer product questions right on Google.
Consider the “Direct Offers Pilot,” a new way for advertisers to present exclusive discounts directly in AI Mode.
Inquire about the “Conversational Attributes Pilot,” which introduces dozens of new Merchant Center attributes designed to enhance discovery in the conversational commerce era.
The launch of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol signals a significant shift. The SERP is becoming a transactional engine that increasingly operates within large language models.
UCP presents a meaningful opportunity. By removing friction between discovery and purchase, conversion rates could increase.
However, taking advantage of this requires stepping outside the Google Ads interface and working directly in your feed data and technical integrations, much like with Google Shopping. While this isn’t new, it’s becoming more important.
Ultimately, this comes down to the quality of your product data.
Google and Accel say about 70% of AI startup pitches tied to India were "wrappers" as they reviewed more than 4,000 applications for their Atoms cohort.
AI chatbots have been linked to suicides for years. Now one lawyer says they are showing up in mass casualty cases too, and the technology is moving faster than the safeguards.
Cointelegraph Brasil has reappeared in Google’s index after a period of disappearance, highlighting the fragile control crypto publishers have over search-driven visibility amid global algorithm updates. After spotting Cointelegraph Brasil content in Top Stories and reviewing the site’s technical setup,…
Hope is the engine of optimism and the indomitable force behind a will to change for the better. But, when it comes to Google's Pixel lineup, that hope is in short supply and getting progressively scarce with each passing year, especially judging from the latest CAD renders of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, which depict bezels the size of football fields, a bloated, chunky design, and nary a concerted effort to add additional camera sensors or tweak the device's aspect ratio. Google's Pixel 11 Pro Fold: A masterclass in ugly aesthetics Steve H. McFly has now revealed the CAD renders […]
Nano Banana 2, Google’s latest state-of-the-art image model, is now available in the Middle East and North Africa. The model is accessible on Google Gemini (desktop and mobile app) and Google Search via Google Lens and AI Mode.
Nano Banana 2 brings the high-speed intelligence of Gemini Flash to visual generation, making rapid edits and iteration possible. It brings once-exclusive Pro features accessible to a wider audience, including:
Advanced world knowledge: The model pulls from Gemini’s real-world knowledge base, and is powered by real-time information and images from web search to more accurately render specific subjects.
Precision text rendering and translation: Nano Banana 2 allows users to generate accurate, legible text for marketing mockups or greeting cards. People can even translate and localize text within an image to share their ideas globally.
Subject consistency: Maintain character resemblance of up to five characters and the fidelity of up to 14 objects in a single workflow.
Production-ready specs: Make attention grabbing assets with full control of various aspect ratios and resolutions from 512px to 4K, ensuring visuals stay sharp whether they are for a vertical social post or a wide-screen backdrop.
Visual fidelity upgrade: The model delivers vibrant lighting and sharper details, maintaining high-quality aesthetics at the speed expected from Flash.
Over the past few months, I’ve been shopping around for a first home, and one of the requisites was to have a dedicated office space. Fast forward to November 1st of this year, and my wife and I signed the final documents to get the keys to our new home. Autonomous actually reached out to us much earlier in the year and sent samples of both their Desk 5 Pro and ErgoChair Ultra (in black and white to match the Wccftech logo), but remained sealed in a box until I finally had the space to install a brand new desk. […]
Login
