Korean chip giant Samsung is reportedly considering outsourcing orders to design a portion of Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) AI chips. Samsung is believed to be Google's manufacturing partner for the TPU chip's input/output (I/O) die. While the TPU's compute tile is expected to be manufactured by TSMC, the part on which the tile will be connected, called the I/O, is said to be Samsung's responsibility. For the I/O, Samsung is considering outsourcing the back-end design for the chip in order to ensure that Google's design is fit for its manufacturing facilities, says the Korean press. Several Korean Firms in […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/samsung-reportedly-outsources-googles-tpu-i-o-late-stage-design-says-report/

Google's biggest solar and battery project stands in sharp contrast with xAI's nearby unpermitted power plant.

You pick up your phone to reply to a message. A few taps later, you’re watching a TikTok about a restaurant in Sicily, a boutique hotel in Copenhagen, or a local business you hadn’t heard of before.

Maybe you Google it right away. Maybe you don’t. But days or weeks later, someone mentions it, and you search for it. Just like that, discovery becomes search.

That’s happening more often than many businesses realize. People increasingly discover brands before they actively look for them, making Google less of a starting point and more of a place to validate decisions. That shift has important implications for SEO, local visibility, and content strategy.

Recommendation engines change the rules

TikTok’s recommendation engine is one of the most sophisticated consumer recommendation systems available today. Rather than waiting for users to type a query, it continuously learns from subtle behavioral signals, such as watch time, rewatches, pauses while scrolling, shares, and saves.

According to TikTok, recommendations are driven by a combination of user interactions, video information, and viewing behavior, not a single ranking signal.

If discovery increasingly happens before search, visibility strategies need to evolve.

The content that earns attention tends to share a few characteristics:

• A strong hook.
• Storytelling that keeps people watching.
• Fast-paced editing, visuals, and sound that feel native to the platform.

The shift is significant enough that even Google has acknowledged it. Google’s SVP Prabhakar Raghavan revealed that almost 40% of young people looking for somewhere to eat turn to TikTok or Instagram instead of Google Search or Google Maps.

Recommendation engines don’t wait for users to express intent through a search. They predict what people may find interesting before they even think to look for it.

Dig deeper: The SEO shift you can’t ignore: Video is becoming source material

Google understands intent. TikTok understands curiosity.

TikTok analyzes spoken language, captions, and on-screen text to understand what a video is about before deciding who should see it. It also reads text that appears within the video, considers location signals, and rewards content that generates meaningful conversations in the comments.

Experienced creators deliberately craft seamless loops in which the final seconds of a video naturally connect back to the beginning. Viewers often replay the video without realizing it, increasing completion rates and sending stronger retention signals that encourage wider distribution. Videos that continue generating saves and engagement over time are also more likely to keep being recommended.

Comments can be used to create conversations. Instead of ending the interaction with a simple answer, encourage the original commenter, or someone else, to reply again, even if the question has already been asked. For businesses, it’s also an opportunity to naturally reinforce important keywords by mentioning your hotel, restaurant, location, or services in your replies.

Every conversation adds another layer of semantic relevance, helping both users and TikTok better understand what your content is about.

Dig deeper: Why TikTok deserves a place in your SEO strategy

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TikTok as a local discovery engine

This behavioral shift is especially important for businesses where visual trust shapes purchasing decisions, including:

• Restaurants.
• Hotels.
• Beauty.
• Fitness.
• Retail.

Before visiting somewhere new, people increasingly want to experience it from their sofa. Short-form video makes that possible by instantly communicating atmosphere, context, and emotion.

More importantly, it dramatically reduces the cognitive effort required to make a decision. Instead of reading reviews, comparing ratings, opening photo galleries, and jumping between websites, people can evaluate an experience in seconds.

When planning your content strategy, ask yourself:

• What does the restaurant actually look like?
• What’s the atmosphere like?
• Does the food look as good as it tastes?

Within the first few seconds, viewers have often answered many of those questions.

The first decision is emotional. The research comes afterward.

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Discovery first, verification second

Google continues to dominate high-intent searches, Maps, local business information, and transactional queries.

What’s changing is where the customer journey begins.

In travel, hospitality, and lifestyle, discovery increasingly happens on platforms like TikTok, while Google becomes the place to validate those decisions.

Today’s customer journey is an interconnected discovery ecosystem. Every platform plays a different role, and brands that understand how they work together will earn both attention and conversions.

TikTok as a market research tool

Recommendation platforms aren’t just changing how people discover brands. They’re also changing how brands discover customer demand.

One of the biggest mistakes brands still make is creating content around what they want to communicate instead of what their audience actually wants to know.

TikTok’s Creator Search Insights is becoming one of the most valuable market research tools available because it reveals rising searches, unanswered questions, and content gaps directly from user behavior.

These insights help identify:

• Rising search topics.
• Unanswered questions.
• Seasonal demand.
• Content gaps.
• Emerging customer interests.

The findings should shape your SEO strategy, local landing pages, editorial planning, FAQs, and even product positioning. The most valuable keyword research may no longer begin inside a keyword tool. It may begin inside TikTok.

Dig deeper: Why social search visibility is the next evolution of discoverability

The search starts before Google

As search becomes increasingly AI-driven, earning attention before someone types a query may become one of the strongest competitive advantages a business can have.

The brands that succeed won’t start with channels. They’ll start with customer behavior.

The same person may search Google for a marketing course, browse TikTok for vacation inspiration, and turn to Instagram before buying a skincare product. Discovery doesn’t happen in the same place for every customer or every decision. It depends on the intent behind the search.

As AI-powered search increasingly answers questions without requiring a click, visibility will depend on far more than rankings alone. Brands will need to earn attention before the search, build trust throughout the journey, and be present wherever their audience chooses to discover, validate, and decide.

The brands that win won’t create content for algorithms. They’ll create content people genuinely choose to watch.

Ultimately, the future of SEO isn’t just about ranking when someone searches. It’s about becoming visible before they ever think to search.

Google‘s next smartwatch has stayed mostly out of the spotlight compared to the heavily leaked Pixel 11 series, but that’s starting to change. After earlier reports hinted at the Pixel Watch 5’s pricing and color lineup, fresh press-style renders are now giving us our first look at the upcoming wearable ahead of its rumored August 12 unveiling.

The renders come from tipster OnLeaks, working alongside The Tide Chart, and show the Pixel Watch 5 in four different case finishes across two case sizes.

Google Pixel Watch 5 renders confirm familiar design

Based on the images, it’s safe to say Google isn’t changing the design language this generation. The Watch 5 looks similar to last year’s Pixel Watch 4, with the same curved, domed-glass display, the charging pins on the side of the case, and Google’s proprietary band-attachment system rather than standard lugs.

The watch is tipped to come in two case sizes, 41mm and 45mm, each available with either Wi-Fi-only or LTE connectivity.

Color options differ slightly between the two sizes. The smaller 41mm model is expected to come in four finishes: Dark Anthracite, Natural Silver, Pyrite, and Warm Gold. The larger 45mm version, however, reportedly skips the Warm Gold option, leaving buyers with three finishes to choose from instead.

Beyond the design, rumors suggest the Pixel Watch 5 will ship with Wear OS 7 out of the box, alongside modestly larger batteries than the previous generation for improved battery life. On the pricing side, earlier leaks suggest the new watch could cost about $50 more than the Pixel Watch 4 did at launch.

With the renders now out, we can also expect more technical details to come out soon. Stay tuned for more as the launch date approaches.

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Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier, and other publishers allege that Google trained its AI on copyrighted works without the necessary permissions.

Google Image Search has turned 25 years old and with that, Google has decided to completely revamp the Google Image Search home page at images.google.com from a clean search box, to a gallery of image collections.

“Today, we’re introducing a brand new browseable home for Google Images, featuring a dynamic, immersive gallery of images from across the web — updated in real time and intelligently tailored to your unique interests,” Brad Kellet, Senior Engineering Director, Search announced.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of the new Google Image Search homepage:

This is what the old Google Image Search home page looked like:

Features as well. Google is not only showing a gallery of images on its new image search home page but there are search features as well. The search box is at the top, where you can search by text, voice, by image and so forth.

You can also browse and save ideas to your collections on Google Image Search. Those images will appear as tabs above the main gallery, making it easy to jump back in and continue exploring based on what inspires you, Google explained.

Here are screenshots of how that works:

Availability. Google said this new Google Images home page will roll out over the coming weeks on desktop in the U.S. in English. You will need to sign in to your Google Account to try it out.

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Google will let you create images directly within AI Overviews in Google Search. “To help bring those unique ideas to life, we’re bringing image generation directly into AI Overviews in Search,” Google announced.

This uses Google’s latest Nano Banana AI model within AI Overviews to create these images.

Google said, “This update transforms a simple text prompt into a high-quality, custom visual made completely from scratch, seamlessly bridging the gap between imagination and reality.”

What it looks like. Here is a video of this in action:

Availability. Google will roll out this image generation feature within AI Overviews over the coming weeks in English, for all regions that currently support image creation in AI Mode.

Google also announced a redesign for Google Image Search, on its 25th anniversary of Google Image Search.

Why we care. This may have an impact on traffic to publishers, as it will add more AI-generated content (the images) to the AI Overview, potentially discouraging clicks from Google Search. Plus, if people get the image they want in the AI Overview, it might even discourage some use of Google Image Search – maybe?

In any event, it is wild to know that Google Image Search is now 25 years old.

If AI can’t find you, customers won’t either.

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💾

Now, when users navigate to Google Images, they'll see a "For You" gallery of images tailored to their interests and browsing history.

Google Pixel 11 series is a little over a month away from its reveal, but a premature Amazon listing has revealed the three phones — Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold — in most of their color options.

First spotted by 9to5Google, the listing shows the base Pixel 11 in three different shades. The listing titles used playful names like “Hibiscus” and “Pistachio,” though the actual product descriptions referred to them as “Fuchsia” and “Moss.” A third color, listed simply as “Midnight,” rounds out the trio. 

As for the Pixel 11 Pro, it is listed in Dune and Sterling finishes. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold, meanwhile, comes in Pine and Midnight options.

The listings are tied to the “Google Store” seller account on Amazon, which adds some weight to their credibility, though it’s worth noting Amazon’s marketplace is also full of third-party sellers, so a degree of caution is warranted. 

Google Pixel 11 Series Specifications

A few small specs slipped through in the descriptions too: the base Pixel 11 is listed with a 6.3-inch display at 1080 x 2424 resolution, 12GB of RAM, a 4,985 mAh battery, and a starting price of $899 for the 256GB model. 

Not everything in the listings checks out, though. The pages reference Android 16 as the software on board, despite the fact that these phones are expected to ship with Android 17. There are also mentions of a Google Pixel Tag as a compatible accessory for Pixel 11 phones, but no such thing exists as of now. 

Given the inconsistencies, it’s best to treat these color reveals as likely, but not fully confirmed. Google has already scheduled its Pixel 11 launch event for August, so official confirmation isn’t far off.

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Some of the new features are powered by Google's Gemini AI assistant, which reflects the tech giant's broader push to integrate Gemini across its products while also better positioning Waze to compete with rival services such as Apple Maps.

The Pixel 11 family is being prepped for a launch next month, and with it, Google will announce its brand-new Tensor G6 silicon. Irrespective of whether Mountain View titan cannot be included in the same conversation as Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek regarding chipset advancements, there’s one area in which Google excels, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the company has the upper hand. Pixel 11’s Tensor G6 to be TSMC’s first 2nm chipset, obtaining a one-month lead over Apple’s A20 Pro While Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek will be busy unveiling their chipsets in September, Google has an upper hand because its […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/tensor-g6-to-have-one-milestone-over-a20-pro-unveiling-next-month/

As long as I’ve been in search marketing, the path has been simple: search query → click → buy.

SEO followed the same model, with organic traffic, impressions, and click-through rate (CTR) serving as its primary measures of success.

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) signals where search is headed, shifting from a discovery engine to a transaction layer.

Driven by the rise of “agentic commerce,” Google can now discover, evaluate, compare, and complete purchases entirely within its AI-powered experiences, including AI Mode, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail.

The SEO implications are significant. We’re moving from optimizing for clicks to optimizing for AI transactions. If your brand doesn’t speak the language of UCP, you risk becoming invisible to the next generation of shoppers.

Here’s what UCP is, why it’s reshaping digital marketing, and how to adapt your SEO strategy.

UCP: The infrastructure behind AI transactions

UCP is an open-source, vendor-agnostic standard that enables the entire commerce lifecycle, from discovery and cart building to checkout and post-purchase tracking, within AI interfaces. 

Co-developed by Google with Shopify, Walmart, Target, Wayfair, Etsy, and other ecosystem leaders, UCP acts as a universal translator between AI shopping agents and merchants’ storefront backends.

Think of UCP as the ecommerce equivalent of HTTPS. Just as HTTPS standardizes secure communication between web browsers and servers, UCP standardizes how AI agents interact with online stores. Instead of requiring custom one-to-one integrations for every merchant, AI agents can securely browse inventory and complete purchases across millions of online stores.

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How AI transactions flow through UCP

When someone asks AI Mode to “find and order a replacement water filter for a 2021 Samsung French-door fridge with the fastest shipping,” UCP handles the transaction through a structured workflow.

Capability publication

The merchant publishes its merchant capabilities, including product search, live pricing, fulfillment options, and accepted payment methods.

Handshake

The AI agent reads the merchant profile, matches it with its own capabilities, and establishes a secure path forward, such as aligning on loyalty programs or supported digital wallets.

Action execution

The AI searches for the product, verifies real-time inventory, builds the cart, and uses the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to complete a secure, tokenized transaction.

Human escalation

If user input is required, such as selecting a delivery window or confirming a shipping address, UCP pauses the transaction, prompts the user, and then hands control back to the AI to complete the workflow.

Dig deeper: How Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol could reshape search conversions

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Why UCP matters for search and SEO

UCP isn’t just a technical update. It changes how AI discovers, evaluates, and purchases products. Here’s why it matters for SEO.

1. From click-throughs to buy-throughs

In an agentic search environment, website traffic is no longer the only measure of business value. As Google rolls out features like Universal Cart, allowing users to add products from multiple retailers to a single Google cart and check out with Google Wallet, the buying journey becomes much shorter. 

Shoppers may never visit your homepage, category page, or product detail page. Your SEO objective shifts to earning product selection within the AI recommendation layer, turning a search query into a sale without intermediate web traffic.

2. The rise of hyper-personalized, conversational queries

Keyword research is evolving. Shoppers are no longer searching for “men’s running shoes.” They’re using highly specific, situational prompts, such as “Best running shoes for flat feet under $150 that can arrive by Friday.” 

To match those queries, search engines need more than on-page copy. They need rich, queryable product attributes. UCP bridges that gap, allowing AI agents to match your inventory with highly specific user requests.

3. Less checkout friction

Cart abandonment remains a persistent ecommerce challenge, often caused by lengthy forms, broken checkout flows, or unexpected shipping costs. Because UCP integrates with secure digital wallets and passes verified user data automatically, it removes many of those friction points. 

For high-intent, urgent, or repeat purchases, merchants that support UCP can capture more conversions than competitors that send users to a separate checkout experience.

4. Merchants retain brand control and customer ownership

When a transaction happens through UCP, the merchant remains the Merchant of Record. Brands still control pricing, fulfillment, and return policies while retaining customer relationships and first-party data. UCP simply provides the infrastructure that enables AI-powered transactions.

Dig deeper: Winning the AI decision layer: From AI discovery to agentic commerce

How to prepare your brand for UCP

If your SEO strategy is limited to blog articles and meta descriptions, you’re overlooking the technical infrastructure behind AI-powered commerce. To make your products eligible for UCP-powered search experiences, focus on these priorities.

Optimize your Merchant Center feed

Your Google Merchant Center (GMC) account is no longer just for Shopping ads. It’s becoming the primary source of product data for AI discovery.

• Enable the native_commerce attribute: To opt into UCP-powered checkouts, add the native_commerce attribute to your product feed. Google recommends using supplemental feeds to apply it at the product level without affecting your primary feed.
• Map product identifiers: Ensure every product ID in your GMC feed maps one-to-one with your internal checkout API. If they don’t match, use the merchant_item_id attribute to align them.
• Complete your policy data: Keep your returns, shipping, and customer support information complete and up to date. AI agents prioritize merchants with clear policy data.

Align structured data with your product feed

AI search relies on consistent data across your website and Merchant Center. Keep your Product, Offer, and Review schema synchronized with your product feed. Differences between the two can trigger validation issues that make products ineligible for AI-powered checkout.

Prepare for conversational attributes

Google is introducing new semantic attributes designed for conversational AI search. Start preparing your inventory systems to provide:

• Real-time inventory availability.
• Direct answers to product FAQs, such as “Is this jacket machine washable?”
• Product compatibility data, including accessory pairings, sizing guides, and model-specific replacements.

If AI can’t find you, customers won’t either.

Track your visibility across AI search, uncover missed opportunities, and grow your presence where customers are asking questions.

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Beyond clicks: SEO’s next opportunity

The Universal Commerce Protocol reflects a broader shift in search. For SEOs, that expands our role beyond driving traffic. 

By prioritizing structured product data, data readiness, and agentic commerce, you can position your brand to capture demand at the moment of intent.

The future of search isn’t just about getting found. It’s about getting bought.

Google unveiled Gemini Intelligence at the Android Show on May 12, alongside a new laptop called the Googlebook. The company describes Gemini Intelligence as a layer that runs beneath the Android operating system across laptops, phones, watches, and glasses.

The new Googlebook is built from the ground up around an AI agent that understands what’s on your screen and acts on it for you. Point at a date in an email, and it’ll set up a meeting. Select pieces of furniture in an app, and it’ll show you what they’d look like in your living room.

Now that an operating system can complete tasks without users even opening a webpage, how people search, discover, and conduct commerce will fundamentally change. Let’s look at how this will affect the search industry.

What the shift to an agentic operating system means

Up until now, a person had a question or intent, typed it into a search engine, received a list of links, and chose one. Getting your website to rank on that list was the prize, and the entire SEO industry was built around earning that click.

Gemini Intelligence assumes something completely different. A user still has search intent, but an AI agent now handles the middle steps — reading pages, filling out forms, and, increasingly, completing the task for you. Instead of you visiting a website, an AI agent visits it on your behalf.

One example is Chrome Auto Browse, launched in January and built on Gemini 3. It handles multistep tasks like researching flights, filling out forms, scheduling appointments, and managing subscriptions, then pauses to ask before making a purchase.

Ecommerce has a good reason to move toward agentic AI.

A 2025 preprint evaluated the declared-tools approach across online shopping, authentication, and content management. It found that handing an agent pre-structured interaction data cut processing requirements by 67.6% and reduced costs by 34% to 63%, compared with parsing the full HTML document. Task success was only slightly lower than with the traditional method: 97.9%, compared with 98.8%.

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The architecture behind Gemini Intelligence

AI agents prefer sites they can transact with cleanly because it’s more efficient. Gemini Intelligence only works if agents can reliably perform tasks on websites.

Two protocols make this possible: WebMCP makes a site’s actions callable, and the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) allows an agent to complete a sale. Together, they let an agent finish the job without a human having to load a page.

WebMCP

This API lets a website declare its functions as structured tools an agent can call, such as searching inventory, starting checkout, or submitting a support request. This effectively lets you hand an AI agent a labeled menu.

Google co-developed WebMCP with Microsoft. An origin trial is live in Chrome 149, Firefox has committed to the third quarter of 2026, and Safari is expected to follow in the fourth quarter.

Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)

This protocol gives AI agents a common language to discover products, build a cart, complete checkout, and handle orders without a user visiting the site. Google also has a consumer-facing surface layer called Universal Cart, which collects items as you move across Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail.

Google, Shopify, Walmart, Target, Etsy, Wayfair, PayPal, and Stripe co-developed UCP, which launched in January.

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How to prepare for agentic AI

Websites are rapidly changing from destinations to backends, from places people visit to places agents quietly use. The operating system is becoming the search layer. The question is no longer whether you rank, but whether an agent can use your site.

To prepare, audit your most valuable actions, whether that’s a lead form, booking flow, or checkout page, and ask whether an agent could complete them instead. Check your Lighthouse Agentic Browsing score the way you check Core Web Vitals to see whether an agent can use your site in addition to reading it.

If you run ecommerce, find out whether your checkout is reachable through UCP or ACP. Keep doing the retrieval work, because an agent still has to find and trust you before it can act on your behalf.

Dig deeper. Are we ready for the agentic web?

Google has updated its Chrome Web Store rules to prohibit prediction market extensions that facilitate real-money transactions, with enforcement set to begin on Aug. 1, 2026. According to Google’s latest update to its Developer Program policies, browser extensions that “facilitate…

Meta was asked to use AI tokens more efficiently due to limited Google Gemini AI capacity.

Birthday trips are becoming one of Europe’s clearest travel trends, as more travellers use personal milestones as a reason to book short, experience-led escapes. Google data shared with SiViaggia showed searches linked to birthday travel […]