Google has added new features for merchants just in time for the holiday season.

With UK proximity mobile and peer-to-peer payments stagnating, providers in the market will be forced to focus on ways to resolve pain points, engage top user demographics, and facilitate growth around the margins.

Google and Meta have maintained a steady lead in digital ad revenues worldwide, ahead of the likes of Amazon, Twitter, and Snapchat. But that's not without their own growing pains. Both Meta and Google saw revenues dip by several billion dollars in Q1 of this year. Still, the companies are tens of billions of dollars ahead of triopoly competitor, Amazon, in digital ad revenues.

Billions pouring into quantum computing: Rising beyond nascent stages, quantum tech is turning heads in government and business. As funding accelerates, society is likely unprepared for security and ethical challenges.

Data center scrutiny rises in Europe: Data centers’ energy intensity and water use are running up against Europe’s energy crisis. Ireland’s data center moratorium puts facilities’ sustainability measures in focus.

Google tackles AI’s biggest challenge: Under its Everyday Robots subsidiary, the tech giant is building bots that understand what humans really want. But internet data could steer the project off-course.

Apple’s return to office could kickstart industry mandates: Companies are heading into their busiest quarter, requiring all hands on deck. Job uncertainty could complicate employees’ shift from remote to office work.

Maps are a safe space for Apple’s ad expansion: Apple has a low share of this market and can point to competitors that already sell map ad space.

When it comes to online shopping, 61% of US consumers begin their product hunt on Amazon, close to half on a search engine like Google, and 32% on Walmart.com.

On today's episode, we discuss where young folks are searching instead of Google, what to make of the company's Q2 earnings, and the significance of YouTube's growth slamming on the brakes. "In Other News," we talk about the most interesting part of programmatic advertising and why Google is delaying the deprecation of third-party cookies again. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Evelyn Mitchell.

Big Tech’s existential crisis: Following a decade-long heyday, announcements from tech leaders, layoffs, and hiring freezes indicate an abrupt cultural shift. A crisis looms as economics distracts from innovation.

Big Tech earnings reveal economic uncertainty: Consumer spending is down while costs are up and supply chain woes continue to drag down profits. Big Tech is bracing for tough times.

Google’s cookie phaseout delay will help and hurt: Advertisers gain time to flesh out their post-cookie strategies, but adtech vendors could lose sales opportunities.

Google Shopping stands to benefit from external factors that will draw more shoppers to its platforms.

On today's episode, we discuss how much longer Google can own the internet, whether buy now, pay later (BNPL) is in flux, how much Big Tech companies want live sports, whether online shopping is confusing, how best to market to Gen Z, an unpopular opinion about buying things on social media, what influences gas prices, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our director of reports editing Rahul Chadha, director of forecasting Oscar Orozco, and vice president of Briefings Stephanie Taglianetti.

Google’s Q2 results are a mixed bag: Although expenses grew at a faster rate than revenue, its search advertising business could be stealing advertisers from social platforms like Meta.

Google Cloud accelerates expansion: Overcoming a $3B loss in 2021, Google Cloud is coming to more regions in Latin America. Focusing on emerging economies could help it grab market share.

Advertisers use a different strategy on YouTube than on other digital video platforms. In Q1 2022, more than 40% of US video ads on the Alphabet-owned platform were post-rolls, and almost 30% were mid-roll ads. On other video platforms, 97% played before video content.

The most serious threat to Google’s ad tech dynasty is regulation. Google has been at the center of countless antitrust lawsuits worldwide, with governing bodies slowly forcing more balance in the advertising marketplace.