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.

Google’s end of support for third-party cookies won’t happen until 2023 at the earliest, but the average publisher site now has more than five identifiers enabled on its inventory.

Paving the path to the metaverse: Unprecedented interest in the emerging metaverse might cool if the tech industry can’t sustain momentum on innovation and public enthusiasm during the downturn.

Beyond just advertising, Alphabet’s tech touches nearly everything. This report looks at 23 of its most important business areas, examining their maturity, disruption of the market, leverage over partners, integration with other products, and five-year outlook.

Big Tech pauses office expansion: The economic downturn has pushed beleaguered companies like Meta to rethink their strategies. Workers’ reluctance to return is another reason for companies to stall expansion plans.

Amazon throws antitrust regulators a bone: The retailer is drastically reducing how many items it sells under its own brands, which may help alleviate government scrutiny into its business practices.

The layoff-hiring puzzle: In what seems like a paradox, scores of layoffs coincide with hiring growth. Tech moves away from broad expansion plans while still needing software innovation to stay afloat.

On today's episode, we discuss what Google is up to in the healthcare space: how Google is turning Search and YouTube into consumer health tools, how it could disrupt electronic health records, and what Google's relationship with healthcare will look like in five years. "In Other News," we talk about AI scanning medical records to improve your health and whether digital health startups are living up to their hype. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Lisa Phillips and Rajiv Leventhal.

Shopify offered a lifeline for merchants during the pandemic. Now, as the ecommerce environment grows more challenging, the company is devising new strategies to help brands expand their reach.