Author: admin

Welcome to this week’s Pulse. Google is laying more groundwork for agent-led shopping, Google Trends is getting a Gemini helper inside Explore, and Google appears to have responded to a report we covered last week on AI Overviews health queries. Here’s what matters for you and your work. Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) Brings Agent Checkout Closer Google introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol as an open standard meant to help AI agents complete shopping tasks across merchants and platforms. The announcement landed around NRF and was framed as agent-based shopping infrastructure, not a consumer feature on its own. Key facts: This…

If you’re still sending one-off email blasts, you’re leaving money on the table. The businesses I advise see the biggest wins when they automate timely, relevant messages across the customer journey. Fortunately, you don’t need a big team or budget to do this well. In this guide, I’ll show you how to pick the right stack, build the first automating systems that matter, and measure what moves the needle. Expect a practical road map you can implement in days, not months, with examples and playbooks that fit small businesses and scrappy entrepreneurs. First, though, what exactly is email marketing automation?…

Google AdSense publishers are reporting sharp drops in earnings over the past 24 hours, with many seeing eCPM and RPM declines of 50–70%, according to widespread forum complaints. Why we care. For publishers that rely on AdSense to fund operations, sudden revenue swings can threaten sustainability — especially when traffic hasn’t changed and costs remain fixed. What’s happening. Complaints spiked late Jan. 14 into early Jan. 15. Publishers across the U.S. and Europe report severe drops in page RPM and eCPM. Multiple sites within the same accounts were simultaneously affected with some publishers saying ads partially or fully disappeared. What…

CSS relative colour values are now widely supported. In this article, pioneering author and web designer Andy Clarke shares practical techniques for using them to theme and animate SVG graphics.I’ve recently refreshed the animated graphics on my website with a new theme and a group of pioneering characters, putting into practice plenty of the techniques I shared in this series. A few of my animations change appearance when someone interacts with them or at different times of day.View this animated SVG on my website. (Large preview)The colours in the graphic atop my blog pages change from morning until night every…

By Sean Tinney January 14, 2026 💼 Meet Melissa Williams of Pea Pod Country When you’re making and selling candles and wax melts, your time goes into what you do best—pouring, scenting, and creating products your customers love. For Melissa Williams, founder of Pea Pod Country, most of her business hours are spent in production mode, crafting the candles and wax melts that keep her customers coming back. She knew email marketing would help her business grow. But between production, fulfillment, and running her business alongside full-time commitments, actually setting it up kept getting pushed to tomorrow. 😫 Challenge: Not…

Walking into a brand-new home is a sensory experience. You smell the fresh paint, see the pristine carpets, and feel the untouched potential of the space. But capturing that feeling in a two-dimensional photograph? That is surprisingly difficult. Without furniture or personal touches, empty rooms can look like cold, rectangular boxes. They lack scale, depth, and emotion—the very things that drive a buyer to make an offer. If you are marketing a new construction home, your photography strategy needs to be different from shooting a lived-in resale property. You aren’t just selling a house; you are selling a vision.…

The era of the public feed as the main driver of commerce is over. In 2026, the most significant shifts in consumer behavior are happening out of sight, inside private digital spaces. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram remain crucial for top-of-funnel discovery, but real purchase conviction now occurs in encrypted, invitation-only environments. This is where trust lives — and where influence truly converts. For modern brands, dark social influencer marketing is no longer an experimental tactic. It has become a strategic necessity and a powerful competitive moat. To succeed, brands must move beyond broadcasting messages and instead facilitate authentic, high-trust…

Thinking of pitching for MozCon New York 2026? Learn how to create a standout speaker pitch, discover hot topics organizers love, and boost your chances of taking the stage. Source link

Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick and a technologist, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. Barry is also the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and the News Editor of Search Engine Land. He is well known & respected for his expertise in the search marketing industry. He only provides consulting services to expert SEOs and also performs search marketing expert witness services. Barry graduated from the City University of New York and lives with his family in the NYC region. You can follow Barry on…

How to shape your career path for 2026, with decision trees for designers and a UX skills self-assessment matrix. The only limits for tomorrow are the doubts we have today. Brought to you by Smart Interface Design Patterns, a friendly video course on UX and design patterns by Vitaly.As the new year begins, I often find myself in a strange place — reflecting back at the previous year or looking forward to the year ahead. And as I speak with colleagues and friends at the time, it typically doesn’t take long for a conversation about career trajectory to emerge.So I…