A Meta Success; From Paradise To Ad Placements
The metaverse hype is over; Apple Maps forays into advertising; and streamers vie for HBO Max and the WBD studio archive.
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Daily News Roundup
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AI Mode, Activate; The Trade Desk Bends On Agency Incentives
On Google and Meta platforms, AI search becomes the default; TTD might cut its costs; and apparently, toddlers like AI slop on YouTube.
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Nowhere To Go But Up; Rolling Out The (Code) Red Carpet
Newsweek launches an AI-powered homepage to offset traffic losses from AI search; OpenAI pulls an emergency pivot back to focusing on ChatGPT; and copycats dilute the impact of Spotify Wrapped.
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Omnicom Downsizes But OmniPlusses; VCs Aren’t Buying Dotcoms
Omnicom is making more cuts; investors aren’t interesting in publishing; and OpenAI is still on the fence about ads.
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Is Enshittification Really Such A Bad Thing?; The Android Beta Reveal
Can more ads be better?; Speaking of, ChatGPT’s Android beta code reveals a looming ad business; The web’s new puppy dogs.
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Daily Mail Launches A Social Media Agency; AI Eats The Food Blogs’ Lunch
DMG Media has a new social-focused agency services biz; AI search and AI slop sites are cannibalizing recipe sites; and a new TikTok trend blasts brands for not delivering free stuff they didn’t promise.
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TJX Wins Without An RMN; Unlearning To Crawl
Is TJX recession proof?; Amazon is blocking OpenAI; and Meta is in hot water with the US Senate.
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Trying To Make Kokai Happen; EU Readies GDPR Changes
The Trade Desk gets insistent with Korai again; the EU is rethinking hashed IDS; and is the AI industry becoming a cartel?
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From Creators To Haters; BidSwitch Says ‘No More Free Scrapes’
After pulling back on moderation, Instagram gets flooded with antisemites; BidSwitch builds a programmatic way for AI bots to pay to crawl websites; and nearly half of Gen Z dislikes AI content.
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What’s The (Sem)Rush?; AI’s Insights Are Out Of Sight
Adobe acquires SEO tech business Semrush; brands want to know what AI search engines think of them; and the LGBTQ community is an under-targeted audience.
Must Read
2025: The Year Google Lost In Court And Won Anyway
From afar, it looks like Google had a rough year in antitrust court. But zoom in a bit and it becomes clear that the past year went about as well as Google could have hoped for.
Why 2025 Marked The End Of The Data Clean Room Era
A few years ago, “data clean rooms” were all the ad tech trades could talk about. Fast-forward to 2026, and maybe advertisers don’t need to know what a data clean room is after all.
The AI Search Reckoning Is Dismantling Open Web Traffic – And Publishers May Never Recover
Publishers have been losing 20%, 30% and in some cases even as much as 90% of their traffic and revenue over the past year due to the rise of zero-click AI search.
No Waiting for May – CES Is Where The TV Upfront Season Starts
If any single event can be considered the jumping-off point for TV upfronts, it’s the Consumer Electronics Showcase (CES), which kicks off this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Comic: This Is Our Year
It’s been 15 years since this comic first ran in January 2011, and there’s something both quaint and timeless about it. Here’s to more (and more) transparency in 2026, and happy New Year!
From AI To SPO: The Top 10 AdExchanger Guest Columns Of 2025
The generative AI trend generated endless hot takes this year, but the ad industry also had plenty to say about growing competition between DSPs and SSPs. Here are AdExchanger’s top 10 most popular guest columns of 2025 and why they resonated.