Jeremy Howard shipped the first llms.txt spec update since 2024, adding rel=alternate and rel=describedby link relations so agents can reliably locate Markdown versions of pages. Sites get a second URL pattern too, and upgrading is a minor change. Google Search still ignores the file, but Chrome's Lighthouse now audits for it.
AI chatbots now cite Reddit more than any other domain, so brands are seeding influencer-style posts to get mentioned. But subreddit moderators are filtering out the promo accounts, and fake engagement is backfiring into bans. The durable play is genuine participation, not manufactured virality.
An analysis of five million ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok query fanouts shows the hidden sub-queries models run determine which sources get cited, with Reddit appearances in fanouts surging 24x since January. Brands should audit fanout coverage across angles, not just citations, to win AI answers.
GEO scoring platforms run small synthetic query sets, not real user data, so their "scores" are an illusion of precision, per the IAB's new framework. Worse, optimizing content for LLM readability can degrade the on-site experience for the intent-rich visitors AI referrals actually bring. Focus on what happens after the click, not just visibility.
TV measurement's competitive reset accelerated into a single week: Nielsen agreed to buy DoubleVerify for $2.15B, then rivals VideoAmp and Comscore confirmed big layoffs to refocus on AI and cross-platform intelligence. The shakeout signals the end of standalone verification and audience currency, pushing measurement toward unified signal aggregation across planning, activation and attribution.
ChatGPT Ads Manager is now a self-serve platform any U.S. business can test, with CPC bidding, no minimum spend, and ads that surface inside ChatGPT conversations. Early testers can lock in lower CPCs and platform-specific data before the competition floods in. B2B SaaS, agencies, and high-consideration ecommerce brands should jump first.
Catch-all domains accept every address, so no verifier can confirm which mailboxes exist, and a "risky" flag doesn't mean invalid. Companies run catch-all servers for legitimate reasons, so blanket-deleting those contacts during list cleaning kills real subscribers. Segment them and route sends through a warmed secondary domain instead.
A scan of 1,200+ brands found ~14% of Gmail Verified Mark Certificates are expired while ~90% of brands never got one. Let a VMC lapse and Gmail quietly strips the blue checkmark and logo after cache revalidation. Renewal is cheap; the trust signal is the entire point.
Nielsen is paying $2.15B cash for DoubleVerify at a 30% premium, but the deal isn't about AI adoption: it's about owning the verification layer that decides which impressions count. Paired with Publicis's LiveRamp buy, it signals capital rotating out of the commoditized app layer into identity and measurement inputs agents can't prompt into existence.
You’re caught up.
That was all 11 stories in the 18 August issue.