In this week’s digital news, Google Ads seems to have replaced Comparison Listing ads with CSS Product Listing ads. Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads as Performance Max pay-per-lead campaigns, with bidding, reporting, and management changes beginning August 2026.
Google’s John Mueller explains a quirk in robots.txt that can cause Googlebot to ignore robots.txt rules. Anthropic’s Claude Cowork can now turn a video of a person working and turn it into a skill so it can take over.
Google explains why robots.txt misconfigurations can negatively impact SEO
user-agent: Googlebot"section exists, Google ignores general rules set under “user-agent: *", meaning site owners must explicitly copy all necessary directives into the bot-specific block rather than relying on global defaults.noindex directives or custom template updates, is essential to prevent unwanted pages from harming search performance. SEO professionals must audit their technical setups to ensure crawler-specific overrides are not unintentionally exposing vulnerable site sections to Googlebot.Anthropic’s Claude can now watch a video and learn your job
How to build a brand presence on Reddit in 2026
Reddit works best when brands learn community behaviour before they try to promote anything. Start by using the free Reddit Pro tools to track keywords, analyse discussions, and monitor performance. Spend time in relevant subreddits to understand the tone and common conversations so your organic posts and ads match community expectations. Reddit has become more valuable because Google Search and AI chatbots cite its discussions more often, so a strong presence can increase product discovery and brand visibility.
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The great digital fatigue: How digital burnout is changing social media use
Users are pulling back from social media, with 55% posting less and 53% limiting audiences, while 47% have deleted apps due to stress. Over half say maintaining a presence feels like work, especially Gen Z, and 44% cite political content as a reason to disengage. Stepping away brings mixed emotions, with 27% feeling peaceful but 22% anxious, highlighting how platforms now feel more like obligations than connections.
Read more here.
