Condé Nast

Google's Search Dominance Shows Cracks in AI Era

Three years into the generative-AI boom, Google's dominance in search is showing signs of strain as users increasingly turn to chatbots and alternative search engines. The article reports rising installs for DuckDuckGo, growth in ChatGPT usage, and Microsoft Bing reaching 1 billion users. Google still controls roughly 90% of search and reported strong recent revenue growth, but search traffic fell slightly over the past month and publishers warn of growing “zero‑click” searches that reduce referral traffic. Google has redesigned the search box to surface an “AI Mode” and auto-enables AI Overviews, prompting concerns about user choice and ad monetization. High-profile engineering departures to OpenAI and Anthropic and a 5% one-day drop in Alphabet shares underscore competitive and talent risks for Google and broader implications for the ad ecosystem.

Snowplow Named Leader in Snowflake Marketing Report

Snowplow announced at Cannes Lions 2026 that Snowflake has recognized it as a Leader in The Modern Marketing Data Stack: Governing the Agentic Enterprise report for the third consecutive year. The recognition, in the Analytics & Measurement category, highlights Snowplow’s delivery of high-quality, server-side, event-level behavioral data in real time into Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to power agentic marketing analytics and personalized customer experiences. Snowplow cited a HelloFresh case where migrating to Snowplow improved data accuracy from 33% to 95%. The release states Snowplow’s event tracking is used across 2M+ websites and applications, processes over one trillion events per month, and serves 250+ customers including Experian, AutoTrader, Strava, Condé Nast and HelloFresh. Snowplow emphasized its deep native integration with Snowflake while noting the two companies are independent entities connected by technology partnership.

Mile Marker Acquires Lift to Boost Creative Performance

Independent media agency Mile Marker has acquired San Francisco-based creative performance shop Lift to expand its omnichannel creative and performance capabilities. Backed by private equity firm Lightview Capital, Mile Marker said Lift will continue to operate under its name as a Mile Marker agency. Lift founder Tim Carr becomes Mile Marker’s chief creative officer and will oversee content and production, reporting to CEO Scott Shamberg. The acquisition aims to combine Lift’s conversion-driven creative (including direct mail and digital performance content) with Mile Marker’s media strategy and data stack, and to advance AI-enabled creative measurement and optimization across offline and digital channels. Financial terms were not disclosed.