Data + Privacy

U.S. consumers are warming up to generative AI and are increasingly leaning on AI-powered tools to enhance the online shopping experience. Despite the uptick in adoption, however, 85% of shoppers still have concerns about privacy, AI hallucinations and overuse of AI.

Google is running a search monopoly, but the remedies are light. How will this decision affect advertisers and competitors? Plus, Google Ad Manager is acting like a standalone SSP, a move that appears connected to the looming remedies phase of Google’s second antitrust case.

In the 31 years since the first banner ad appeared, ad tech has become essential to global commerce, directly employing 1.54 million people and generating $974 billion in revenue in the United States. This contributes to an overall digital economy valued at nearly $5 trillion, representing 18% of the nation’s GDP. Yet, despite ad tech’s […]

Pause ads are going programmatic, as connected TV ad buying becomes more automated. Plus: how publishers are proposing to be compensated by AI companies – and the odds that they’ll receive what they are asking for.

Building a career in social media marketing while raising kids has been a unique, dichotomous experience.  From 9 am to 5 pm, I’m heads-down, focused on maximizing audience growth and engagement while crafting content designed to captivate viewers and keep their eyes (and thumbs) locked in. At home, however, I find myself actively monitoring the […]

Since ChatGPT exploded into public consciousness, the conversation in ad tech has centered around AI. Generative tools, predictive models, attention algorithms: AI now touches nearly every part of the ecosystem, from media planning and creative to optimization and reporting.  But while AI captures the spotlight, another foundational technology has quietly enabled much of this progress: […]

Everything seems to get better and last longer. Remember when it was recommended to change your oil every 3,000 miles? Now it is 5,000 miles. Remember when milk used to go sour in the fridge in a few days? Now it will make it through the weekend.  However, as the realm of privacy law advances, […]

We’ve got the witness list for the remedy phase of the Google antitrust trial, which starts in September. How might Google be forced to change its ad server and exchange to make this corner of the ad tech market competitive again?

In ad tech, group thinking is the silent killer.  It convinces great companies to keep playing the same game long after the rules have changed. Too many leaders keep reaching for the same playbook that worked a decade ago: connect pipes, aggregate inventory, plug data, take a cut.  Even The Trade Desk (TTD), arguably the […]

Investors use The Trade Desk as a proxy for the health of the entire open web advertising ecosystem, which means TTD’s recent run of concerning earnings is devaluing the entire ad tech sector. Doubts about how TTD is competing with walled gardens like Amazon, along with slower overall revenue growth, have led some investors to […]