Thursday, September 24, 2026
10 stories · 3 topics · 8 outlets
Search & Platforms
2Answer Engines
5Amazon begins selling ChatGPT ad inventory through Amazon DSP
Since Sept 10, advertisers buying through Amazon Ads, including Amazon DSP, can buy ads inside the ChatGPT app, in a pilot limited to some US advertisers, with Delta Vacations among the first brands named. Chris Conetta, Amazon DSP's director of omnichannel supply, said conversational advertising is the fastest-growing engagement opportunity, and Amazon says its first-party shopping and browsing data plus low programmatic fees let advertisers reach the right people more cheaply than rival platforms. Marketers who run campaigns aimed at ChatGPT users should expect ChatGPT inventory to be buyable through Amazon DSP, and should plan a US pilot if they already use Amazon Ads.
Google AI Overviews With Way More External Links
Search Engine Roundtable reports new data showing Google is showing external links in far more AI Overviews than before, up from close to zero to more than 25%. That gives cited sites a clickable path out of the AI answer box. Marketers should check how often their pages appear as sources in AI Overviews and treat those links as a separate goal from ranking in the standard results.
ChatGPT Ads expands to Southeast Asia and Taiwan
OpenAI says ChatGPT Ads is now open to eligible businesses in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, part of an expansion the company says takes the format past 60 countries. The post gives no pricing, formats or reach for the new markets. Advertisers selling into either market can now plan ChatGPT placements; check the country list before assuming the earlier limits still apply.
YouTube Adds Shopping Features To Ask YouTube AI Search via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
YouTube is adding shopping features to Ask YouTube, its AI search feature, including organizing product review videos into comparison tables and answering questions on watch pages, according to Search Engine Journal. The additions put product questions inside a video answer surface. Marketers whose products appear in YouTube reviews should make sure titles, descriptions and captions carry the product details an AI answer needs to place them in a comparison table.
Baidu Now Measures AI Citations: Here’s What SEOs Should (And Shouldn’t) Read Into It
Baidu's new AI CTR metric divides clicks by citations rather than impressions, per Search Engine Journal, and its AI Traffic Analysis report carries more than that single number. The metric gives a public read on how often an AI answer cites a page against the clicks that page receives. Marketers should not compare it with impressions-based CTR from other tools, and should watch whether other engines publish a similar citation-based measure.
Agent-to-Agent Marketing
3More on Muse, Amazon, and Walmart; Muse and Expedia; Whither Google?
Meta's personal agent Muse needs Walmart to outlast Amazon's block, and Expedia is trying to keep its middleware role in agent-driven travel. The column also asks where Google's shopping agent is. Marketers selling through agents should expect more retailer-specific blocks and watch which marketplaces and travel platforms stay open to agent traffic.
Accio and the Global Digital Trade Expo launch an exhibition agent for more than 2,000 exhibitors
Alibaba's Accio, a global ecommerce AI workbench for small and medium businesses, launched a dedicated agent for the fifth Global Digital Trade Expo, letting users plan routes, match exhibitors and find factories by chat. The company says Accio has connected Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Temu and TikTok Shop after linking Chinese platforms, and its president describes the future of B2B as agent-to-agent trade. Marketers selling B2B should prepare product and supplier data for buyer agents that compare and transact on their own, not only for human buyers.
Xingxifu and Huilaidian launch agent payment service at Yunqi Conference
At Alibaba Cloud's 2026 Yunqi Conference, payment company Xingxifu and Huilaidian showed an Agent Payment service that connects merchants, acquirers and card networks for agent-initiated transactions, alongside a merchant AI agent called Luban. The company says Luban serves hundreds of thousands of merchants and handles more than 35 billion token calls a day. Marketers planning agentic checkout should watch whether this kind of payment hub becomes a required integration for merchants that want AI agents to complete purchases.