A Demand Gen Drop that puts a talking agent next to the ad, publisher search traffic down 40.2 percent in a year, and AI use in Türkiye reaching 51 percent
Today's 3 verified stories: Google published its September Demand Gen Drop on September 24, 2026, with a Business Agent for YouTube Ads, one-click experiences across YouTube Shorts and Gmail, and Affiliate Location Extensions extending to Google Maps. Search Engine Journal reported on Chartbeat's 2026 Publisher Playbook, which puts the fall in Google Search traffic across Chartbeat's publisher network at 40.2% year over year between July 2025 and July 2026. Webrazzi reported the findings of a study by AWS and Strand Partners showing AI use among businesses in Türkiye rising from 37 percent to 51 percent over the past year. The detailed look at each story, its sources and what it means for your business lives on its own page.
Google's September Demand Gen Drop puts a talking agent next to the ad
Google published its September Demand Gen Drop on September 24, 2026. The first item is a Business Agent for YouTube Ads, letting viewers interact with conversational AI alongside video ads that carry product feeds and get immediate answers about a product or brand without leaving the video. The second is one-click experiences: a single tap on image ads across YouTube Shorts and Gmail opens the landing page, and Google advises 9:16 full-bleed image creatives for Shorts. Google states that advertisers adding Gmail to Demand Gen campaigns see their image creatives achieve, on average, a 40 percent increase in conversions at the same ROI. The third item extends Affiliate Location Extensions to Google Maps, so retail networks and dealerships can capture local demand through Promoted pins across Maps. The announcement contains nothing about Türkiye.
Publisher traffic from Google Search fell 40.2% in a single year
Search Engine Journal reported on September 24, 2026 on Chartbeat's 2026 Publisher Playbook. Across Chartbeat's publisher network, Google Search traffic fell 40.2% year over year between July 2025 and July 2026, against a 21.9% decline the year before. Search dropped from 9% of pageviews in July 2024 to 5% in July 2026. Google Discover's year-over-year decline widened from 6.6% to 34.3%, and its overall share fell 28.4% across the two years. Over the same window dark social rose from 7.1% to 11.3%, direct from 13.5% to 15.9% and internal navigation from 37.9% to 40.4%, while AI referrals grew eightfold yet still account for only 0.01% of traffic and declined during 2026 across the major providers. Returning readers fell 8% and new readers dropped 14%.
AI use among businesses in Türkiye rose from 37 percent to 51 percent in a year
Webrazzi reported on 24 September 2026, in an article by Candeğer Muradoğlu, the findings of a study by AWS and Strand Partners published in Turkish as "2026'da Türkiye'nin Yapay Zeka Potansiyelini Ortaya Çıkarmak". AI use among businesses in Türkiye rose from 37 percent to 51 percent over the past year. Some 66 percent of business leaders regard AI as a high priority or place it among their top strategic priorities, while 24 percent of businesses have reached an advanced stage of implementation. Of those already using AI, 78 percent say the pace of their digital transformation increased, with financial services, media, entertainment, retail and manufacturing leading adoption. Berrin Özselçuk, General Manager of AWS Türkiye, is quoted as saying companies have moved past asking whether they can use AI to asking how to scale it responsibly. The study's sample size, methodology and breakdown by company size were not in the reporting, so they are not stated here.
The agenda moves fast, the system stays calm.
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