☕️ Shoppers are ditching search bars for chat

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ MarketingShot.

In today's MarketingShot:

🛒 Shoppers are ditching search bars for chat

👶 New York just limited how you target minors

🍽️ Yelp reviews now feed local leads into ChatGPT

🔗 LinkedIn just capped your collab post reach

Plus: 💡 3 strategies & tactics, 🎁 7 other news you might like, and 🧰 6 tools.

🛒 Shoppers are ditching search bars for chat LINK

Amazon says US shoppers now use its conversational AI assistant more than the search bar to browse its storefront, a structural shift in how consumers navigate and discover products across the company's marketplace.

The assistant handles browsing, discovery and review reading, answering natural-language queries like a birthday gift for a nine-year-old on budget or dinner ingredients, which raises the stakes for product discoverability inside AI-curated results.

Rufus drove nearly $12 billion in annual sales with 300 million-plus users before merging into Alexa for Shopping in May 2026, narrowing about 50 products to five recommendations and pressuring brands not optimized for AI curation.

👶 New York just limited how you target minors LINK

New York finalized rules for the SAFE for Kids Act, a law taking effect January 25, 2027, that limits how minors in the state interact with social media by restricting algorithmic feeds and overnight notifications.

The law covers "Addictive Online Platforms" where users spend at least 20% of their time on addictive feeds, likely including TikTok and Instagram, and allows civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation for companies that fail to comply.

Companies must confirm a user is an adult before showing algorithmic feeds or nighttime notifications, offering at least one age-check method besides a government ID, such as verifying an email, phone number, or uploaded image.

🍽️ Yelp reviews now feed local leads into ChatGPT LINK

Yelp is licensing its reviews, ratings, photos, and local business details to OpenAI, bringing that content directly into ChatGPT responses when users ask for local recommendations, according to Axios.

ChatGPT answers will show Yelp branding and links alongside the information, and the companies plan to add Yelp's "Request a Quote" feature so users can contact local service providers straight from the chatbot.

Financial terms were not disclosed, and the deal does not stop Yelp from licensing its data to other AI companies, extending the same distribution strategy it already uses with platforms such as Apple Maps.

🔗 LinkedIn just capped your collab post reach LINK

LinkedIn opened Collaborative Posts to members and Company Pages worldwide on July 23, 2026, letting a single post carry up to five invited co-authors who each must accept before their name appears at the top of the content.

Every collaborative post must be public and cannot include connection-only audiences, while only the creator can edit the post or manage who appears on it, though collaborators may remove themselves at any time after accepting.

Connections who accept can view engagement metrics like reactions, comments and shares, but Pages added as collaborators get no such data and see performance only inside Page analytics, leaving co-authored brand reach hard to attribute.

💡 Strategies & Tactics

> “Likes” Are Dying on LinkedIn While Invisible Interactions Gain Momentum: LinkedIn likes and comments are falling while quiet actions like clicks and poll votes rise, so judge impact by attention, not applause.

> Google Ads Lead Journey Mapping: Google's new drag-and-drop tool lets advertisers map every lead stage, including offline sales, to spot tracking gaps and align bidding with actual revenue.

> SEO vs GEO is the wrong question: Since AI now compares your claims against outside evidence before buyers reach your site, marketing must make the whole business accurately understandable and verifiable, not just optimize for citations.

Other news you might like

• TikTok lets advertisers block up to 40% of regions in TopView buysLINK

• Google lets some PMax advertisers switch off search partners and displayLINK

• Meta and Google’s AI can create ads without asking—how to guard against rogue agentsLINK

• AI recognizes brands but rarely mentions them in category searchesLINK

• Google AI Overviews become more common in searchLINK

• Equinox pulls AI ad after creators call out racist Asian stereotypesLINK

• Google Platform Properties Now Fully LiveLINK

🧰 Trending tools

OpenSEO: provides keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink data, and site audits via MCP, starting at $10/month instead of $100-plus alternatives.LINK

Pebbles Ai: a go-to-market platform consolidating 10+ sales and marketing tools, using AI to generate strategies, content, and sales assets that boost pipeline and close rates.LINK

PodcastorAI: converts scripts, PDFs, links, or existing audio into publish-ready video podcasts in about 15 minutes using AI hosts and digital twin avatars.LINK

CrawlRaven: connects Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and Semrush data with a 200-point technical crawl to deliver a ranked action plan for content and fixes.LINK

VisibAI: tracks whether your business shows up in AI-generated recommendations across six platforms, then delivers a scored report with prioritized fixes to improve visibility.LINK

Denovo: an AI cofounder that turns your idea into a startup, generating business plans, pitch decks, full-stack apps, and investor matches automatically.LINK

See you tomorrow for a new dose of ☕️ MarketingShot!